20th Century Studios Adaptation Of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ Finds Writers

Agatha Christie’s best-selling mystery novel And Then There Were None is coming to thrill crowds once again. 20th Century Studios has tapped Seberg writers and husband-wife writing duo Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel to pen the adaptation.

According to Deadline, Disney will be keeping the novel’s original pre-World War II setting. However, they’ll be spinning it with a fresh take.

First published in 1939, And Then There Were None is hailed as the best selling crime novel of all time. It has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. And it has set the template for many Hollywood slasher films over the next decades. It revolves around the story of 10 strangers invited to a small isolated island by an unknown host. Each guest is accused of a terrible crime.

The strangers include a reckless playboy, a troubled Harley Street doctor, a formidable judge, an uncouth detective, an unscrupulous mercenary, a God-fearing spinster, two restless servants, a highly decorated general, and an anxious secretary.  When they start getting killed off one by one, the survivors realize they might be harboring a murderer. The only clue they have about the murders is an ominous nursery rhyme hanging in each room.

According to Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None was the most difficult novel she has ever written. “It was so difficult to do,” she wrote. “That the idea had fascinated me.” It is also Christie’s most adapted work. The first of these adaptations is a stage play of the same title in 1943. Christie even changed the bleak ending to better suit viewing audiences. Since then, her novel has birthed 10 film adaptations and eight series adaptations all around the world. It has also been adapted into various PC games.

One of the most acclaimed adaptations is the 2015 BBC One three-part miniseries. The ensemble cast includes Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Maeve Dermody, Burn Gorman, Anna Maxwell Martin, Sam Neil, Miranda Richardson, Toby Stephens, Noah Taylor, and Aidan Turner.

Aside from Seberg, Waterhouse and Shrapnel also adapted The Aftermath based on Rhidian Brooks’s novel of the same title. it starred Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgard, and Jason Clark. The couple also did work on Marvel/ Disney’s Captain Marvel. Their most recent work is with Netflix on the adaptation of Dame Daphne Du Maurier’s classic gothic novel Rebecca. Waterhouse and Shrapnel have also recently signed with Legendary to adapt Brian K. Vaughn’s sci-fi comic book Ex Machina to The Great Machine film.