The Thursday Murder Club release date has been confirmed for Netflix’s Richard Osman adaptation.
The streaming giant has revealed that the film will launch exclusively on the platform on Thursday August 28.
Last year, Richard revealed that the film adaptation of his book will star Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley.
The cast, also including Celia Imrie, were seen in some very serious first look images on Friday.
Dame Helen, 79, will be playing Elizabeth Best, Sir Ben, 81, is portraying Ibrahim Arif and Pierce, 71, will taken on the role of Ron Ritchie.
Richard said: ‘I’m now allowed to officially announce three of the four members of the Thursday Murder Club.
The Thursday Murder Club release date has been confirmed for Netflix’s Richard Osman adaptation
The streaming giant has revealed that the film will launch exclusively on the platform on Thursday August 28
‘Elizabeth is going to be played by the person who people most often shout at me in the street as them wanting them to play Elizabeth… Helen Mirren, which is very exciting.’
‘Ibrahim is Sir Ben Kingsley. Ron is going to be played by – I’m going to say the most handsome man in the world, so he’s going to have to dull himself down a bit… Pierce Brosnan.’
He added: ‘Joyce we’re still in negotiations but again the name is the one that people most shout at me in the street.
Richard went on to detail the project, which Chris Columbus was announced to be directing last week.
He said: ‘Lots more casting to come in the following weeks. We’re filming this summer from end of June to September, all in England’.
Chris, who directed Mrs Doubtfire, Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter films, also wrote The Goonies, which Richard revealed is his wife Ingrid Oliver’s ‘favourite film of all time’.
He added: ‘He’s working on the script at the moment’.
Richard went on: ‘Mirren, Kingsley, Brosnan – I can see the poster now. As summer goes on, any questions for the Q&A edition [of the podcast] about Ben Kingsley, his views on things, just ask me. I’ll be having tea with him on a bus…’
Last year, Richard revealed that the film adaptation of his book will star Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley (Richard pictured in 2021)
The Thursday Murder Club follows a group of pensioners in a middle-class retirement village, who set about solving the murder of a property developer
It was followed by three sequels, The Man Who Died Twice in 2021, The Bullet That Missed in 2022 and The Last Devil to Die in 2023, with a fifth planned to be published next year
There are also roles for Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tony Curran, Richard E Grant, Tom Ellis, Paul Freeman, Sarah Niles, Ingrid Oliver and David Tennant.
The Thursday Murder Club follows a group of pensioners in a middle-class retirement village, who set about solving the murder of a property developer.
The a gang of amateur sleuths are made up of retired spook Elizabeth, stroppy ex-trade unionist Ron, former nurse Joyce and psychiatrist Ibrahim.
Richard wrote the book over 18 months in secret and it was soon at the centre of a 10-way bidding war, before Penguin Random House bought the rights for a seven-figure sum in 2019.
On its publication in 2020, The Thursday Murder Club became the only book to have sold more than one million copies in the same year as its release and the third-highest-selling hardback novel after Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.
It was followed by three sequels, The Man Who Died Twice in 2021, The Bullet That Missed in 2022 and The Last Devil to Die in 2023, with a fifth planned to be published next year.
The film rights to the book were soon snapped up by legendary director Steven Spielberg (pictured last week) with his production company Amblin Entertainment beating off competition from 13 other studios
The novels have turned into a runaway success story, selling more than 10 million copies globally.
The film rights to the book were soon snapped up by legendary director Steven Spielberg with his production company Amblin Entertainment beating off competition from 13 other studios.
Originally the film was set to be written and directed Ol Parker, with shooting set to begin in March, with Meryl Streep and Viola Davis rumoured to star.
The Thursday Murder Club will be released on Netflix on August 28.
