New Delhi: Filmmaker and music composer Vishal Bhardwaj is set to adapt renowned British mystery writer Agatha Christie’s works into a film franchise for Indian audiences, Variety has reported. Bhardwaj is producing the franchise in collaboration with Agatha Christie Limited (ACL), which manages the literary and media rights to Christie’s works.
“I’m truly excited at the prospect of developing a new Agatha Christie film franchise in India, and am delighted to be partnering with Vishal, who is a multitalented and visionary filmmaker with a terrific track record for adapting works to create memorable pieces of cinema,” James Prichard, the great grandson of Christie and chair and chief executive officer of ACL, told Variety.
Bhardwaj is best known for his acclaimed Shakespeare trilogy – Maqbool (Macbeth), Omkara (Othello) and Haider (Hamlet).
“…I love Agatha Christie. India has a huge fan base of hers. And people of our generation, those who did not grow up with mobile phones and social media – you know we lived on novels! Summer vacation, libraries… those memories, wishing that the book never ends!,” he told the Times of India in a report.
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An ardent fan of Alfred Hitchcock, Bhardwaj, who is in his Mussoorie home, told TOI he was confused regarding the kind of films he will get to make under these [COVID-19 pandemic] circumstances, as a crowd in the backdrop will be wearing masks. Hitchcock is known for shooting films inside a single home like Rope (1948) and Rear Window (1954) – and this is what gave Bhardwaj an idea to shoot a movie in a single location.
Bhardwaj told TOI that he contacted the estate [ACL] during the lockdown period. “We started discussing if we could make a movie in India. We clicked well, but it was a very long process. They offered me many novels, out of which I picked the first one.”
The shooting for the movie will begin in early 2021, and will introduce a young heroine who teams up with a boy to solve a murder. Future films will follow the duo as they continue to investigate multiple murder mysteries, Variety said in its report.
The cast for the film is currently being finalised, and details of which Christie novel is being adapted for the film have not been revealed yet.
While Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express was released in 2017, Death on the Nile is expected to release in December this year.