Kenneth Branagh’s two previous Hercule Poirot films, “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile,” have been adapted to film before.
The upcoming third entry though, “A Haunting in Venice,” has no such competition. Its Agatha Christie source story, “Hallowe’en Party,” has only been done for the screen once before in the David Suchet-led series as one of its less notable episodes.
The new film marks the reunion of Branagh both in the lead role and as director alongside writer Michael Green adapting the script and James Prichard producing.
In a recent interview with Total Film via Games Radar, Prichard says at least a fourth Poirot film if not more could well be on the way should ‘Haunting’ prove successful enough to greenlight another. He adds that the team would be happy to dive into more of Christie’s extensive Poirot stories:
“If Ken wants to do more, and Michael wants to write more, we’ll certainly do another. There’s a lot of material still to go, so we’re not going to run out of inspiration.”
Poirot appears in 33 novels and 51 short stories from Christie, all of which were adapted by the Suchet series. In ddition multiple works that have been adapted elsewhere before too such as “Evil Under the Sun,” “The ABC Murders,” “Appointment with Death,” “Murder in Three Acts,” “Dead Man’s Folly” and “Lord Edgeware Dies” (adapted as “Thirteen at Dinner”).
That said, some of the most famous tales like “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” “Death in the Clouds,” “Peril at End House,” “Five Little Pigs,” and the infamous final novel “Curtain” could easily serve as potential sequels.
Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Kelly Reilly star in “A Haunting in Venice,” which is set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve when a thirteen-year-old girl, who claimed she witnessed a murder when she was younger, is killed.
In the film, Poirot is now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city. He reluctantly attends a seance at a decaying, haunted palazzo and soon is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.
“A Haunting in Venice” opens in cinemas September 15th.
