The movie adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club is gaining steam.
Both Amblin and Netflix are behind the feature adaptation of Osman’s first book in the series, which centers on four friends in a retirement community who research cold cases for fun and end up entangled in a recent murder in their town.
None other than Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire) is on board to pen the screenplay and direct, and as of a few hours ago, we know the complete cast for the four core characters that make up the aforementioned murder club.
The actors on board are Helen Mirren, who will play the ex-spy, Elizabeth; Ben Kingsley, who will be the detail-oriented psychiatrist Ibrahim; and Pierce Brosnan, who plays the rough teamster and former activist, Ron. Those three actors are pictured above, but the final cast member announced was Celia Imrie, who will play the cheerfully indomitable widow, Joyce. You can see her in the image below, as Madge Hardcastle in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:
We’ve known about Mirren, Kingsley and Brosnan joining the project for a few weeks. Joyce, however, was still unknown until Osman himself broke the news about Imrie’s casting on a recent episode of his podcast, The Rest Is Entertainment (via Digital Spy).
As someone who has read and loved the entire book series—there are four books currently out with a fifth expected sometime in 2025—the level of talent behind this adaptation is exciting.
No news yet on when The Thursday Murder Club will be making its way to Netflix (or if Netflix will give it a theatrical run, though I’d bet a shilling that the streamer will). Osman has said, however, that the production would start filming sometime this summer.
