Murder on the Orient Express: star-studded remake by Kenneth Branagh based on the crime novel by Agatha Christie, in which detective Hercule Poirot must solve an explosive murder on a train.
Plot and background
On his way home from Istanbul to London, master detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) gets into a tricky situation: in the Balkans, the train is delayed by snowdrifts. At the same time, a brutal murder takes place. The victim is the American Mr. Ratchett (Johnny Depp). Cut off from the outside world, the murderer must still be among the fellow passengers of the luxury train. But each of them tells a different story.
When Poirot takes over the investigation at the urging of the railway director Monsieur Bouc (Tom Bateman), a diffuse picture emerges. In the compartment are Ratchett’s assistant Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad) and servant Edward Masterman (Derek Jacobi). In addition, the illustrious guests include Doctor Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Count and Countess Andrenyi (Lucy Boynton and Sergei Polunin), Professor Gerhard Hardman (Willem Dafoe) and Princess Natalia Dragomiroff (Judi Dench). The noblewoman also travels with a servant – Hildegarde Schmidt (Olivia Colman).
But that is not all. While conductor Pierre Michel (Marwan Kenzari) and Cuban salesman Marquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) seem to be constantly on the move, missionary Pilar Estravados (Penélope Cruz) is also on board, along with widow Mrs Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer) and nanny Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley). Master detective Hercule Poirot faces his most difficult task – as long as the snowstorm continues, he must find the murderer.
An overview of the outstanding cast of “Murder on the Orient Express” can be found in the trailer:
Murder on the Orient Express 2017 – Cast
Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s absolute cult detective stories. However, the director and leading actor of the remake, Kenneth Branagh (“Dunkirk”), is also aware that there are now quite a few beloved originals. His version therefore relies on a wonderful 1920s look contrasted by modern CGI effects. The images of the cool first trailer are already convincing. Thanks to the crisp contrasts and the fast-paced staging, there should be no doubt that Branagh has succeeded in transporting “Murder on the Orient Express” into 2017.
If the scenario is not enough for you, Branagh’s remake is a silver platter of Hollywood’s Who’s Who. Hardly any current blockbuster can boast such a density of A-list stars as “Murder on the Orient Express”. The cast includes Johnny Depp (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge”), Willem Dafoe (“Death Note”), Michelle Pfeiffer (“Ant-Man and the Wasp”), Judi Dench (“Tulip Fever”) and Penélope Cruz (“Ma Ma – The Origin of Love”), to name but a few.
Murder on the Orient Express – Book and Film
With the master detective Hercule Poirot, author Agatha Christie has created a true cult figure. After all, Murder on the Orient Express is not the only book by the author in which Poirot appears. Instead, each story continues to spin the life of the Belgian police officer who later becomes a private investigator. The first Poirot story is entitled “The Missing Link in the Chain”, and he takes on his last case again in “Curtain”. As a rule, Poirot is accompanied by his faithful companion, the clumsy Captain Arthur Hastings.
The master detective has also been well received in the cinema as well as on television. The novel “Murder on the Orient Express” alone has been filmed four times. Sidney Lumet’s version from 1974 is a real classic today. In “Murder on the Orient Express” Albert Finney took the leading role in the film with Sean Connery and Ingrid Bergman. The case was most recently solved in a 2001 film adaptation and in a long-running episode of the British TV series “Agatha Christie: Poirot”.
