James Whitehead
It seems we have a new Netflix thriller on the way with Richard Osman’s murder mystery novel, “The Thursday Murder Club” which was bought out by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin entertainment in 2020. The book in the series has been adapted for film and has finally been given a release date on Netflix, coming to the streaming service on the 28th of August.
Following a group of old friends who try to pass the days in their retirement home by solving mysteries, this is until they find themselves wrapped up in a real murder case that they must solve together. “The Thursday Murder Club” is the first of four books written by Osman in the series which includes:
- The Thursday Murder Club (2020)
- The Man Who Died Twice (2021)
- The Bullet That Missed (2022)
- The Last Devil to Die (2023)
There has been no official news regarding the film rights to the rest of the series, Amblin purchased the rights for the first book only so for now it seems like the potential follow-ups and their respective films are highly dependent on the success of the first one. Whilst I’m sure that fans of the book series would like to hear more concrete plans for the sequels, the one bit of hope I can give them is that from what we’ve seen so far, everything is in place to make the first one a very successful adaptation.
Netflix’s “The Thursday Murder Club” will be directed by Hollywood royalty, Chris Columbus, famous for directing Home Alone 1 & 2 as well as bringing the first two Harry Potter books to the big screen with great success. The inclusion of Columbus in the project gives me a great deal of confidence in this being a strong enough launch to the series that should hopefully allow the other books to be made as well. On top of great behind the camera talent, the on-screen cast boasts charisma and star-power in abundance.
Image courtesy of Netflix
Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Sir Ben Kinglsey, Celia Imrie and Richard E. Grant round off this stacked cast of veteran actors, all adding their long-earned credibility to the project. Whilst some dedicated fans of the books have bemoaned online about some of these castings not being as authentic to the book as they were expecting, at the end of the day it’s not the filmmaker’s job to stick to the source material as closely as possible and instead they should solely focus on making the best film possible. Given the director and the cast on board I’m certainly confident that they have all the tools to do just that.
Whilst we wait for trailers or news regarding the series, be sure to keep following the TV and Film news section on The Hit’s Player, for more.
