Everything's coming up Christie! With Kenneth Branagh already at work on a new version of Murder On The Orient Express, now Ben Affleck wants to muscle in on the Agatha Christie remake action, making a deal with 20th Century Fox for an update of Witness For The Prosecution.
Despite his busy Bat-schedule, Affleck is making sure that he has other projects to work on when he's not in the cowl (or directing himself in the cowl for the stand-alone Batman movie).
The Witness For The Prosecution originated as a short story by the mystery author, though it was at first known as Traitor Hands in 1925. It was given the new monicker in 1933 and Christie then adapted it into a play in 1953. In 1957, Billy Wilder first turned it into a movie starring Charles Laughton and Tyrone Power, and the result earned six Oscar nominations.
The story concerns a lawyer representing a man accused of murdering a wealthy widow who left him her estate. The suspect's wife, who is initially unable to be called against him because of their relationship, is then brought in as a witness for the prosecution because she was married to someone else when she first wed the defendant. She points to him as the murderer, but the twists start spinning from there...
We don't yet know when Affleck might work on this one; chances are it could linger on his To Do list for a while as he gets other movies out of the way. He'll be back on our screens in The Accountant, which lands on November 4, and has his latest directing/starring job Live By Night due on January 13 next year.