🎨🔪This Is Not a Murder Mystery (2025): A Surreal Thriller of Art, Suspicion, and Secrets – Cast, Plot & Release Date

The year is 1936. Surrealist art is on the rise, the world is on the brink of upheaval, and some of the greatest creative minds gather in an opulent English estate for what should have been a celebration of art. Instead, it becomes a descent into madness, murder, and mystery.

This Is Not a Murder Mystery, a six-part international drama, brings a unique twist to the classic whodunit. With surrealist legends like René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, Man Ray, and Max Ernst thrown into a deadly game inside a lavish mansion, the series blurs the line between reality and illusion.

🖼️ Premise: Murder in the House of Surrealists

Young René Magritte arrives at the estate of flamboyant Lord James to participate in an exclusive art exhibition. It should be the highlight of his burgeoning career. But after a night of decadence, Magritte wakes up next to the lifeless body of a young woman, with no memory of the night before.

As more guests turn up dead, Scotland Yard arrives and seals off the estate. With suspicion falling squarely on him, Magritte must unravel the truth before the killer strikes again.

But in a world where surrealism thrives, the question lingers: Is everything what it seems—or nothing at all?

💀 “Reality is too limited. Murder, perhaps, is limitless.”

🌟 Cast

• Pierre Gervais as René Magritte

• Stephen Tompkinson as Lord James

• Florence Hall in a key role within the locked-house mystery

🎬 Behind the Series

• Directed by: Hans Herbots (The Serpent, Riviera, Paris Has Fallen)

• Co-director (Ep. 3 & 4): Mathias Lebeer

• Written & Created by: Christophe Dirickx (Tabula Rasa) & Paul Baeten (Two Summers)

• Original Idea: Matthias Lebeer & Christophe Dirickx

• Episodes: 6 × 52 minutes

• Production: Panenka, in co-production with VRT, RTL, Proximus, New8, Deadpan Pictures

• International Distribution: Studiocanal

Supported by Creative Europe MEDIA, Screen Flanders, Screen Ireland, Screen Brussels, and the Belgian Tax Shelter, the series is shaping up to be a visually striking, high-end European drama.

🎭 Why It Stands Out

Unlike traditional period dramas, This Is Not a Murder Mystery doesn’t just tell a story—it immerses you in the worldview of surrealists, where dream, illusion, and paranoia collide. Imagine Agatha Christie meets Salvador Dalí—a whodunit reimagined through surrealism’s lens.

With its lavish 1930s setting, historical artistic icons as characters, and a locked-mansion thriller at its heart, the series promises to be both a murder mystery and a meditation on art, reality, and madness.

📺 Release Info

• Length: Six episodes (52 minutes each)

• Genre: Drama / Whodunit

• Status: Post-production

• Global Distribution: Studiocanal (broadcasters worldwide, coming soon)

Final Take 🩸🎩

This Is Not a Murder Mystery isn’t just another crime drama—it’s a surrealist fever dream of suspicion and style, where history’s most eccentric artists are trapped in a gilded cage with a killer.

A visual feast. A psychological puzzle. A murder mystery turned inside out.

Stay tuned—This Is Not a Murder Mystery is coming soon to broadcasters worldwide.