Amazon Adapting Agatha Christie Novels, Starting With ‘Ordeal By Innocence’
There’s never been any shortage of Agatha Christie adaptations, from 1928 through Murder on the Orient Express, and Amazon is going all-in. The streaming outlet has begun production on an Ordeal By Innocence TV series, the first of an Agatha Christie Limited partnership that will produce multiple series adaptations.
Per Amazon’s official announcement, this month saw production start on an adaptation of Ordeal By Innocence, with a cast that includes Bill Nighy, Alice Eve, Ella Purnell, Matthew Goode, Catherine Keener, Ed Westwick, Luke Treadaway, Eleanor Tomlinson and Morven Christie. Writer and executive producer Sarah Phelps will pen the new series, following adaptations of And Then There Were None and The Witness for the Prosecution. Here’s the Ordeal By Innocence synopsis, for those unfamiliar:
In Ordeal By Innocence, old wounds are 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. The family must come to terms with Jack’s innocence and with the fact that one of them may be the real murderer.
Said Agatha Christie Limited Chairman James Prichard of the landmark deal, which will facilitate additional adapted series in the coming years:
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 US.
We don’t yet know when Ordeal By Innocence will premiere, nor what the next adapted Christie work might be, so stay tuned.