He’s the great-grandson of the legendaryMurder on the Orient Expressauthor Agatha Christie.A Haunting in Venice’sJames Prichard is a Hollywood producer, but his ties to the author ofAnd Then There Were None,Crooked HouseandEndless Night, among so many others, makes him the perfect linchpin to lead a new generation of Silver Screen adaptations. Prichard discusses what makes his great-grandmother’s work so timeless in an exclusive interview withScreen Rant:
“I think it’s very simple. It’s the stories. The stories, she had a genius with story. She had a genius for plot. The great thing about great stories is that they stand the test of time. They don’t age, they don’t go out of fashion, and you can adapt them in different ways.
You can do different things with them. In this film we’ve set the story in Venice, whereas originally it was set in an English country village, and it works. So, if you’ve got the great raw materials, and we’ve got the best raw materials. That’s a great start.”
The all-star cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Kelly Reilly. Not only does Branagh reprise the role of Hercule Poirot on-screen, but he once again directs what has become a new, modern-day Agatha Christie film trilogy. Branagh helmedMurder on the Orient Expressin 2017 and last year’sDeath on the Nile.
Related:A Haunting in Venice: Is This the Final Kenneth Branagh Poirot Movie?
James Prichard Helps Bring Agatha Christie’s Work to Life
Since actor Kenneth Branagh first took up the mantle ofAgatha Christie’sfamed detective, Hercule Poirot, in 2017’sMurder on the Orient Express, executive producer James Prichard has been a passenger on the film franchise’s journey. A sequel,Death on the Nilefollowed five years later, and now the mustached investigator returns inA Haunting in Venice. Prichard talked about the spooky elements of the upcoming mystery in the same interview:
“Every single project we produce has to be an Agatha Christie experience and the thing is, whilst there are elements of horror here, it is still an Agatha Christie experience. It’s still a murder mystery. At the end of the day, you are trying to find out who done it.
Whether you were trying to guess yourself or whether you’re one of those people like me who waits for Poirot to tell you because you don’t really trust yourself to guess. It doesn’t matter, but at the end of the day that is what needs to be at the core and that is at the core of this movie.”
WhileMurder on the Orient Expresswas a box office success, with a worldwide take of $353 million,Death on the Niledidn’t perform as well in theaters. The sequel only brought in $137 million globally. Both films received lackluster “B” CinemaScores. But, strangely enough, the least successful in cinemas was more popular with the fans.
At the time of this writing,Death on the Nileholds an audience score of 82%. Meanwhile,Murder on the Orient Expressonly manages a 54% rating. The latest installment in the modern-day Agatha Christie film franchiseA Haunting in Venice— it’s actually based on the 1969 book titledHallowe’en Party— is currently tracking to make somewhere between $11 million and $16 million domestically over its opening weekend (perBoxoffice Pro).
A Haunting in Venicestarts its theatrical run on September 15, and fans can check out the murder mystery’s latest trailer below:
