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Chris Columbus is no stranger to adapting a bestselling book. There was Harry Potter (movies one and two, Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets), Mrs. Doubtfire, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, among other films. So when he read Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, he knew he was the person for the job.
“What you learn over the years is when you respond to the material and become obsessed with it, it makes the film better and it makes the film more accessible to people,” he tells Town & Country. “And that’s really my approach with this. I approached it as a fan. I fell in love with these characters. I fell in love with the book and I knew it was a film I had to make.”
Columbus spoke with T&C about the process of bringing The Thursday Murder Club from page to screen, why he didn’t approach it as a murder mystery, and the biggest changes he made from the novel.
When you start working on a book adaptation, what’s day zero for you?
L-R: Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan. All were Columbus’s first choice for the film. Courtesy of Netflix
The key is when you’re moving from page to screen is casting the actors. And the four actors I envisioned when I read the book all said yes. And that was a dream come true. And honestly, it hadn’t happened since Harry Potter. We thought about Snape and Professor McGonagall and all of those people said yes, and I thought that will never happen again. And here we are.
How did you convince them all to say yes?
On Harry Potter, there was no convincing to be done. Maybe a little convincing with Richard Harris, but only because it was his granddaughter who convinced him to do it. But [for The Thursday Murder Club,] all of our first choices said yes, that hasn’t happened to me in 20 years. So I realized that not only do we have a special project, but I am working with four of the greatest actors of their generation, my generation. So you have to step up a little bit. You have to be on your best game.
What was your pitch to them?
I don’t think there was; there was no pitch. It was just the fact that I was walking into a situation where I was dealing with the best of the best. What happens to a lot of directors is you tend to, I don’t know why, you don’t do your best work as you get older. I would like to change that, and I have to look at someone like Clint Eastwood. Sometimes you can do your best as you get older. So for me, it was seeing these actors and realizing I can do some of my best work on this film and I can continue to do that over the next 20 years. So that’s what I hope.
What were the biggest changes from the novel that you had to tweak to make it work for feature film?
I think the biggest change was basically streamlining the murder mystery. The murder mystery in this first novel, particularly in the third act, tends to deviate. In other words, they take little trips to Greece and there are other characters thrown in that aren’t really part of the first two acts. So for us, it was a matter of streamlining that, being faithful to the actual plot, but at the same time changing small elements here and there. If we had the luxury of doing the [whole] novel, it would be six hours, which would’ve been fun, but in this particular case, involved a lot of editing and streamlining.
Why do you think audiences remain so drawn to murder mysteries?
The foursome discusses their latest murder case. Courtesy Netflix
It is interesting because I was not attracted to the material based on the fact that it was a murder mystery. I was attracted to the material because of the characters. It was different than every other murder mystery. It wasn’t cold and procedural. It had a real steep sense of emotion and it was fall down funny and in that best British way possible, and that’s what I was attracted to. It was different than the other ones. And on the surface you can say, “oh, Thursday Murder Club is like this or this,” it’s not. It exists in its own world, and I felt it was very special because of that.
Why is showing aging in all of its forms so important, especially on Netflix and for a global streaming audience?
I just feel it’s important that even though we’re telling a story that is, particularly with Coopers Chase, part fantasy, I think it’s important that you maintain a sense of realism. Certainly in the performances, all the performances across the board exist in a naturalistic way. We push the envelope a little in certain comedic scenes maybe, but for the most part, I wanted the audience to feel that they’re watching real people on screen.
I feel like I haven’t seen in quite some time a movie that fully centers for older actors as well. What do you feel about being one of the few films out now that are doing that?
Kingsley, 81, Mirren, 80, and Brosnan, 72, play retirees. Netflix
When I was getting involved in it, I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about these characters, how much I love their journey as people, and I really didn’t—in retrospect, now that I watched the film, particularly with everything else that’s out there, I say, well, we’re really different. We stand out. We’re better in a good way, because oddly, I still call back the movies of the 70s. I grew up on those films. I grew up on Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese… Even though I haven’t made films like that, I respected their treatment of actors and I found that those films in the seventies really have some of the greatest performances of all time. And I’ve taken that with me on this film, how to tap into that naturalism, how to tap into that real moment that you can only see on screen.
So you weren’t even thinking about it as a film in a retirement community?
Mirren as Elizabeth; before her casting was announced, many readers had already fan-casted her in the role. Netflix
I mean, honestly, I was only thinking about it in terms of how lucky I am to watch these four actors every day, and it goes beyond the original four actors. I got to work with some of the great actors like Jonathan Pryce and Daniel Mays and David Tenant, and the list goes on and it’s just amazing to be a fan. I’m really first and foremost still a film fan.
The Thursday Murder Club is now streaming on Netflix. Watch now
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