Agatha Christie thriller the start of new mega-TV series for Amazon
Amazon has struck a major deal with Agatha Christie Productions for US rights to seven dramas based on the author’s works.
Agatha Christie
Ordeal By Innocence is the first adaptation, with filming starting in Scotland this month. The three-part film, produced by Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen for the BBC, has an ensemble cast led by Bill Nighy, Catherine Keener and Matthew Goode.
Alice Eve, Ella Purnell, Ed Westwick, Luke Treadaway, Eleanor Tomlinson and Morven Christie also star.
Published in 1958, the book was one of Christie’s’s personal favorites, says Adage.
The story sees old wounds reopened for the Argyll family when a man suddenly turns up and claims that the black sheep of the family, Jack Argyll, could not have murdered its tyrannical matriarch – for which he was accused just one year earlier.
Jack has since died- and the family must come to terms with Jack’s innocence and the fact that one of them may be the real murderer.
Ordeal By Innocence reunites Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen with writer and exec producer Sarah Phelps, following the critical success of BBC One’s And Then There Were None in 2015 and The Witness For The Prosecution in 2016.
These series, as well as forthcoming adaptations from Agatha Christie Limited will be available for members on Amazon Prime.
“We are thrilled to bring to our slate these adaptations from the world’s greatest mystery writer,” said Morgan Wandell, head of international series at Amazon Studios. “With terrific talent, in front of and behind the camera, they are sure to delight our customers.”
James Pritchard, Chairman and CEO of Agatha Christie Limited, said: “We are delighted to be working with Amazon in the TV space. They have obviously played a massive part in our book business over the past few years and it is exciting to move with them onto Prime Video in the U.S.”
Sandra Goldbacher (Victoria) is directing Ordeal By Innocence. Poldark and The Hollow Crown’s Roopesh Parekh is producer. Exec producers are Phelps, Karen Thrussell, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen; Prichard and Basi Akpabio for Agatha Christie Limited; and Gaynor Holmes for the BBC.
Sky’s international sales arm.
WME and Sky Vision negotiated the deal with Amazon and Sky Vision will handle international distribution rights.