Dame Agatha Christie is the bestselling author in history, with a wealth of detective novels that have inspired generations. And even though some of her novels were among the earliest of those adapted for film, we don't see too many feature film versions nowadays. But we'll have to wait a little longer, since fictionalized biographies are so much cooler than adaptations of established, well-written, non-young adult novels.
Paramount Pictures has acquired Agatha, Deadline reports, a spec screenplay written by Alison Schroeder, whose previous work includes the direct-to-DVD Mean Girls 2 and an episode of the recent version of Beverly Hills 90210. Will Gluck, helmer of such films as Easy A and Friends With Benefits, is attached to direct the project. Considering he’s also in the middle of rewriting Sony’s Annie reboot for Quvenzhané Wallis, it isn’t clear when Agatha will start up.
The story specifics are being kept secret for now, but it will apparently put an action-adventure spin on Christie’s vaguely mysterious 11 day disappearance in 1926, and is described as a “female Sherlock Holmes meets Romancing the Stone." So it seems like they’ll be placing the characteristics of Christie’s most famous creation, detective Hercule Poirot, onto Christie herself, which sounds interesting enough.
But considering her disappearance has been concluded to be a ruse to embarrass her husband who’d just announced he was leaving her for another woman, it’s not clear what kind of adventures she could possibly be going on. Beyond his film work, Gluck was the creator for the amusing FOX comedy The Loop, and was a producer on the stellar Andy Richter Controls the Universe as well as other less remarkable sitcoms - so it’s obvious there will be a strong comedy influence. Let’s just hope they don’t tarnish Christie’s name enough to push the younger generations away from her massive bibliography.
