Penelope Cruz Boards MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Remake
Kenneth Branagh's remake of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express has just picked up another Oscar-winning passenger.
According to Deadline, Penelope Cruz has boarded the new film, marking the second reunion for this movie: she'll be reuniting with her Pirates 4 co-star Johnny Depp, who will himself be reuniting with his Dark Shadows co-star Michelle Pfeiffer. Daisy Ridley, Michael Pena, Lucy Boynton, Leslie Odom Jr., Josh Gad, and Judi Dench round out the cast, with Branagh himself playing the main character, Detective Hercule Poirot. The murder mystery story follows Poirot as he attempts to solve the murder of an American businessman that occurred on a cross-country train.
Depp portrays Ratchett, Pfeiffer will be Mrs. Hubbard, Ridley plays Mary Debenham, Dench portrays Princess Dragomiroff, Boynton will be Countess Andrenyi. Tom Bateman plays Bouc, Tony-winning stage actor Derek Jacobi portrays Masterman, Peņa is Marquez, Gad is Hector McQueen, and Hamilton star Odom Jr. plays Doctor Arbuthnot. That leaves two major characters that Cruz could be playing: Hildegarde Schmidt, a former cook; or Greta Ohlsson, a missionary/nurse (that seems the more likely choice, since Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing that part in the 1974 movie).
Production starts in November in London, and the movie is scheduled to leave the station and pull into theaters on November 22, 2017.