Entertainment
Highly-anticipated Netflix adaptation now boasts ‘best British cast since Harry Potter’-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro
More stars have been announced.
The movie version of The Thursday Murder Club just announced more massive British actors as part of its cast (Picture: Penguin/Getty)
The cast of the upcoming Thursday Murder Club movie adaptation have been hailed by its director as ‘the greatest British cast since Harry Potter’ after several more stars were unveiled.
Adapted from the bestselling crime series by TV star Richard Osman, there’s been plenty of buzz surrounding the film ever since 2000, when Steven Spielberg acquired the rights.
Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is making the movie, with Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie slated to play the four members of their retirement community’s amateur detective club – the novel’s titular organisation.
On Tuesday, Osman then revealed on his The Rest Is Entertainment podcast that David Tennant and Jonathan Pryce had been added to the already impressive cast.
The former Pointless co-host confirmed Game of Thrones star Pryce would play Elizabeth’s husband, while Naomi Ackie had been cast as police officer Donna de Freitas.
And while he was ‘very, very excited about’ Tennant’s casting, the TV personality did not divulge which character the former Doctor Who star would play – before teasing that ‘some more names’ would be coming as well.
Richard Osman is the author of the novel the film is based on (Picture: BBC/PA)
Doctor Who star David Tennant will star in the Netflix film in an undisclosed role (Picture: David Fisher/Shutterstock)
Tennant joins the likes of Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie who were previously announced (Picture: Getty)
It will be an onscreen reunion not just for Brosnan and Pryce, who acted opposite one another in Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies, but also Dame Helen and Imrie who starred in Calendar Girls together in 2003.
Filmmaker Chris Columbus, who will direct and write the adaptation, is also jazzed about the cast, according to Osman.
‘Chris Columbus, who directs it, was giving me this news and said, “I think this is the greatest British cast assembled since the Harry Potter movies”,’ Osman told his podcast co-host Marina Hyde.
‘Which he made! He knows his business.’
Indeed, Columbus not only directed Mrs Doubtfire and Home Alone and its sequel, but also helmed the first two Harry Potter movies, 2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which followed the next year.
Osman explained that the movie – which is due to start filming later this month – really was a ‘dream’ for him as everyone was keen to join the project.
The film’s director, Chris Columbus, has dubbed it ‘the greatest British cast since Harry Potter’ (Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Columbus helmed the first two Potter flicks and worked with established British performers like Miriam Margolyes (pictured) (Picture: Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.)
‘No one’s turning Chris down, which is really, really lovely,’ he explained.
‘Every time he says he’s going after someone, he then rings me and says he’s got them.’
Earlier this year, it was announced that Dame Helen, Bond star Brosnan, Sir Ben and Imrie would play ex-spy Elizabeth, former union activist Ron, ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim and former nurse Joyce, respectively.
Jonathan Pryce has also been announced as a new Thursday Murder Club cast member (Picture: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
He’s joining former Bond co-star Pierce Brosnan in the cast (Picture: Getty)
The four friends, who solve cold cases as a hobby, get caught up in a real crime when a shady property developer is found dead.
Daniel Mays and Henry Lloyd-Hughes have also been cast in undisclosed roles.
Osman released The Thursday Murder Club book in 2020 and followed it up with three sequels; 2021’s The Man Who Died Twice, 2022’s The Bullet That Missed and 2023’s The Last Devil to Die.
The Thursday Murder Club is yet to receive an official release date.
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