New Big-Screen Adaptation of a Beloved Agatha Christie Mystery Announced
Karate Kid: Legends filmmaker Jonathan Entwistle will direct Studiocanal’s modern, psychological reimagining of Agatha Christie’s Endless Night, tracking an ambitious twentysomething hustler and reviving the 1967 classic for a new generation.
Agatha Christie is back on the big screen, and this time the vibe is darker and more contemporary. Studiocanal just tapped 'Karate Kid: Legends' director Jonathan Entwistle to reinterpret Christie's 1967 novel 'Endless Night' as a psychological thriller. Good match of sensibilities, honestly.
What story are we getting?
This one shifts Christie's book into a modern setting and centers on a young striver who falls for the wrong person (or two) and spirals from there. The official synopsis lays it out:
"The film follows an ambitious twentysomething hustler who ends up entangled in a web of blame and deception after he becomes romantically involved with a volatile American heiress and her assistant."
That triangle has trouble written all over it, which is exactly what you want from a Christie psychological thriller.
Who is making it
- Director: Jonathan Entwistle (Netflix's 'The End of the F***ing World,' 'I Am Not Okay With This'; most recently steered Sony's new 'Karate Kid' with Ben Wang, Ralph Macchio, and Jackie Chan, which pulled in $117 million worldwide)
- Writer: Emily Siegel
- Producers: Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman for The Picture Company
- Executive producers: Ron Halpern and Shana Eddy-Grouf for Studiocanal, who are also overseeing the project for the studio
Why this title now
'Endless Night' has history. Sidney Gilliat already adapted it in 1972, and interest has clearly swung back around: last May, the BBC lined up a three-part limited series version with 'A Very British Scandal' writer Sarah Phelps scripting. So yes, two separate takes on the same Christie novel are moving through the pipeline at the same time. If you like seeing how different teams spin the same source, you are about to eat well.
Bottom line: Entwistle doing a present-day, moodier riff on a lesser-adapted Christie sounds promising. Now we wait to see the cast and how twisted this triangle gets.