class=”alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-88687″ title=”Gabriel Byrne” src=”https://www.heyuguys.com/images/2011/05/Gabriel-Byrne-220×150.jpg” alt=”” width=”220″ height=”150″ />American director, Neil LaBute, has cast four of the lead roles for the upcoming film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Crooked House with some of the finest English and Irish actors, Variety reports.
Now signing on to the project are Dame Julie Andrews, Gemma Arterton, Gabriel Byrne, and Matthew Goode, a great mix of classic talent and upcoming stars.
The film is set in 1947 in London. The lead character, Charles Hayward (most likely to be played by Goode) is told by his fiancé, Sophia (most likely Arterton), that the two cannot be wed until the murderer of her grandfather is found. As such, Hayward makes it his business to discover Sophia’s grandfather’s murderer.
Andrews is perhaps most likely to play the role of Sophia’s great-aunt, with Byrne either playing Sophia’s father or uncle. As is natural in Christie’s novels, everyone has a motive, and it is up to Hayward to find the killer before any more lives are taken.
The book has been adapted by the writer of the incredibly popular ITV series, Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, and Tim Rose Price. The budget is set at about $20 million, and shooting is set to start this summer here in the UK. With such a stellar cast now attached to the project, there’s even more reason to expect it to be a success, with so much talent in the cast and crew alike.
LaBute has currently been working in London as director of the play, In a Forest, Dark and Deep, starring Matthew Fox (Lost) and Olivia Williams (An Education), which started in March and will run through until the start of June. Hopefully being in London for the past two months has given him a chance to already start thinking in detail about how he’s going to bring the script to life.
