Helen Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman on for New Series ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’
The Agatha Christie adaptation will star ‘How to Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce as Bundle, a determined young sleuth looking to crack a 1920s-set mystery.
Preview:
- Helena Bonham Carter, Martin Freeman and Mia McKenna-Bruce will star in ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’.
- ‘Broadchurch’ and ‘Doctor Who’ writer Chris Chibnall adapted the series.
- Netflix is backing the show.
The murder mystery genre is one of those evergreen sources for movies and TV, and Agatha Christie is one of the major players in that field (despite, you know being dead since 1976). Her work is consistently adapted –– probably most famously currently for the Poirot movies starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh.
But TV has usually been seen as the natural home for work based on the writer’s iconic books, and Netflix is looking to get in on that action with a new show based on ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’, which will star Helena Bonham Carter, Martin Freeman (already well versed in the mystery genre thanks to ‘Sherlock’) and up-and-coming young star Mia McKenna-Bruce, who got a big break with last year’s movie drama ‘How to Have Sex’.
Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery
What’s the story of ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’?
First published in 1929, Christie’s tome is set in England in 1925. At a lavish country house party, a practical joke appears to have gone horribly, murderously wrong.
It will be up to the unlikeliest of sleuths –– the fizzingly inquisitive Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent (Bruce) –– to unravel a chilling plot that will change her life, cracking wide open the country house mystery.
Carter is playing Lady Caterham and Freeman will be a police officer named Battle.
Who is making ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’?
The new series comes from Chris Chibnall, who previously created and wrote crime drama series ‘Broadchurch’ before moving on to run ‘Doctor Who’ for a few years.
And producing is Suzanne Mackie, who worked at Left Bank Pictures on ‘The Crown’ and formed her own production company, Orchid Pictures in 2020.
Chris Sweeney ('The Tourist') is aboard to direct the series.
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‘The Seven Dials Mystery’: The Cast and Creators Talk
Here’s what Mia McKenna-Bruce said about the show:
“Chris Chibnall’s scripts are brilliant, and I am thrilled to be part of this new interpretation of the iconic Agatha Christie’s storytelling.”
And here’s producer Mackie commenting:
“I am excited to be bringing ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’ to life, and to be introducing a new generation of iconic Christie characters to the screen. It has been a joy to work with Chris Chibnall in creating this bold, authored, and ambitious vision for the series. Together with Chris Sussman and Agatha Christie Limited and, under the masterful direction of Chris Sweeney, we are thrilled to embark on this creative journey. I could not think of a more exciting first project for Orchid Pictures, or a more perfect home for this story than Netflix.”
When will ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’ be on Netflix?
The series is now shooting, so the streaming service has yet to reveal a release date.
OtherAgatha Christie Adaptations:
- 'Alibi' (1931)
- 'Murder on the Orient Express' (1974)
- 'And Then There Were None' (1974)
- 'Death on the Nile' (1978)
- 'The Mirror Crack'd' (1980)
- 'Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery' (1981)
- 'Evil Under the Sun' (1982)
- 'Ordeal by Innocence' (1985)
- 'Appointment with Death' (1988)
- 'Ten Little Indians' (1989)
- 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' (1989 - 2013)
- 'Innocent Lies' (1995)
- 'Mindhunters' (2005)
- 'Murder on the Orient Express' (2017)
- 'Crooked House' (2017)
- 'The ABC Murders' (2018)
- ‘Death on the Nile' (2022)
- 'A Haunting in Venice' (2023)
- 'Murder Is Easy' (2023)