Wearing his actor, producer and director’s hat, Kenneth Branagh brings Agatha Christie’s beloved and ageless whodunit Murder on the Orient Express to modern audiences. Branagh himself also stars as renowned detective Hercule Poirot.

After the shocking murder of a wealthy businessman on the lavish European train barrelling its way west in the dead of winter, private detective Poirot must use every tool of his trade to uncover which of the train’s eclectic passengers is the killer, before he or she strikes again.

When Christie’s classic thriller was published in 1934, The Times of London wrote: “The little grey cells solve once more the seemingly insoluble. Mrs Christie makes an improbable tale very real and keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end.”

Eight decades on, the enthralment remains as strong.

“Agatha Christie is expert at bringing depth [with economy] to the observation of characters, making them distinct and colourful, but also believable,” says Branagh.  “I think she enjoys the literary dazzle of that, but in the Orient Express, you also have glamour. You have snow. You have elegance and the golden age of romance in travel. And, of course, you have a murder.”

Branagh has amassed a veritable who’s who of talent to play ‘The Suspects’ for this glamorous and thrilling journey.

Johnny Depp is Edward Ratchett – The Gangster – the only apparently evil person on the Orient Express, an obvious suspect.

The little grey cells solve once more the seemingly insoluble

“From the second Ratchett enters the story, you can sense his paranoia and his urgency to befriend Poirot and protect himself,” says Depp. “The elegance of the train, the gangster swagger of Ratchett combined with his greasy confidence culminate into an extremely compelling and amusing character to play.”

Ratchett is travelling with The Assistant, Hector MacQueen, played by Josh Gad, a well-travelled and scholarly, if rather nervous, individual.

Branagh favourite Derek Jacobi plays The Butler, Edward Masterman, a role Jacobi accepted without hesitation.

“He’s an interesting character,” says the actor.  “He was a batman during the war and then a valet, and now he’s a valet to a rather unsavoury character in Ratchett. Masterman is a bit uptight but he’s also very ill, probably dying, and also has a degree of revenge somewhere in his psyche.”

Enjoying quite a comeback to the big screen following her superb showing in Mother, Michelle Pfeiffer plays Caroline Hubbard – The Widow.

“Hubbard is a husband-hunter,” comments Pfeiffer. “Or so she says. In some ways she’s a lonely and rather sweet and tender and often funny woman. But, she can be very forceful, and to some people, a little irritating and a little intense. It was fun to step into her shoes.”

The Missionary, Pilar Estravados, is played by Penélope Cruz.

“At the beginning of the story we don’t know much about Pilar,” says Cruz. “Just that she seems very religious because she walks around with her bible and her cross, and she loves talking to people about God and about the reasons why this is so important in her life.”

Willem Dafoe is The Professor, Gerhard Hardman, an arrogant man who annoys his fellow travellers almost immediately with his unpleasant political views.

“He’s a man that expresses opinions that are often offensive to some of the other passengers because he’s very aware of place and hierarchy and race,” describes Dafoe. “Given that it’s 1934, in Europe, he’s quite buttoned-down, quite a serious guy, and someone to watch.”

Jude Dench is The Princess,  Natalia Dragomiroff.

“I think Judi Dench had a whale of a time playing Dragomiroff’s imperious, contemptuous, superior arrogance and disgust at most of what went on around her, which was never as she liked it,” posits Branagh.

Olivia Colman stars as The Maid, Hildegarde Schmidt, who looks after Princess Dragomiroff. Branagh describes her as polite and clearly intelligent, but she’s quiet.

“She’s discreet to the point of making you wonder whether she has a lot to hide. Poirot wonders, “Does she know something we don’t?”, he says.

Playing The Governess Mary Debenham is Daisy Ridley.  The actress says of her character: “When we first meet Mary, she is a free-spirited young woman, who is travelling, seemingly alone, a governess, and she likes taking pictures. She has a wonderful exchange with Poirot at the beginning of the film and it sets off a really nice dynamic between them.”

Rounding up the cast – and the list of suspects! – are Tom Bateman as The Manager, Lucy Boynton as The Countess, Manuel Garcia Rulto as The Red Herring, Marwan Kenzari as The Train Conductor, Leslie Odom, Jr as The Doctor and Sergei Polunin as The Count.

Happy Death Day

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Happy Death Day: Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is a blissfully self-centred collegian who wakes up on her birthday in the bed of a student named Carter. As the morning goes on, Tree gets the eerie feeling that she is experienced the events of the day before.