Netflix movie, ‘Thursday Murder Club’, shuts down tiny English village for filming
A tiny village in England has been taken over by the film adaption of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. Usually a quiet village in Buckinghamshire, Little Missenden is suddenly a celebrity hot spot.
At first, shooting for the upcoming movie adaptation of Osman’s mystery drama took place in Beaconsfield, a small market town northwest of central London. But now, the cast and crew have moved to Little Missenden, a leafy village with a population of only 2,234, according to the 2011 census.
As a small parish, life in Little Missenden has been impacted greatly by the arrival of the film making team. Road closures are in place from 8am to 8pm, and the village watering hole The Red Lion is shut Thursday through to Friday evening while filming takes place. Scenes are said to be taking place outside of the pub, as well as providing a backdrop for driving scenes, according to Bucks Free Press.
It seems that the cast and crew are doing a tour of the UK’s small towns. Only a few weeks ago, stars Pierce Brosnan and Dame Helen Mirren were spotted staying at a hotel in Reading while the movie filmed in the small town of Theale.
With a book this popular, the upmost care has to be taken for an adaptation worthy of its source. Osman’s novel, about a group of pensioners solving a murder mystery, was first published in 2020 and three sequels followed in the next three years, titled The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die. The first novel in the series received rave reviews and became a bestseller instantly.
To bring the story to life, an all-star cast has been brought in to depict the old age crime fighters. Brosnan and Mirren are joined by David Tennant, Celia Imrie, Richard E. Grant, Ben Kingsley, Tom Ellis and more. They’re also brought in Harry Potter and Home Alone director Chris Columbus to adapt the novel and direct the movie.
As the novel is set in a luxurious retirement village in a fictional village in Kent, care has been taken to find the perfect settings and backdrops for the movie. Filming began on 27th June 2024 at Shepperton Studios in Surrey. The cast has since moved out onto locations, with Little Missenden being the latest stop on their tour to help bring the world of the story to life. Filming is expected to continue until September in various locations, but no release date for the film has been set yet.