Netflix Joins ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, Chris Columbus & Amblin Entertainment’s Feature Adaptation Of Big-Selling Richard Osman Novel

Jesse Whittock
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Netflix just boarded a buzzy one. The streamer has joined The Thursday Murder Club, the Chris Columbus-directed feature adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling 2020 novel.

Just days after casting on the flick was confirmed with Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley in lead roles, we can reveal that Netflix is now also attached.

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The film has been on the boil since September 2020, when Steven Spielberg acquired the adaptation rights from Osman, the British game show host, TV exec, screenwriter and novelist. Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is making it, with Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, Harry Potter) writing and directing.

The Thursday Murder Club will be the latest to come through Netflix’s film partnership with Amblin, which already has spawned the the upcoming Jaume Collet-Serra action thriller 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, but find themselves caught in a real case. Mirren will play ex-spy Elizabeth, Kingsley will play ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim, and Brosnan will play former union activist Ron. Negotiations for an actress to play the fourth member of the group, Joyce, are ongoing.

Osman, speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment this week, said filming will begin in the UK at the end of June and run through to September. Holly Bario, Jeb Brody and Eleanor Columbus are the executive producers, and Jennifer Todd is the producer.

Osman’s novel, his first as an author, has sold more than 10 million copies and was the first debut novel to be the Christmas No. 1 in the UK. It led to sequel books The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed and The Last Devil to Die, the latter of which became the fastest-selling book by a British author since records began. Only Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol sold faster anywhere, and a fifth story is set for 2025.

Osman is known to millions in the UK as the presenter of BBC game show Richard Osman’s House of Games and spent years as quizmaster on daytime quiz Pointless. In industry circles, he is known for a long association with Endemol UK (now part of Banijay UK), rising to Creative Director at the Big Brother company before leaving in 2020.

“I’m so proud of this book, so it is a dream to see The Thursday Murder Club in such incredible hands,” said Osman. “From Chris Columbus to Amblin to Netflix, there are geniuses everywhere I look. And what a cast. I’m pinching myself.”

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