Some crime dramas and thriller new releases during February: Shutter Island, the movie based on Dennis Lehane's novel; Ghost Writer, in which a ghost writer hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy, starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan); and, if your tastes run more to the comedic, Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan about two cops whose adventures include locating a stolen baseball card, rescuing a woman, and dealing with gangsters and their laundered money.
It looks like a TV series based on Laura Lippman's novels with protagonist P.I. Tess Monaghan maybe in the works. (Hat tip to Oline Cogdill via Rap Sheet.)
The Beeb is planning six more episode of the Wallander series featuring Kenneth Branagh as Henning Mankell's detective. The rumor is that the screenplays will be developed from existing Mankell short stories and not written by the author, per se.
Channel 4's Book TV series gained in audience numbers in its second outing, although it hasn't translated to a surge in sales of the books featured. The show is still young, however, and the producers feel they "did some things wrong" with the initial episode.Freshma crime drama/spinoff NCIS: LA is already losing a cast member. Adam Jamal Craig was written out of the show, with executive producer Shane Brennan saying "To my mind, particularly in the first season of a show, there is no main cast."
ABC has given the go-ahead to a pilot crime drama pilot from writer
Richard Hatem and director Gary Fleder. The untitled project centers on "a beautiful
female detective who teams with a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes
and untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground.
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The Globe and Mail interviewed Jerry Bruckheimer about his many successful TV shows, including the CSI series on CBS. In answer to a question about criticism that his shows are too violent, he replied, "People said the same things about the 'penny dreadfuls' in the 19th
century. And if you look at any bestseller list today, you’re going to
find a lot of detective fiction, a lot of violence, but also a lot of
crime-solving. People like these shows because the shows present
puzzles, puzzles that have to be solved."
Ian McKellen is set to play Auric Goldfinger in a new BBC radio drama based on the Ian Fleming novel-turned-Bond film. Toby Stephens and Rosamund Pike from the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day will portray James Bond and Pussy Galore.
The latest Crimewav podcast is out, featuring Robert Ward's story "Out on Joppa."
THEATERCrime writer Martina Cole's novel Two Women is being adapted into a play for the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London, the first time one of her books has been staged. It stars Frances Albery, Victoria Alcock and Marc Bannerman.