Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

In the fall of 2009, Sony issued a five-disc set, Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Volume I, and this month they'll release Bad Girls of Film Noir. The two volumes have eight films total from American film noir's heyday, and all are new to DVD.

The Swedish film based on Stieg Larssen's novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo won the Best Picture award at Sweden’s equivalent of the Oscars, and has already grossed over $100 million worldwide. It's finally being officially released in the U.S. on March 12. The Starcasm site has the movie poster and American video trailer.

Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas will star in the cinema adaptation of The Woman in the Fifth, a thriller based on the 2007 novel by Douglas Kennedy. (Hat tip to Mystery Books News)

TV

The American TV series Castle is coming to the U.K., after UKTV acquired the rights to the ABC show starring Nathan Fillion.

Production beings this spring on the TV series based on the Aurelio Zen mysteries by Michael Dibdin. Rufus Sewell will star as the fictional Italian detective.

Southland star Ben McKenzie who plays rookie L.A.P.D. police officer Ben Sherman talks with the Wall Street Journal about the show, its cancellation by NBC and subsequent resurrection by TNT, and how he's becoming a private detective in his spare time to stay sharp.

Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton (Underbelly) joins Donald Faison (Scrubs) as stars in The Odds, a pilot about a pair of Las Vegas cops who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve. CSI director-producer Ken Fink will also direct The Odds pilot.

Actor Natalie Martinez (Sons of Tucson) joins Aisha Hinds and John Michael Hill in the cast for the ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit, which centers on the city’s top homicide division as seen through the cameras of a fictitious documentary crew.

Fox has canceled its freshmen series Past Life after seven episodes, although it may return in the summer. It's based on MJ Rose's novel The Reincarnationist.

WEB/RADIO

The Crime Prevention 101 radio show interviewed novelist and former prosecutor Alafair Burke, about how her prior legal experiences formed the basis for her characters and her new book 212 which focuses on cyberstalking and murder.

NPR's Morning Edition talked with Swedish novelist Henning Mankell about his latest book, Man From Beijing, which draws from Mankell's own experiences living abroad. You can listen to the archived podcast here.