'Home Alone' and 'Harry Potter' director returns with Netflix's 'The Thursday Murder Club'

Among the projects made as part of a tie-up between Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and streaming giant Netflix is The Thursday Murder Club, directed by Chris Columbus, master of family-friendly blockbusters such as Home Alone (and its sequel), Mrs Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potter films ("Sorcerer's Stone", "Chamber of Secrets").

An adaptation of Richard Osman's bestselling novel of the same name, the straight-to-Netflix release featuring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie will premiere on August 28th 2025. Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote co-wrote the script based on the first in Osman's book series led by the same main characters — a group of friends in a retirement home whose favourite pastime involves solving cold case murders. But when a murder happens nearby, the four spring into action.

The backgrounds of these characters explain their proclivity for embarking on an adventure of this sort. Brosnan, Mirren, Kingsley, and Imrie play an ex-union member, an ex-spy, an ex-psychiatrist, and an ex-nurse, respectively. Notably, the film marks the reunion of Brosnan and Mirren after MobLand, the ongoing gangster drama series on Paramount+.

“This is the finest cast I've worked with since Potter. They’re just so incredibly well-prepared, and it’s because they do everything. They do theater, they do television, they do film, and they’ve developed those sorts of muscles," Columbus told Netflix.

Osman, who has written four more books in the series, with the fourth set for release this year, shared with Netflix that the inspiration for the story came from his mother's retirement community. “You just sit and chat with these people and they’ve lived these extraordinary lives. You hear these amazing stories and gossip and wisdom,” the author tells Tudum. “You think, ‘These people are so overlooked.’ The idea that these people with their wisdom and invisibility would be the perfect people to solve [a crime] is exactly where The Thursday Murder Club comes from. Take these people who are underestimated but who have these incredible skills, put them together, and they can achieve anything.”

Aside from Amblin, Columbus' Maiden Voyage Pictures and Jennifer Todd Pictures are producing partners on The Thursday Murder Club.

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