The names Neil LaBute and Agatha Christie are not ones that we ever expected to be paired, but then the controversial writer/director/ playwright has broadened his scope through the years, so it’s not entirely impossible. And now we know why Mike Figgis has taken over the film of his script Seconds of Pleasure – he’s going to shoot a version of the venerable crime writer’s Crooked House later this year. Described by the author herself as one of her two favourite novels, Crooked House finds narrator Charles Hayward engaged to the fetching Sophia. But before they can head down the aisle, someone has to solve the murder of her grandfather, who has been poisoned. And you thought finding a place for the reception was tough? Oscar-scooping writer and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes is behind the adaptation and he seems certain that LaBute can breathe fresh life into the story, which originally hit the shelves in 1949. "I love the period, I love Agatha Christie and I love the idea of reinventing it,” he tells The Independent. “It will be exciting to work with a really vivid, contemporary director – he's one of the originals around at the moment."
Let’s hope LaBute kept any copies of his Wicker Man remake away from Fellowes, then… | 
