Kenneth Branagh’s just-released third Hercule Poirot film “A Haunting in Venice” has drawn an interesting reaction over the weekend as it does several things the previous two films didn’t.
Whereas the prior films “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile” were relatively faithful to their original Agatha Christie stories, with the odd minor change, “A Haunting in Venice” substantially alters things to the point that only some core elements of the original “Hallowe’en Party” novel remain.
As the work is considered one of Christie’s weakest, some changes were not unexpected, such as the shift of the locale to Venice. Others were more deliberate such as the tonal shift to incorporate a supernatural horror aesthetic.
The reaction has been varied from the fanbase, and now executive producer and Agatha Christie Estate CEO James Pritchard has explained to The Direct why they changed things up:
“The main difference they were looking for was tonal. They wanted to play a little bit with the horror genre, and they felt a ‘Hallowe’en Party’ was a great launchpad into that. They wanted to set it in Venice. That was quite an early change that they came up with.
There were two potential reasons for that. One of which is, you know, if you’re going to make a Hollywood movie, you want a great backdrop, and Venice is well, not many backdrops come better than Venice. So there was the kind of cinematic elements of it.
But there’s also an atmospheric element to Venice. This film plays with the supernatural – has the potential for the supernatural at its heart, and Venice has an air of mystery and air of mystique that plays into it.
But, you know, the whole point of this movie is to play with genre and all of those kinds of things. And [Kenneth Branagh] and Michael [Green, writer] wanted to play with the plot. And what we have ended up with is a great murder mystery and a great experience. So, hopefully, people will enjoy it for what it is.”
The change of approach has led to the franchise’s best reviews yet, but the $37 million global opening for the $60 million budgeted feature, especially its soft $14.5 million domestic debut, suggests a fourth film may not be in the cards.
