Netflix’s Elderly Murder-Solving Film Looks Awfully Familiar
Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, and Celia Imrie are septuagenarian sleuths in ‘The Thursday Murder Club.’
Put down your knitting needles—a murder is afoot!
Netflix just dropped the first teaser for The Thursday Murder Club—the highly anticipated adaptation of Richard Osman’s 2020 bestselling novel of the same name.
The film follows a group of brilliant but bored pensioners: ex-spy Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), ex-union activist Ron (Pierce Brosnan), ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley), and ex-nurse Joyce (Celia Imrie), who solve cold cases for their free time. But when an unexplained death occurs right on their doorstep, the group finds themselves at the heart of a real whodunit mystery.
It’s basically like if someone took Only Murders in the Building but set it at a luxury retirement community in the English countryside.
“There’s been a murder! An actual murder!” Joyce excitedly tells the group in the trailer. “Now we’ve got a real case to solve. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan in ‘The Thursday Murder Club.’
Netflix
Directed by Chris Columbus, who is known for his work on Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire and the first two Harry Potter films, the new movie features an impressive list of British stars, including David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Tom Ellis, Naomi Ackie, and Richard E. Grant.
In an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, Columbus talked about what fans can expect from the project.
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“There’s a wonderful mystery at its core, so mystery fans will be very happy,” he said. “But thematically it’s interesting that we’ve got four elderly people who are living in a retirement community and who are fascinated by death and murder. They are facing their own demise, yet at the same time they are obsessed with studying cold cases. I fell in love thematically with that. It’s comedic, but it’s also very emotional.”
Set to hit the streaming platform on Aug. 28, The Thursday Murder Club looks a lot like Netflix’s attempt to capitalize on the success of Hulu’s Emmy-winning series starring fellow septuagenarians Steve Martin and Martin Short.
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