Felicity Jones to play Agatha Christie in Eleven Missing Days

Felicity Jones will portray Agatha Christie in Eleven Missing Days.

The 42-year-old star has been cast as the legendary author in the mystery-thriller that is based on the true story of the Murder on the Orient Express scribe's mysterious disappearance in 1926.

A synopsis for the movie reads: "In December 1926, at the height of her fame, Agatha Christie became front-page news when she vanished in bizarre circumstances from her home. In a case of life imitating art, this whodunnit explores the investigation behind her disappearance, strangely resembling an Agatha Christie novel itself where everyone in her life became a suspect."

Black Swan star Vincent Cassel will star in the film as a retired Belgian police detective who gets drawn into the case, in echoes of Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot.

Eleven Missing Days is being directed by Bertie Ellwood from a screenplay by Ernesto Foronda and is based on Christie scholar Jared Cade's book Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days.

Christie's mysterious disappearance made headlines around the world. It grabbed the public's attention with leading politicians and fellow authors including Arthur Conan Doyle being drawn into the search.

Speculation raged regarding what happened to the Miss Marple creator and there remains a sense of mystery to this day - with some putting it down to memory loss as a result of a car crash and others suggesting the potential of a "fugue" state brought on by trauma or depression.

The film has been in the works for a decade and is set to begin shooting in the UK this summer.

Felicity has earned two Oscar nominations during her career but confessed that she is unlikely to sing on screen after she made a "disastrous" appearance in a musical during her teenage years.

The Brutalist star told the Table Manners podcast: "I haven't done [karaoke] recently. I feel like there was a time in my life when I was always going to karaoke. I guess that's your twenties, isn't it? I'm not a big singer.

"I did a disastrous musical when I was doing my A-Levels. It was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and I should not have been cast! I cannot keep time."

Felicity recalled that she would be giving the songs her "best shot" in the production but "gets shakes" when she thinks about how the audience reacted to her performance.

She said: "I'd be doing these songs and give it my best shot and I would be looking out at the audience and just looking at their faces. So I will leave singing to those who are better.

"I cannot sing a song and keep time. I just kept looking over at the pianist and he was looking at me like, 'What is she doing?' It was so awful! I literally get shakes just thinking about it."