More than 20 years after he directed the first two Harry Potter films — arguably helping sowing the seeds for today’s British film industry in the process — Chris Columbus has returned to the U.K. and for another hopeful franchise-starter.

Much like Potter, “ The Thursday Murder Club ” — now on Netflix — is adapted from a much loved and widely successful book, this time by Richard Osman, but the similarities don’t stop there. The quintessentially British film also charts the adventures of a group of friends from different walks of life residing in a grand castle-like building and solving riddles together. There is, of course, a little age gap. Rather than young school children, our heroes are octogenarians living in a rather upmarket retirement home (the fictitious Coopers Chase). A

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