Dame Helen Mirren set to lead cast of The Thursday Murder Club

Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley could be set to star in 'The Thursday Murder Club' movie.

The trio are wanted to fill three of the four lead roles in the movie adaptation of Richard Osman's 2020 book, which is beginning to take shape with Chris Columbus set to direct the flick.

The 'Pointless' presenter's debut novel tells the story of four pensioners who live in a retirement community and solve cold cases. When a shady property developer is found dead in suspicious circumstances, the quartet find themselves caught up in their first live crime.

Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners acquired worldwide rights for the film adaptation after a highly competitive auction that featured interest from 14 studios.

Osman had teased "insanely great" casting news on social media earlier this week.

The 53-year-old presenter wrote on the social media platform X: "Just been on a call with Amblin, and the cast for #TheThursdayMurderClub movie is insanely great, I think people are going to love it. Official announcements very soon, and can't wait to share it with everyone."

'The Thursday Murder Club' started a hugely successful series of books from Osman that have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide – including 'The Man Who Died Twice', 'The Bullet That Missed', 'The Last Devil to Die' and a planned fifth book to be released in 2025.

The 'House of Games' host previously revealed that he had had a desire to write a crime novel for many years.

Osman said: "I've always known how hard it is to write a crime novel and I have such respect for people who do it. I never felt I was in a position where I could do it properly and give it the time it deserved until about 18 months ago.

"I decided I would start it and once I got going I found that I couldn't stop. But I decided I wasn't going to tell anybody because I didn't want to be that person who goes around saying, 'Oh yeah, I'm writing a book', but it never happens. When I got to the end I thought, well, there at least I've found out that I can do it. But I had no idea what people would make of it."