First look at “Murder on the Orient Express” star-studded cast

PanARMENIAN.Net - First photos of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" have been unveiled, AceShowbiz said. Making their way out via Entertainment Weekly, the photos offer the first look at all-star ensemble cast in 1930s-era attire. Among the cast members are Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Sergei Polunin, Leslie Odom Jr., Judi Dench and Josh Gad.

Based on acclaimed Agatha Christie's detective novel of the same name, "Murder on the Orient Express" follows iconic Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) who investigates a fatal stabbing in Orient Express as the train gets stuck in a snowdrift. The detective interrogates a dozen or so suspects and later gathers all of them to solve the case.

Depp will play Edward Ratchett, a rich businessman with dark secrets. Pfeiffer portrays Caroline Hubbard, whom the actress describes as the "Ugly American" who likes to involve herself into somebody else's business. Dafoe plays an Austrian professor Gerhard Hardman, whereas Cruz will appear as a missionary named Pilar Estravados.

The film will also feature Ridley as "independent-minded" Mary Debenham, Odom Jr. as Doctor Arbuthnot, Polunin as dancer Count Andrenyi, Dench as Russian Princess Dragomiroff and Gad as Hector McQueen, a "numbers guy" who works for Depp's Edward Ratchett.

Branagh, who also serves as the film's director, says that it's not easy to make a schedule which can accommodate the likes of Depp, Pfeiffer, Cruz and Co. "It was a ton of planning, I'll tell you," says the director. "A delicate web of availability."

"Murder on the Orient Express" will hit U.S. theaters on November 10.