Netflix has joined the feature adaptation of Richard Osman's bestselling novel The Thursday Murder Club, directed by Chris Columbus and produced by Amblin Entertainment. The streamer's involvement was confirmed shortly after Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley were announced in lead roles.
The film has been in development since September 2020, when Steven Spielberg acquired the adaptation rights from Osman. Columbus, known for Home Alone and Harry Potter, will write and direct. It is the latest project to emerge from Netflix's film partnership with Amblin, which also includes the upcoming Carry-On starring Jason Bateman and Taron Egerton.
The story follows a group of elderly friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, only to find themselves caught in a real case. Mirren plays ex-spy Elizabeth, Kingsley plays ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim, and Brosnan plays former union activist Ron. Casting for the fourth member of the group, Joyce, is ongoing.
Osman said on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment that filming will begin in the UK at the end of June and run through September. The novel, his first as an author, has sold more than 10 million copies and was the first debut novel to be Christmas No. 1 in the UK. It has since spawned sequels including The Man Who Died Twice and The Last Devil to Die.
Osman, known to millions as the presenter of BBC's Richard Osman's House of Games, said: "I'm so proud of this book, so it is a dream to see The Thursday Murder Club in such incredible hands."
