CRUISE CONTROL

KENNETH BRANAGH MARSHALED A STELLAR ENSEMBLE CAST FOR MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS – NOW HE RETURNS TO HELM A BOATLOAD OF STARS IN DEATH ON THE NILE. HE AND HIS CO-CONSPIRATORS TELL TOTAL FILM HOW THE ACTOR/DIRECTOR IS BRINGING SEXY (AND THAT ’TACHE) BACK WHILE KEEPING TABS ON CAST HIJINKS…

- JANE CROWTHER

An actor’s life is often one of travel to exotic locales and destinations. And what could be more exotic than the heady spice bazaars, astonishing antiquities and swoony sunsets over an ancient delta in Egypt for Agatha Christie’s whodunnit, which traps opulent offings on a glamorous steamer slicing through the Nile?

“I’m still quite sore about being sold a false bill of goods that we were going to shoot this actually in Egypt,” fauxgrouches Armie Hammer when TF catches up with the cast over Zoom calls in late August. “Then it moved to Morocco, and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s still cool’. And then it moved to Longcross [studios in Surrey], and I was like… ‘Wait a second – it’s Death On The Nile! We need sunshine!’” Well, yes. But just as director Kenneth Branagh had done on 2017’s Murder On The Orient Express, rays – and the great temples, the souks and floating palace, the SS Karnak – could all be fabricated in the British drizzle. Hell, even the Nile could be created.