Hercule Poirot is going to drool in Mystery in Venice. This third adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and in which the British filmmaker reprises the role of Hercule Poirot, confronts the detective with a terrible story of murderers and ghosts in a sinister Venetian residence cut off from the world by a storm.
” After The crime of the Orient Express And Death on the Nilewe had enough confidence in Kenneth Branagh and his screenwriter Michael Green to allow them to take liberties with the new The Halloween Crime, explains James Prichard. Great-grandson of the novelist, he directs Agatha Christie Limiteda firm founded during the writer’s lifetime and intended to manage her writings.
Memories memories
“Nima, as we nicknamed her, was not a fan of the adaptations of her books on stage or in the cinema,” explains James Prichard. She found that the writers were too faithful to her and would have liked them to bend more to the media they used. » Agatha Christie might have loved Mystery in Venice because she would not have recognized much of her news. Poirot, more dashing than ever and supported by the woman of letters Ariadne Oliver (played by Tina Fey) becomes the hero of a horrific fresco with gothic settings. “I don’t know if she would have liked the changes,” says James Prichard. I never try to imagine what she would have thought for two reasons: I don’t think so and she was smarter than me. »
James Prichard barely knew his great-grandmother who died in 2004 when he was six years old. “I think my greatest memory of her is the day she died, because I realized how famous she was when I saw her on the front page of the newspapers. » He therefore relies on the advice of his father and fifteen employees to manage and enforce the work of the Queen of Crime.
Human nature under the microscope
“My father claims that his international success of Agatha Christie’s books comes from his knowledge of human nature and his sense of observation,” explains James Prichard. She knew how to listen like no other and was inspired by the people she encountered in her novels. » We would like to meet the man who inspired Hercule Poirot, whom James Prichard would like to see again for the fourth time in the guise of Kenneth Branagh.