In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sight of so many people trapped on a river cruise is terrifying enough. But the forthcoming film Death on the Nile, based on Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name, offers something even scarier than a large group of people stuck in close quarters: a murderer.
The trailer, released on 19th August, shows actors including Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, and Sex Education’s Emma Mackey crying and cowering in fear as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) relays the crux of the mystery in a voice-over. “The crime is murder,” he says. “The murderer is one of you.”
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
The film is a follow-up to 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express. Branagh produced, directed, and starred in both, and Tom Bateman will reprise his role as Bouc, Poirot’s longtime friend. But other than that, Death on the Nile features an all-new cast — and a brand-new murder.
“Have you ever loved so much, been so possessed by jealousy, that you might kill?” Branagh asks. Jealousy is a central theme in both Christie’s book and the previous 1978 film adaption: in the story, a woman named Jacqueline (Mackey) feels betrayed when her old friend (Gadot) marries her ex-fiancé (Hammer). The newlyweds are on their honeymoon when tragedy strikes, and Poirot becomes determined to get to the bottom of the case. Other suspects include characters played by Rose Leslie, Sophie Okonedo, Annette Bening, Letitia Wright, and Russell Brand.
Earlier this summer, Branagh offered a teaser of what we can expect from the film. “Going off of Agatha Christie’s personal treatment of it, [the] deepening of what Poirot goes through in relation to the story and then the power and sexiness of lust and love as it runs through the story is very strong,” he said on the Fourth Wall podcast, as per The Playlist. “It’s a very dark, very sexy, unsettling kind of film.”
Death on the Nile’s release date has been pushed back several times, most recently because of the coronavirus. It’s currently set to hit cinemas on 23rd October. Check out the glamour, despair, and mystery — and beautiful actors — for yourself in the trailer below: