Kenneth Branagh's A Haunting in Venice readying UK and Italy shoot

20th Century Studios' A Haunting in Venice, starring Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey and Michelle Yeoh, is set to start production next month in the UK and Italy for Disney. 

Set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve, A Haunting in Venice is described as a terrifying mystery featuring the return of the celebrated sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, Poirot reluctantly attends a séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

The studio's third film based on a novel by Agatha Christie, will be directed by Academy Award-winner Branagh, from a screenplay written by Oscar-nominee Michael Green.

It will shoot at UK's Pinewood Studios and on location in Venice in November. 

Branagh returns as Hercule Poirot alongside an ensemble cast announced by 20th Century Studios on 10 October: Kyle Allen (Rosaline), Camille Cottin (Call My Agent), Dornan (Belfast), Fey (30 Rock), Jude Hill (Belfast), Ali Khan (6 Underground), Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown), Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone), Riccardo Scamarico (Caravaggio’s Shadow), and Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once).

In a statement, Branagh said: “This is a fantastic development of the character Hercule Poirot, as well as the Agatha Christie franchise. Based on a complex, little known tale of mystery set at Halloween in a pictorially ravishing city, it is an amazing opportunity for us, as filmmakers, and we are relishing the chance to deliver something truly spine-chilling for our loyal movie audiences.”

Steve Asbell, president 20th Century Studios, added: “We are enormously privileged to continue our long collaboration with the incomparable Sir Kenneth Branagh and couldn’t be more excited by the bold new creative direction Ken, Michael, and the rest of the filmmaking team have taken with this latest film. We also remain grateful to James Prichard and the rest of our friends at Agatha Christie, Ltd., for their partnership and for once again entrusting us with, as Poirot modestly calls himself, ‘probably the greatest detective in the world.’”

The whodunit reunites the team of filmmakers behind 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and 2022’s Death on the Nile and includes Branagh, Green, producer Judy Hofflund, and executive producers Louise Killin and James Prichard, along with filmmakers Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg, and Mark Gordon.