Back when it was first published in 1937, Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, which follows mustachioed detective Hercule Poirot on a mystery-filled steamboat cruise down the famed Egyptian river, inspired travelers near and far to experience the Nile for themselves. (Hopefully, with less murder.) We don't doubt that Kenneth Branagh's silver screen interpretation of the classic novel will do the same—thanks, in part, to the to-scale river cruise ship production designer Jim Clay and his team built on set.
Yes, the film's fictional Karnak steamboat was built full size in a U.K. studio parking lot, with everything from the spacious, two-story lounge at the bow to the cabins in the rear decked out in opulent Art Deco design. We sat down with Clay to get the inside scoop on what inspired them to build out the ship, his favorite place on the Karnak to sneak off to during filming, and the places in Egypt that inspired the Death on the Nile's sets. Read on to get insight into how Clay's team built a river cruise ship from scratch in just seven months, and take a peak at exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the Karnak in action.
See the Karnak and star-studded cast of Death on the Nile in theaters starting February 11.
Why did you choose to build a full set rather than, say, film on an existing ship or create rooms on a soundstage?
Mostly because of Sir Kenneth [Brannagh’s] shooting style. He likes to shoot on composite sets, composite worlds, so that he's not confined to a cabin set for this scene and a lounge set for that scene. We originally looked at the potential of some real boats to shoot on, but frankly, we realized very quickly that there was nothing of the scale, the period, or the style that we wanted. So we decided to build. Originally we were going to build [the Karnak] in the U.K., and then dismantle it and take it to Ouarzazate, Morocco, and float it on a real lake there. It was quite a daunting thing. But ultimately, we looked at what advancements had been made in digital water and we got this call from Ken saying, we're not going to float it on the lake but we're going to build it on a railway track in the carpark of our studio in Surrey. It was quite a welcome phone call.
[The Karnak] was on that track so that we could move it in and out of the stage, according to the weather and what scenes we were doing. We also built a partial tank along one side, so while it wasn't actually floating in the water, it was on the railway tracks that butted right up to it. When the cast had their first experience of boarding the boat, they approached it from the water side, so it was as if they were boarding from the Nile.
When you were looking at period-correct ships for inspiration, what were the key elements of river cruises that you wanted to make sure were represented in the ship you were building in 2019?
The biggest thing was getting the scale right. The Cunard Line at that time had several boats floating on the Nile and we looked very carefully at their drawings. We got a scale that suited us from the larger end of that fleet of boats and we built it with three decks so that Ken could do his tracking shots from one level to another and out of a cabin down the deck, into a bar, back up on the deck again. He takes whatever you give him in terms of a set—my gosh, he really takes advantage of it and uses every inch.
When you look back at that set, what parts of the ship make you particularly proud?
Although it was a boat with cabins and corridors, we tried to make it partially open plan as well. So that a double height sun lounge at the front of the boat, which then looked down onto a mezzanine level, and then looked down to a dining area with a stage and area for the band, which connected to the front of the boat, that was a lovely, opulent, and glamorous space to sit. Often when the crew was shooting on the stages somewhere I would go and sit in that lounge—especially if it was sunny. It was a very peaceful and calming area to be in.
It usually takes well over a year to build a functioning cruise ship these days. What was the build-out process like for the Karnak?
We had about seven months to design and build the boat. I had an amazing team and an amazing art department team led by Dominic Masters, supervising art director, and we worked with the construction team, led by John Bohan, an immensely skillful guy. I was obviously most concerned with the quality of the finishes and the marble and the Art Deco furniture. John was concerned about the weight of the boat, because he bought these wheels for the railway track that had a limit of something around about 240 tonnes. So as we got close to completing the structure, and more and more equipment was coming on board, John was weighing everything as it went on board so we didn't supersede the weight limit.
While most of the movie’s action happens on board, there are scenes in London, in Aswan, Egypt, and beyond. What was the research like for the sets in those scenes?
There's a lot of research available there, archives and photographic archives, which was immensely helpful. But we went out there—Ken, Haris [Zambarloukos, the director of photography], and Matthew Jenkins, the producer—for a few days, to Cairo and to Abu Simbel. We spent a lot of time at Abu Simbel and I spent a lot of time measuring. We did briefly consider shooting at Abu Simbel, but obviously there are many logistical nightmares, not least the heat. It was immensely hot. So again, we decided to build that back on the studio lot in Surrey. We built it full scale but not out of stone, out of polystyrene and plaster with tons of sand. Plus, we took a trip along the Nile just to get the feel of it.
What was the experience of floating along and seeing all that incredible Egyptian history along the Nile?
It's another world, isn't it? It's sort of, in a way, equivalent to Venice. Venice has an unreality to it. You approach Venice and you think, there it is, floating jewel-like just off the coast of reality. And I think there's something similar about the Nile. Those temples and the history, it's awe-inspiring. And we felt that, even though we were just in a little dhow going up and down the Nile. And there's a sort of silence as well. Somehow you can sense the past through the silence. It's unlike the world we occupy normally in our day-to-day lives in these big cities. It was thrilling.
For those who haven’t been able to experience it for themselves, what do you hope they take away from the sets you’ve created in the movie?
Go to the movie and experience that journey because I think the way Ken and Haris have shot the movie, you feel you're there, you feel you're on board that ship. And then take the journey of your lifetime and go. Start in Cairo and make your way down the Nile. It's well worth it. It's something that should be done in all people's lives, if at all possible.