MUMBAI: Gemma Arterton, the former Bond girl, will join Julie Andrews, Matthew Goode and Gabriel Byrne in a big-screen adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s Crooked House. The actress will star in Neil LaBute‘s adaptation of the murder mystery, rewritten for the screen by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey and Tim Rose Price.

The film will feature a crime scene set against the backdrop of three generations of a family who live together in a large, seemingly crooked house. All members of the family, who individually have their own eccentricities become suspects when their multimillionaire relative is killed and a detective must determine whether Arterton‘s character is a murderess or the next victim. 

LaBute, who directed The Wicker Man said, "The story has a couple of fresh sides to it that I didn‘t remember from Christie‘s work. There‘s a love story, which didn‘t feature strongly in many of her books, so that seemed very different to me and fresh. Plus it‘s quite morally ambiguous, which also appealed to me."

The film budgeted to cost around 20 million pounds, is to begin filming in the UK this summer.