Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer Could Board Kenneth Branagh's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Remake

Kenneth Branagh is directing and starring in a remake of the famous Agatha Christie murder mystery story Murder on the Orient Express, and although he once had Angelina Jolie in talks to play one of the passengers on board the deadly vehicle, the actress has since dropped out of the project. That's OK, though, because a new piece in THR indicates that Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer, who worked together on the vampire comedy Dark Shadows a few years ago, are "names of interest" for the new movie, though they caution that neither actor has been officially offered a part...yet.

The story follows detective Hercule Poirot as he attempts to solve the murder of an American businessman that occurred on a cross-country train. The 1974 film starred big names like Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, and many more, so clearly Fox is trying to attract a similarly star-studded cast for this new effort.

Hilary Strong, CEO of Agatha Christie Limited, explained to THR why they're remaking the movie in the first place (via The Playlist):

“One of the criticisms that I keep getting levied at me is that [the previous film adaptations] were so amazing. ‘How can you remake ‘Murder on the Orient Express'?' They’re iconic films, but they are of their time, and there is a new cinema audience that won’t watch films that were made in 1957 or 1974, and we want them to hear her stories.”

I think she's absolutely right about that, and it's a point that a lot of people either fail to consider or don't talk about enough when the topic of Hollywood remakes comes up. Obviously the old versions still exist, but how many people do you know — and I'm assuming the readers of this site are cinephiles and probably have cinephile friends — who would willingly watch a movie from 1957 over something much newer? There are certainly people out there who would, but I think Strong is onto something: that number seems to be dwindling every year.

Murder on the Orient Express has a release date of November 22, 2017, so expect a cast to be finalized relatively soon.