Richard Osman has explained that The Thursday Murder Club movie adaptation will differ from his book.
Speaking with Marina Hyde on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Osman weighed in on how much creative control authors retain when their projects are adapted for the screen.
"It's a trade-off, really," he said on February 6.
"I know with The Thursday Murder Club, we sold that before the first book had even come out so it didn't have a reputation, particularly.
"There were different parties who were interested, there were certain people who part of their deal would be, 'You will have complete creative control over the whole process, you can write it' which I didn't want to do."
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The rights to the book were ultimately acquired by Amblin, Steven Spielberg's production company.
"With Amblin and Spielberg, when they came in, they said, 'It's definitely going to be in England, we'll give you that assurance, but someone else is going to write it'," Osman said.
The film, to be distributed by Netflix, is directed by Home Alone's Chris Columbus, who co-wrote the script with Katy Brand (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande).
Osman confirmed the movie adapts the first book in his novel series, though it won't be "entirely the same".
"The plot, as I understand it, for The Thursday Murder Club movie is based on the first book but it's not entirely the same, because you have to change things is the truth," he said.
"To have me looking over their shoulder every five seconds telling them that they couldn't do this or they couldn't do that I think would be hard."
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The book series follows four pensioners at a retirement home in Kent who enjoy solving murder cases for fun, but soon find themselves embroiled in a real homicide investigation.
The film sees the protagonist quartet played by Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley, with supporting characters portrayed by David Tennant, Naomi Ackie, Jonathan Pryce, Daniel Mays and Henry Lloyd-Hughes.
The Thursday Murder Club is expected to premiere on Netflix in 2025.
Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
