{"id":11079,"date":"2022-02-11T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T09:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1580810"},"modified":"2022-02-11T10:26:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T09:26:10","slug":"how-is-kenneth-branaghs-death-on-the-nile-different-to-the-book","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/how-is-kenneth-branaghs-death-on-the-nile-different-to-the-book\/","title":{"rendered":"How is Kenneth Branagh\u2019s Death on the Nile different to the book?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 11 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Watching the 1978 version of Death on the Nile as a child was something of a formative experience for screenwriter Michael Green. In fact, he was so scared by the film that he held a decades-long grudge against Agatha Christie, a grudge which was only reversed when he was asked to write the screenplay for Sir Kenneth Branagh\u2019s version of Murder on the Orient Express<\/a> a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s come full circle by writing a new version of Death on the Nile<\/a>, and he hopes that it might have as much of an effect on audiences today as the earlier one did on him when he was younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that really stuck with me about it, that was always just impressed upon me from seeing that movie at too young an age, was just this idea of murder,\u201d he explains in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cThat people, nice people who you see in the shops, and on the street, who wave hello, are occasionally capable of deliberately killing one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was a new idea for me, just this idea of murder. It\u2019s sort of like learning about death for the first time, you never go back. And then there\u2019s learning that people inflicted death on purpose \u2013 once you learn about that you can\u2019t go back. So that\u2019s really kind of a pivotal moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, this new version of the story is not simply a carbon copy of the earlier film \u2013 or of Christie\u2019s original novel \u2013 and so we spoke with Green about the changes in his adaptation of the story, and why he felt they needed to be made.<\/p>

How is Death on the Nile different to the book?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the things about adapting the work of a writer as beloved as Agatha Christie is that there are always going to be some fans who are resistant to any changes at all. Indeed, Green has encountered that directly, with his teenage niece having told him that he shouldn\u2019t change a single thing. But, insists the writer, it\u2019s imperative that each interpretation of the story brings something new to the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you want to do is to honour it, but you have to give yourself the permission to break and restructure in order to honour it,\u201d he explains. \u201cBecause whenever you adapt anything, you have to find what you love about it. And at the expense of a lot of other things you have to make sure that what you love about it comes through. And sometimes you have to undo some beautiful things in the book or some delicate things in the book, or even some interesting things in the book in order to make room for what has to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn each film, we think of it as Poirot versus something new that he hasn\u2019t really dealt with in his personal life,\u201d he adds. \u201cIn Orient Express it\u2019s Poirot versus morality, this idea that reality is not black and white, that things are complex. And it is a much more comforting notion to imagine that reality is easy black and white, but life just doesn\u2019t give you that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we thought that the themes of Death on the Nile were very much about love and heat and passion, and that every character would have a chance to tell us what they feel about romance, whether it\u2019s cynical, whether it\u2019s childish, whether it\u2019s romantic with a capital R, whether it\u2019s lustful.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that would be a wonderful thing for Poirot to be forced to deal with because as a character he eschews romance. It\u2019s a messy, sticky, ugly thing that really doesn\u2019t fit into his neat 90-degree angled corners. So how much fun would it be for a case that forces him to really think about romance and love, and to be befuddled by it?\u201d<\/p>\n