David Suchet to star in ITV adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express

Production has begun on the U.K.'s ITV adaptation of Agatha's Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. The film, directed by Philip Martin, will once again feature actor David Suchet as Christie's famed detective, Hercule Poirot.  ITV, the United Kingdom's largest commercial television broadcaster, provided this update in its November 17, 2009 press release. 

 David Suchet will star as Hercule Poirot in an upcoming
 ITV broadcast of Murder on the Orient Express.(Creative
Commons Attribution Share Alike photo by Phil Chambers.)

Suchet is known to audiences in the United States for his long-running portrayal of Poirot in the PBS series, Mystery!  In a May 2009 interview with Richard Maurer, available on the PBS website, Suchet comments on his plans to continue on as Poirot:

Maurer:  Christie wrote scores of Poirot novels and short stories. How many have you filmed so far? And is it your ambition to do them all?

Suchet:  Well, I've done 61, and I think there are ten more to go. Now that I'm of a certain age, my dream is to leave not only this country and America, but actually the rest of the world with the complete works of that little man, so that anybody may be prompted to go and read the books.

The ITV's announcement of progress on its adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express makes it all the more likely that Suchet will achieve his goal. The actor's U.S. followers will note that the Boston PBS affiliate, WGBH, is included among the co-producers of Murder on the Orient Express, suggesting that this film may also be added to the PBS schedule.

Murder on the Orient Express finds Hercule Poirot encountering yet another murder on the legendary train. The victim is a passenger, American businessman Samuel Ratchett. Poirot's suspects include all his fellow travelers on the Orient Express.

Those travelers are portrayed by an international cast which includes, in the role of Princess Dragomiroff, Dame Eileen Atkins; as her maid Hildegard Schmidt, Susanne Lothar; as the English governess Mary Debenham, Jessica Chastain; as Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson, Marie-Josée Croze; as Samuel Ratchett,Toby Jones; as the talkative Italian Antonio Foscarelli, Joseph Mawle; as English Colonel John Arbuthnot, David Morrissey; as the American matron Mrs. Hubbard, Barbara Hershey; as Hungarian diplomat Count Andrenyi, Stanley Weber; as Countess Andrenyi, Elena Satine; as Poirot's assistant Dr Constantine, Samuel West; as Samuel Ratchett's manservant Edward Masterman, Hugh Bonneville; as Ratchett's personal assistant Hector MacQueen, Brian J Smith; and as Orient Express conductor Pierre Michel, Denis Ménochet.

The ITV release quotes David Suchet as saying, “It's an honour to have such a wonderful international cast on board for this world famous murder mystery. Writer Stewart Harcourt has created an exquisite script. His attention to detail is impeccable.”