As Agatha Christie once wrote, “The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.” Dear reader, in the trailer for The Sheep Detectives, the impossible jumps right over the fence and into my heart.
Adapted from Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel Three Bags Full by Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl) and Minions director Kyle Balda, The Sheep Detectives is a frankly wild tale of mystery and animalian investigative practices, starring Hugh Jackman in full Australian farmer mode. The Sheep Detectives offers up a curious case of exactly that, a flock of sheep whose proud shepherd George (Jackman) reads to them nightly only the best whodunnit novels.
Not physically capable of having the wool pulled over their eyes, these attentive even-toed ungulates have been taking mental notes, because when there’s a actual murder on the farm, no Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, or Benoit Blanc could solve this crime — this is a job for SHEEP DETECTIVES. J’acc-ewes!
The cast (both appearing and voicing sheep) in this “herder mystery” is staggering, with Emma Thompson, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, and Rhys Darby.
The Sheep Detectives opens in cinemas May 8, 2026.
