Tina FeyjoinsKenneth Branagh’s detective Hercule Poirot as another classic Agatha Christie character inA Haunting in Venice.
On Tuesday, 20th Century Studios shared a clip from the movie exclusively with PEOPLE, showcasing Fey, 53, as a fictional mystery novelist named Ariadne Oliver as Poirot begins to lay out his investigation for yet another case.
In the clip, Poirot notes that Ariadne was the first person to notice the dead body at the center ofA Haunting in Venice’s mystery. He then admits the mystery writer has a credible alibi and asks her to assist him in his latest investigation, a testament to a shared history between the two characters.
A Haunting in Venicemarks Branagh’s third movie adapted from Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels, following 2017’sMurder on the Orient Expressand 2022’sDeath on the Nile. The new film is adapted from one of the author’s lesser-known novels,Hallo’weenParty, published in 1969.
Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver, Michelle Yeoh as Mrs. Reynolds, and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE.Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
Set in the years after World War II, the new movie meets Branagh’s Poirot in Venice, Italy, where he lives in a self-imposed retirement and avoids taking on new investigative work — until Ariadne arrives on his doorstep, intent on getting him back in the game.
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Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Ariadne, whom the movie establishes as one of the world’s foremost mystery novelists and a key player in Poirot’s backstory as a detective, invites him to join her at a séance she is attending on Halloween night.
Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot and Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE.Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
A Haunting in Venicealso stars Michelle Yeoh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Ali Khan, Emma Laird and Riccardo Scamarcio.Jamie DornanandJude Hill, who starred in Branagh’s Oscar-winning 2021 movieBelfast, play another father-son duo in the movie as well.
Fey’s character Ariadne appears in a number of Christie’s novels, including six featuring the detective Poirot.
Christie’sofficial websitesays the character is “in many ways, a vehicle for Agatha Christie’s own voice, particularly in relation to writing and the public,” though Christie herself never admitted the character had more than “a strong dash” of herself.
A Haunting in Veniceis in theaters Friday.
source: people.com
