Thursday Murder Club Never Dies! Movie version casts Bond villain alongside his former 007 foe

Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies
Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies (Image credit: © 1997 EIGHTEEN LEASING CORPORATION & DANJAQ, LLC.)

Ex-James Bond villain Jonathan Pryce has been cast alongside his former 007 foe Pierce Brosnan in the upcoming Thursday Murder Club movie.

The pair fought to the death in the 1997 Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, which saw Brosnan's Bond thwart Pryce's megalomaniac media boss Elliot Carver.

Bond and Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies

Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies... he's somehow now playing Ron in the Thursday Murder Club! (Image credit: Eon Productions)

Now, it's been revealed that Pryce will again be working with Brosnan in the Netflix film version of Richard Osman's hit book. In one of the more surprising pieces of casting this year, it was previously revealed that the dashing Brosnan will play Ron Ritchie, a retired former union boss who's one of the aging amateur sleuths who get caught up in a murder investigation. It's not yet been revealed who Pryce will be playing but his name has been added to the cast along with Daniel Mays, David Tennant, Naomi Ackie and Henry LLoyd-Hughes. 

They join the previously announced Brosnan (Ron), Helen Mirren (ex-spook Elizabeth), Ben Kingsley (former psychiatrist Ibrahim) and Celia Imrie (ex-nurse Joyce).

Richard Osman attending the 2023 Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Writer Richard Osman (Image credit: David Levenson/Getty Images)

Filming begins later this month on the film. The plot sees us head to Cooper's Chase, a peaceful retirement community where four unlikely friends (Ron, Elizabeth, Joyce, and Ron) meet up once a week and discuss unsolved murders at the titular club. When a shady property developer is found dead on their doorstep, the four friends find themselves caught in the middle of their first live case, and set about trying to catch the killer. 

Bond fans will be thrilled to see Brosnan and Pryce together on screen again. It's not clear yet whether they will be on the same side or whether Pryce will once again be playing a villain. Tomorrow Never Dies, while not a match for Brosnan's best Bond film GoldenEye, is a lot of fun. It also starred Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher, Desmond Llewelyn and Judi Dench. 

The Thursday Murder Club movie will probably reach Netflix early next year, although there's no official release date as yet.

David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.

Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 

David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.

Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!