Malkovich onboard BBC1 Christie drama

BBC1 in the UK has ordered its latest Agatha Christie adaptation, which has John Malkovich and Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint attached to star.

John Malkovich

The ABC Murders, based on Christie’s eponymous novel from 1936, is being produced by UK prodco Mammoth Screen with Agatha Christie Ltd (ACL) and will be written by Sarah Phelps.

The one-off three-parter marks the return of Poirot to TV and continues BBC1 and ACL’s unique production deal, which will see ACL and Mammoth Screen deliver six more Christie adaptations.

Endeavor Content will handle sales in all territories internationally, although Amazon agreed a deal last year that saw it become the streaming home for the BBC/ACL series in the US.

Filming for the latest show will start in June, with Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, Dangerous Liaisons) leading the cast as Poirot, with Grint playing Inspector Crome.

The story is set in the 1930s and follows Poirot as he tries to capture a serial killer known only as ABC.

James Prichard, executive producer and CEO of ACL, said the show was “one of my great grandmother’s most unsettling and intense stories and Hercule Poirot one of her most intriguing characters.”

Executive producers are Phelps, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen, Prichard and Basi Akpabio for ACL, and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for BBC.

The BBC recently had to reshoot scenes from its Agatha Christie adaptation Ordeal by Innocence following allegations against cast member Ed Westwick.

Mammoth, ACL and Phelps worked together on that show, which aired in April in the UK, and the trio were also behind previous BBC1 Christie adaptations And Then There Were None in 2015 and The Witness for the Prosecution in 2016.