Murder on the Orient Express (2001 film) Murder on the Orient Express (2001 film) Murder on the Orient Express is a 2001 made-for-television mystery film directed by Carl Schenkel based on the 1934 novel "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie, featuring Hercule Poirot. This version is set in the present day and has a smaller cast than the novel. The screenplay was written by Stephen Harrigan and the original music score was composed by Christopher Franke. Hercule Poirot is travelling on the "Orient Express". While on the journey, Poirot meets a very close friend Bouc, who works for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. The train
Murder on the Orient Express Murder". In December 2014, the novel was included in "Entertainment Weekly"'s list of the Nine Great Christie Novels. The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's son in 1932 inspired that element in Christie’s novel two years later. An innocent, but perhaps loose-lipped, maid employed by Lindbergh's parents was suspected of involvement in the crime. After being harshly interrogated by police, she committed suicide. Two less notable events helped inspire her novel: Agatha Christie’s first journey on the Orient Express in late 1928, and a blizzard near Cherkeskoy, Turkey, that marooned an Orient Express for six days just a few months