The Big Picture

• The Thursday Murder Club film has a star-studded cast including Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley.
• The movie is based on a popular book by Richard Osman, with a plot centered around solving cold case mysteries.
• Amblin Entertainment won the rights to adapt the book after a bidding war with 14 film studios, with Chris Columbus set to direct.

Amblin Entertainment is filling out the cast for its upcoming murder mystery film The Thursday Murder Club, and is bringing together a group of A-listers for the project. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley are being eyed to star in the film, according to Variety. The project also has a big name attached behind the camera, as Chris Columbus, the filmmaker behind the Home Alone franchise and the first two Harry Potter films, is slated to direct.

The film will be based on the book of the same name by Richard Osman released in 2020. The book follows a group of four elderly friends living in a retirement home in the United Kingdom. In their spare time, the group solves cold case mysteries for fun. However, they find themselves launched into a case that hits close to home when a local property manager is murdered, launching an effort to find the culprit. Mirren, Brosnan, and Kingsley would play three of the four elderly mystery solvers. The book itself launched a series of sequels, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die. A fifth book is slated for release in 2025.

The book was highly acclaimed when it was released, and there was no shortage of takers to adapt it for the screen. Amblin won the rights following a bidding war that involved 14 film studios, according to Variety. Initially, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! director Ol Parker was slated to direct but seems to have been replaced by Columbus. "The cast for #TheThursdayMurderClub movie is insanely great, I think people are going to love it," Osman wrote on X.

The Film Has Heavy Hitters Attached

With Mirren, Brosnan, and Kingsley, The Thursday Murder Club has some of the best in the business onboard. Mirren's career spans decades and includes starring roles in classics such as Caligula, The Queen, Prime Suspect, and The Long Good Friday. The recipient of numerous Academy Award, Emmy Award, and Golden Globe nominations, Mirren was recently the narrator in Barbie and has a lead role in Paramount's Yellowstone spinoff 1923.

Brosnan is best known for portraying the iconic spy James Bond in four 007 films: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day. His role as Bond launched him to worldwide stardom, and Brosnan has since been seen in films such as Mrs. Doubtfire, The Thomas Crown Affair, and the Mamma Mia! series. He will next be seen in the film Unholy Trinity alongside Samuel L. Jackson. Kingsley is perhaps best known for his role as Mahatma Gandhi in the biopic Gandhi, which garnered him an Academy Award for Best Actor. He is also known for his leading roles in films such as Shutter Island, Schindler's List, Hugo, and Tuck Everlasting. He will next be seen in the upcoming MCU series Wonder Man on Disney+.

What Has Christopher Columbus Done Before?

Over the years, Columbus has made a name for himself as both the writer and director of family-friendly fare, including the above-mentioned Home Alone and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (or Sorcerer's Stone, if you prefer), and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Beyond that, Columbus is also known for directing Mrs. Doubtfire, making The Thursday Murder Club a reunion for him and Brosnan, as well as Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and Adventures in Babysitting, among many others. As a screenwriter, Columbus is behind some of the most iconic movies of the '80s, including Goonies and Gremlins.

What Is Amblin Entertainment?

The Thursday Murder Club has one of Hollywood’s longstanding studios behind it with Amblin Entertainment. Founded by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall in 1980, Amblin is the banner behind some of the most iconic films of the 1980s and 1990s. This includes projects like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Back to the Future, Empire of the Sun, and more. It is also behind many films that were worked on by Columbus, including the aforementioned The Goonies and Gremlins. Nowadays, Spielberg is staying busy making new films, as he is reportedly set to helm a new UFO movie with Jurassic Park writer David Koepp. Kennedy is currently the president of Lucasfilm, where she is currently overseeing development on a new round of Star Wars projects.

What Has Amblin Recently Done?

While best known for films in the 1980s and 1990s, Amblin has been behind a number of more recent projects that also saw success. This includes Masters of the Air, the World War II miniseries starring Austin Butler that chronicled the 100th Bomb Group. The series, which was executive-produced by Spielberg, received mostly positive reviews. Amblin’s television division is also known for Band of Brothers and The Pacific, while its more recent films include The Fabelmans, West Side Story, and Jurassic World Dominion.

Next, Amblin will be partnering with Universal and Warner Bros. for Twisters, a sequel to its popular 1996 disaster film Twister. The film, which stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, will be released on July 19. Another Jurassic World film is also in the works from Koepp and Spielberg, slated for a July 2, 2025, release.

No release date for The Thursday Murder Club has been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for more information. You can watch Columbus' most recent movie, The Christmas Chronicles 2 on Netflix.

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