Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Murder at the Embassy

Murder at the Embassy Director on Miranda Green's Egypt Adventure

Director Stephen Shimek (Invitation to a Murder) spoke to us about his Lionsgate murder-mystery sequel "Murder at the Embassy", Barton & more

Director Stephen Shimek is looking to expand upon the murder-mystery in the 21st century under the Mischa Barton-starred Miranda Green franchise with Lionsgate's Murder at the Embassy as a sequel to 2023's Invitation to a Murder. In this largely standalone adventure set in 1934, the private investigator embarks on her journey to investigate a murder perpetrated in the British Embassy in Cairo, where a top-secret document was stolen, risking jeopardizing both Buckingham Palace and the peace of the world. The Dudes & Dragons director spoke to Bleeding Cool about his goals for Murder at the Embassy, Barton's commanding presence on screen, storytelling in a period piece, and the advantages of playing in the murder-mystery genre.

Murder at the Embassy Director on Expanding Miranda Green's Adventures to Cairo, Egypt

As your follow-up to Invitation to Murder, what did you want to accomplish with Murder at the Embassy?

With Murder at the Embassy, we have a unique opportunity in Miranda Greene, Mischa Barton's character, to give her more opportunities to learn about herself, about the way she investigates crime, and it was a fun opportunity to expand on where she came from. She was successful in solving this widely publicized murder and has gone on to become a private investigator herself, whereas before she wasn't. Now, she's in this world where she's a little bit inexperienced, but she's got a lot of book smarts. She's just a little short on some of the "street smarts" you might say, or maybe social graces.

She starts coming up against real questions of her own confidence in whether she can handle how big this case gets, and there are things that she bumps into that are big challenges for her as a character. We also wanted to open it up. The first movie was very much a closed-door, isolated kind of story, and this one is traveling abroad and has a little bit more of an adventure vibe. That was a lot of fun to explore, and that opportunity was great to take where we started, build upon that, and then give us room to continue building with these characters.

What was it like working with Mischa and the way she carries herself on screen as Miranda Green?

Miranda Green is a challenging character. Like I said, she's got an overabundance of book smarts, and it sometimes gets in the way of her social graces. First, she can remember anything, and that sometimes becomes a problem for her socially. Her ability to put all the pieces together puts her in this awkward space of…it's hard for people to successfully lie to her. Mischa writes this line perfectly, of being very likable, but also stepping on toes, accidentally causing offense, and trying to figure out exactly how to proceed with what she's up against, not to mention she's a great talent. She brings a likable energy to the screen, and I found it so much fun to be able to work with her on finding what the next chapter for Miranda is, how she has grown since the last film, and where she is at now, and where do we go from here sort of stuff, so it was a lot of fun.

What is it about the era of the 1930s setting playing in that sandbox of that world?

It was a lot of fun. The movie takes place in the 1930s, and that gives us the opportunity to explore adjacent historical events and create this fiction that weaves in and out of these actual things that are happening. It's a lot of fun to have that backdrop to work within. It's also visually so lovely, and it can be a challenge sometimes to pull off a convincing period look, particularly outside when our world is so very modern.

When you can get it right and you can see on screen that it's coming together, it's so satisfying to watch all that texture and life contribute to this mysterious atmosphere. We live in a world today of cell phones, the Internet, and all that security camera footage. It's so much more compelling, and more fun to watch these mysteries being solved in a time when you had to rely on wit, deduction, investigating, finding these concrete physical clues, and things like that. There are a lot of contributing factors that make it enjoyable and compelling for me, but those are a few, I suppose.

What does filming a murder mystery do for you in storytelling that you don't really get to do as much narrative-wise as a director?

That's a great question. There's something true of all stories, where you're trying to set something up, create some sense of anticipation with what you've set up, and then a payoff comes later, but with murder mysteries it's like everywhere you turn, you're setting something up and trying to dial in some sense of tension or eventual payoff to where you're constantly leaning in, trying to decipher what does this mean, and what does that mean? It's fun because it's something that every story has, but it's so much the focus of a murder mystery that you get to dig in and exploit that sort of element of storytelling. I personally really enjoy that anticipatory energy is very exciting and fun to play with.

Murder in the Embassy, which also stars Mido Hamada, Raha Rahbari, Kojo Attah, Antonia Bernath, Nell Barlow, and Richard Dillane, comes to theaters on November 14th.

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