Disney's Death On the Nile saga - from costly reshoots to disgraced Armie Hammer

It’s a dilemma that not even Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells can solve: what to do about the latest movie version of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, which features disgraced actor Armie Hammer?

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as the iconic moustachioed detective (Branagh reprising the role from 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express), the Egypt-set film has an all-star cast, including Gal Gadot, Rose Leslie, Sophie Okonedo, Letitia Wright, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Annette Bening, Emma Mackey, Ali Fazal and Russell Brand.

Although Murder on the Orient Express received decidedly mixed reviews from critics, it grossed a healthy $351 million worldwide - and its follow-up could well follow suit, with Branagh talking confidently about creating a new “cinematic universe” of Christie films.

However, the fate of this latest outing looks uncertain. Originally scheduled to be released in December 2019, it was juggled around the calendar due to Covid, and then removed from schedules altogether. The film finally got a new release date of September 17 2021, but in last week’s announcement from Disney, it was shunted - for the 6th time - to February 2022 instead.

That pushes the problem further down the road, but does nothing to solve it. Hammer plays the key role of Simon Doyle in the film - whose part in a dramatic love triangle sets the murderous events in motion - so can’t simply be excised. But serious allegations have been made against Hammer, with Los Angeles police opening an investigation into an allegation that he raped a young woman four years ago, which Hammer denies. There have also been unsubstantiated accusations about his aberrant sexual behaviour circulating on social media for months, and Hammer is in the midst of a public divorce and custody battle with his estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers.

Yesterday it was announced that Hammer has been dropped from Cold War thriller Billionaire Dollar Spy, while back in January, the actor pulled out of movie Shotgun Wedding, in which he was due to star with Jennifer Lopez. There are no other upcoming projects confirmed with Hammer, other than those that wrapped prior to the allegations - such as Death on the Nile. There has been no further mention of the possible Call Me By Your Name sequel.

What, then, can Disney do with their tainted Poirot project? If there really are ambitions to make this a franchise, it’s even more of a commercial headache - and Hammer’s presence could well sink it entirely. The company inherited the film when it acquired 20th Century Fox.

Simply recasting Hammer, as Ridley Scott did in his Kevin Spacey-starring All the Money in the World, seems unlikely without major and costly reshoots. But neither could Disney begin a press tour in which Hammer’s co-stars would likely be faced with a barrage of difficult questions.

According to Variety, a source familiar with an early cut of Death on the Nile reported that Hammer’s role is significant to the point of being the film’s male lead. However, another insider claims that the studio is not currently considering either reshooting or recasting. The former could run to tens of millions, and also be logistically challenging given the cast’s busy schedules.

A rival studio executive told Variety: “It seems like the only way to go with this is to come out front and say, ‘Hundreds of people worked on this project, and we’re not scrapping it because of one individual.’” That executive speculated that the film could wind up being released on a streaming service instead of having a theatrical release.

Still, with the delay to February - at least - we will have to wait a while for the denouement in this case. As Poirot said, “I reserve the explanations for the last chapter.”