- Ken Bruen and Reed Coleman's book Tower may be making its way to the cinema, as the film rights were sold to producers Brad Weston, Gil Adler and Shane McCarthy. (Hat tip to Crimespree Cinema.)
- In a similar deal, Swedish production house Yellow Bird secured movie adaptation rights to six novels featuring the criminal reporter Annika Bengtzon penned by best-selling author Liza Marklund. Yellow Bird producer Jenny Gilbertsson said "The opportunity to adapt Liza Marklund's books is a dream come true for us. Annika Bengtzon is such a fantastically composed main character -- both endearing and unnerving in her dedication to her work. We're delighted that we now have the opportunity recreate these great stories to their full potential on the big screen." Yellow Bird is the same outfit hoping to bring a version of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy to the big screen, as well as a series of 13 new Swedish movies about Henning Mankell's criminal inspector Wallander.
TV
- The Archive of American Television now has an online collection of interviews from television stars and creative talent, EmmyTVLegends.org. Approximately 600 interviews have been taped for more than a decade by volunteers, including scholars and industry members, although currently there are only about a third of those posted at the site that launched this week. In the Cop/Detective/Mystery Series category, you can watch recollections by cast and crew from Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues, In the Heat of the Night, The Rockford Files, Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker and The Untouchables.
- Fans of Numb3rs' Peter MacNicol may wonder why he's not as present in the upcoming season. Apparently, budget cuts forced producers to trim his episode order.
- Penn and Teller are going to star in a new hourlong mystery series, as--themselves. For the purposes of the plot, they'll be Las Vegas entertainers moonlighting (daylighting?) as detectives by day. Leonard Dick (House, the Menatlist) is writing the project. No word yet on whether Teller will get to speak.
- The New Yorker reviewed HBO's new private eye dramedy Bored to Death, written by Jonathan Ames and starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson.
- Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) will star in a Lifetime movie about con artist Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller, the high society scammer who ran the longest con in FBI history. The head writer is Edithe Swensen and the director, Mikael Salomon.
- The Alma Awards for veteran Latino actors were handed out recently. One recipient was Miguel Sandoval (Medium) who recalled his first interview with a Hollywood casting director in 1982. "He told me that my career would be restricted to two roles: gardeners and gangbangers. After talking to me awhile, he said I just might have a chance as a 'crossover.' I didn't even know what 'crossover' meant. I came from a theater background where I could play anybody. I once portrayed Erich von Stroheim on stage.
- ABC-TV in Australia is offering a new game show titled Sleuth 101. Host Cal Wilson will be joined by a special guest detective (a well-known comedian, so you know this isn't exactly a deadly-serious venture) who has to solve a murder in front of a live studio audience, with no script--just witness statements, footage flashback and forensic evidence.
- The veteran stuntman Ronald Ross has died. Ross worked on 150 movies and TV shows such as The FBI, Rat Patrol, The Rockford Files and Quincy.
WEB/RADIO
- The NetDrag crime fiction podcast has a new home. The latest offering is from Jeffrey Cohen, author of the humorous mysteries As Dog is My Witness, A Farewell to Legs, and It Happened One Knife.
- The Library of Congress podcasts being uploaded in advance of the annual Festival of the Book include some recent entries, Michael Connelly and Walter Mosley (hat tip to Elizabeth Foxwell).
- The Minneapolis Star-Tribune videotaped James Ellroy at home, reading from his latest book, Bloods a Rover.
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