Picture courtesy of Netflix UK
We’re just a week or so away from The Thursday Murder Club adaptation hitting Netflix, and to celebrate, Richard Osman, Chris Columbus, Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie took part in a special evening hosted by the British Library to preview the upcoming movie.
Richard Osman kicked off proceedings, talking about how the book, which has now sold over 15 million copies globally, came to be, explaining that he’d never intended for it to be a published book, let alone a movie, and said that it’s based on his mother’s retirement home in Sussex. “It’s very beautiful, very bucolic. There are birds in the trees and blue skies. And I just thought this would be an amazing place for a murder,” Osman said, adding, “I would go down there and I’d talk to the people who my mum lived with and you’d hear these amazing stories, these incredible people. And suddenly I thought, if there was a murder here, I bet you lot [the residents] would be able to solve it. And that’s where Thursday Murder Club came from.”
Speaking about how he became attached to the movie, Columbus explained that in 2020, he was working on Nosferatu in Prague when his producers called him and asked him if he’d be interested in directing an adaptation. He explained that he instantly became a “rabid fanboy,” explaining that the characters were one of the main key drivers behind his new fandom. “What spoke to me about it is, it was not your traditional murder mystery. In other words, it wasn’t cold and procedural. It wasn’t over the top like Panto. Two things intrigued me. The characters and their sense of humor were extraordinary. And it had a really strong emotional core, which you don’t see in murder mysteries at all. And it was actually saying something about the elderly, who are not so elderly. They actually are relevant and they are making, they’re making a statement about their lives. They’re living their lives with hope and a look toward the future, however long that future may be. So I really became obsessed thematically with that. And that’s what grabbed me from the beginning.”
Of course, Amblin is producing the film which means the involvement of Steven Spielberg. Osman recalls the moment he heard that Amblin had chosen Columbus to direct, saying, “I got a message from Jeb Brodie at Amblin saying I was thinking of talking to Chris Columbus about doing The Thursday Murder Club. I’m like, oh my God, that would be amazing.” Later, during filming, Spielberg made a surprise visit to the set on the day they were shooting the big protest scene. Chris Columbus remembered, “He came in in a helicopter, and he came to the set, and he started to get so excited about these performances that he started to film us. He took out his phone and was filming the performances, filming the video screen, and I was completely calm after that. I thought, thank God, I’ve got his approval.”
Picture: Netflix
Differences Between The Book and The Movie
Osman was clear about seeing the novel and the film as two distinct works, saying, “The book is the book. And if I’d written it, it would have been eight hours long, this film. It would have been absolutely unwatchable.”
He described the adaptation as a joy rather than a compromise, explaining, “It’s an entirely different thing. I’ve done my version of the story. It’s there, and it’s there forever… My job is to write the next book and the next book.”
Chris Columbus echoed this by stressing how much of the humor carried over naturally, not through forced gags: “All of the humor in the book and in the film comes from the characters. So it all felt very authentic. It never felt like any of us were striving for a specific laugh at any specific time.” Even scenes that were cut for length were treated with care, as Columbus noted: “Unfortunately, some of the best scenes have been cut from the film… but we’ve created a Thursday Murder Club short [titled The Priest Who Wasn’t a Priest – not yet available]… so you can actually dive deeper into the film.”
Columbus was keen to keep the British flavor intact, even when some Netflix executives worried it might be “too British.” He explained, “There were a few Netflix executives who said, this is too British, we don’t know what they’re talking about. And I said that the audience is going to love it.” He gave examples of slang that made it into the final cut, like when Pierce Brosnan ad-libbed ‘plonker.’ Columbus recalled asking, “What is a plonker?” and then insisting, “That has to stay in the film.” Helen Mirren also improvised a line where Elizabeth calls most of the police “wankers,” which shocked some crew members. Columbus laughed that this reaction only convinced him further: “I thought, that means it’s staying in the film. So I embraced that. I really did.”
Picture: Netflix
The Cast on Their Roles In The Film
Four cast members were on hand throughout the special event. The movie served as a reunion of sorts for many of the cast members with Helen Mirren and Celia Imrie reuniting after Calendar Girls, while Mirren and Ben Kingsley were moved to work together again after decades since Troilus and Cressida and Pascali’s Island. The cast described their chemistry as “a bit of magic,” apparent from the very first day of filming.
Pierce Brosnan talked about stepping into the role of Ron for the film, admitting that he was somewhat nervous about taking it on when Chris Columbus first offered him the part. “I read the part of Ron and I thought, how the heck am I going to play this? … But I wanted the job. I wanted to be in the company of everyone.” He joked that his first preparation was, “He said, grow a beard. And I grew a beard.” Brosnan said that Ron really came alive for him through working alongside Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, and Ben Kingsley, “These wonderful colleagues of mine made me real, made me Ron.”
Helen Mirren said she loved the ambiguity of Elizabeth in the book: “I love the fact that in the book you never actually knew what she had been… you knew it was something slightly nefarious but at the same time sort of righteous.” She also highlighted the film’s emotional core through Elizabeth’s relationship with her husband Stephen, praising Jonathan Pryce as “an incredible partner… one of the greats of our British acting community.”
Celia Imrie spoke about how Joyce’s diary entries in the novel became her “Bible,” giving her small but telling details like wanting to impress people by setting out chairs or using her serviette. She said, “I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a film so much in my life, actually. Seriously.” She also reflected on Joyce’s arc: “We’re not the person that we begin. We change throughout the film, which is always interesting.”
Ben Kingsley described Ibrahim as a quiet observer, shaped by his background as a psychiatrist: “His career has encouraged him to be a watcher and a listener and not really to give an opinion until he’s forensically gathered all the evidence.” He likened Ibrahim’s generosity to Spencer Tracy’s maxim, “make the other guy look good.” Kingsley said he eventually embraced rewriting and improvisation on set, explaining, “One has to be fluid… and especially with this brilliant quartet that I was privileged to be a part of.”
Picture: Netflix
What to Expect From the Score and Soundtrack
Also touched on during the panel was the score and soundtrack. Columbus spoke about working with composer Thomas Newman, saying he had always wanted to collaborate with him after admiring his scores: “Thomas Newman and I had worked together on The Help… and I just always wanted to work with him as a director, and he was available.”
He explained that the challenge was knowing when not to use music, noting, “One of the things that’s changed since the 90s… is we’ve learned that silence is such an important part of composing. And this was difficult because… particularly when the four of them got together, it was impossible to score. They created their own musical score.”
Alongside the score, Columbus included carefully chosen songs, saying, “I love using rock and roll where it’s not expected. And no one wants to hear ‘Gimme Shelter’ again on camera.” Instead, the soundtrack features T. Rex, discovered after Columbus spent an evening at a pub linked to Marc Bolan, and Cat Stevens, both of whom he felt fit the film perfectly.
The whole event can be found as a recap here through the BLPlayer for a limited time.
The Thursday Murder Club arrives on Netflix globally on August 28th, 2025.
Rating: PG-13
