Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The Hollywood love affair with Scandinavian/European crime dramas continues. Columbia has acquired the rights to the Dutch thriller Taped, which just opened last weekend in the Netherlands. The plot centers on a young couple who inadvertently videotape the murder of a young man by a corrupt cop. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Director Sacha Gervasi has cast Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy to play Psycho stars Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins in Fox Searchlight's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The movie has drawn comparisons to "My Week With Marilyn," following Hitchcock and his struggles during the filmmaking of the thriller classic. Filling out the intriguing cast are Anthony Hopkins as the iconic director and Helen Mirren as his wife, Alma.

TV

Rejoice, fans of Foyle's War: filming starts in September for a new season. The action will be fast-forwarded ahead a few years to 1946, where we find Foyle a soldier of the Cold War, gathering intelligence and investigating espionage. Michael Kitchen will return as Foyle for the three planned two-hour episodes.

Fans of Southland may also be able to breathe easier, as it appears the show will be picked up for a fifth season.

Now that House is ending after eight seasons, actor Jesse Spencer is free to join the cast of the NBC pilot Chicago Fire. He'll play "a natural leader at Firehouse 55 who is struggling in his personal life after recently separating from his wife."

Benedict Cumberbatch, star of the popular BBC Sherlock series, was asked—but turned down—the opportunity to be the new doctor in Doctor Who. Now it appears he'll be coming on board, after all, playing Doctor Who's arch Nemesis, The Master, in a special 50th anniversary celebratory episode in 2013. The writing shouldn't be a problem, since both shows are penned by Steven Moffatt.

The CBS pilot with its take on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes has added a casting twist: Lucy Liu is set to play Sherlock Holmes' sidekick Dr. Watson as a female former surgeon who lost her license after a patient died. She met Holmes while he was in rehab and now lives with Holmes as his "sober companion."

BBC America is developing paranormal crime drama titled The Dead Beat, about two cops, one dead and one alive, who "work from leads in the world of the dead to track down killers in the world of the living."

TNT is already promoting its upcoming summer season of crime shows, with a trailer that includes clips from Rizzoli & Isles, Leverage, The Closer, Franklin & Bash and Falling Skies, as well as a new shows Perception, Dallas and Major Crimes. (Hat tip to Crimespree Magazine.)

Actress Marin Ireland, who played American-born terrorist Aileen Morgan in episodes of Showtime's Homeland, is joining the AMC drama The Killing for the show's second season, playing Detective Holder's sister.

The Crime and Punishment Museum in D.C. is to serve as the site for some of the production on the thriller series Badlands, in the studio that once housed America's Most Wanted.

PODCASTS/RADIO

CBS Sunday Morning took note of the March 4th "anniversary," i.e., the date listed as the first meeting of Holmes and Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's initial "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" book. The story includes a clip of Doyle himself from an old recording (and will hopefully be posted on the website at some point).

THEATER

Lyric Opera of Chicago has commissioned an opera based on Ann Patchett's book, Bel Canto, about terrorism in South America. The opera's world premiere is expected for the 2015-16 season starring legendary soprano Renee Fleming.

Chita Rivera is set to star in a Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which last had a run in 1985. This comic-mystery version of the unfinished novel by Charles Dickens includes audience participation choosing whodunit each night, with a different ending performed based on the results.