Killing Eve star turns to Poirot

KEnnETh Branagh has hailed Jodie Comer, star of gripping BBC drama Killing Eve, as one of the most ‘amazing’ new actors to hit the screen in years.

The actor, producer and director told me that he has cast the liverpudlian (confirming news broken by this column last year) in Death On The nile, an agatha Christie mystery thriller that follows on from murder On The Orient Express, which he made two years ago.

‘She’s got it, hasn’t she?’ Branagh said of Comer.

he described the young actress, right, as ‘incredibly impressive’ and praised her lack of pretension. ‘But the camera goes on and, whoosh, she’s just amazing,’ he told me during a reception for his current film, the acclaimed all is True, in which he and Judi Dench play husband and wife William Shakespeare and anne hathaway. That film opens here on February 8.

Branagh told me Comer will play Jacqueline de Bellefort, ‘the spurned lover’ in the Christie whodunnit which was last filmed 40 years ago, with mia Farrow as de Bellefort and Peter Ustinov as Poirot.

he is clearly relishing the notion of Comer in his cast. ‘You don’t want to be spurned by Jodie’s Jacqueline because, well, you can imagine she’d bring you down,’ he said. ‘You really don’t want to spurn that girl.’

Branagh will direct the new version in the early autumn — and reprise his performance as the luxuriously mustachioed Poirot. Gal Gadot and armie hammer are also in the film.

The director told me he intends to spend the first part of this year doing post-production on the already filmed artemis Fowl, which stars Judi Dench, Josh Gad and Ferdia Shaw (grandson of Jaws film legend Robert Shaw). meanwhile, Killing Eve is up for two Golden Globes at this Sunday’s ceremony at the Beverly hilton in la. Comer will attend, and Sandra Oh, her best actress-nominated co-star, will co-host the awards. The actresses have been filming the second season of Eve in london.