Armie Hammer has joined Gal Gadot on the cast of Fox’s upcoming adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic “Death on the Nile,” a person with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.
Set for release in December 2019, “Death on the Nile” will be the second Christie adaptation made by director/writer team Kenneth Branagh and Michael Walsh, who worked together on last year’s adaptation of “Murder on the Orient Express.” Made on a $55 million budget, it grossed $352.7 million worldwide.
“Death on the Nile” will take Branagh and Walsh from a train to a cruise ship, as the vacation of Christie’s most famous character, Hercule Poirot, is rudely interrupted by a murder that takes place during his cruise along the Nile River. Poirot quickly rounds up a list of suspects, only for the mystery to deepen as many of those suspects are also killed off.
Ridley Scott, Judy Hofflund, Simon Kinberg, Kevin Walsh and Mark Gordon are producing the film, which is set to start filming next summer.
While it’s not clear yet whether Hammer will play Poirot, whoever does will join a long line of actors who have played the homicide detective, including Branagh himself. Other actors include Ian Holm, Alfred Molina, Orson Welles and John Malkovich.
Hammer, who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in “Call Me By Your Name” earlier this year, most recently played the eccentric, amoral billionaire Steve Lift in Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You.” He is set to star alongside Felicity Jones in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic “On the Basis of Sex” this December.
Hammer is repped by WME. The deal was first reported by Deadline.