It was announced back in March that Neil LaBute – who last brought us the US remake of Death at a Funeral – is working on a version of crime novel legend Agatha Christie’s Crooked House. Now he has a cast in place, with Gemma Arterton, Gabriel Byrne, Julie Andrews and Matthew Goode signing on.
Adapted for the big screen by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Tim Rose Price, the new cinematic version of the tale will roughly follow the book's plot, which finds a murder happening in the strange old house that is home to three generations of the same family.
One of them just happens to be an eccentric multi-millionaire, and suspicion falls on a young female member of the family. A detective who takes the case must figure out if she’s really the killer – or simply being framed, with her life on the line.
"The story has a couple of fresh sides to it that I didn't remember from Christie's work," LaBute tells Variety. "There's a love story, which didn't feature strongly in many of her books, so that seemed very different to me and fresh. Plus it's quite morally ambiguous, which also appealed to me."
With $20 million to play with, LaBute will kick off shooting on the movie this summer in England. After that, there’s a chance he could segue into a reunion with In The Company of Men star Aaron Eckhart for a sharp new drama.