Daisy Ridley, best known for her breakout role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” will star and executive produce the upcoming Miramax TV limited series “The Christie Affair.” The project is based on the best-selling novel by Nina de Gramont, which reimagines the real-life 11-day disappearance of beloved mystery novelist Agatha Christie.
Miramax will develop and produce the TV murder mystery, with British writer Juliet Tawhidi (“The Essex Serpent”) adapting the script. The logline is as follows: In 1926, after her husband’s affair became public, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. In this reimagining, told through the eyes of Nan O’Dea (Ridley), her husband’s mistress, Nan and Agatha become involved in each other’s lives in a way neither could have expected.
Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Wayne, Rich Green, Jeremy Bell and DJ Goldberg are executive producers. Marina Niall is supervising the project for Miramax UK.
“We could not be more grateful to have Daisy joining us on this incredible project – both as the star as well as our producing partner,” Mark Hellwig, Head of Worldwide Television at Miramax TV, said in a statement. “Daisy is one of the most captivating and talented actors working today, and we are excited for her to bring Nina de Gramont’s charming ‘Nan O’Day’ to life.
The “Christie Affair” was published by St. Martin’s Press in February of this year, corroborating newspaper reports from the late 20s tracking Christie’s mysterious and sudden disappearance. Many unanswered questions remain about the author’s disappearance, including the abandonment of his car by the side of the road and the many letters he wrote to confidants and loved ones. After she reappeared, Christie declined to comment on the case, which had sparked a nationwide hunt for her. The novel became a UK No. 1 bestseller, and was included in the New York Times bestseller list, as well as in Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club.
The 2018 British TV film, Channel 5’s “Agatha and the Truth of Murder”, was the first to touch on the subject of the author’s disappearance. In the alternate history drama, Christie becomes involved in solving a real-life murder case over a period of 11 days.
Ridley can next be seen producing the indie drama Sometimes I Think About Dying and the 2019 short film Sometimes I Think About Dying, based on the play Killer by Kevin Armento. Is. She is also starring in Neil Burger’s “The Marsh King’s Daughter”, an adaptation of the psychological-thriller novel of the same name; and will star in Joachim Rönning’s “Young Woman and the Sea”. The film, based on the novel by Glenn Stout about Gertrude “Trudy” Adderley, the first woman to swim the English Channel, will be released on Disney+ in 2023. In addition to starring as Rey in the “Star Wars” franchise, she was also in “Murder on the Orient Express,” the 2017 film adaptation of one of Christie’s beloved murder-mystery novels.
Ridley is backed by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern.
Tawhidi previously wrote the award-winning screenplay for “Calendar Girls,” the BBC/PBS masterpiece production “Death Comes to Pemberley,” the 2014 biographical drama “Testament of Youth” (starring Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, and Taron Egerton). -com “Love, Rosie” and, most recently, Apple TV+’s “The Essex Serpent” with Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes.
