Media Murder for Monday

AWARDS

The 2010 Specsavers CWA Crime Thriller Award winners were named in the TV/Film categories, including Inception for best film, and the new BBC version of Sherlock won in the TV category. Other awards were handed out in the acting categories, as well.

MOVIES

Macmillan Publishers has launched its own film unit, Macmillan Films, following on the heels of Random House,which also opened its own film unit. Macmillan's first project will be Tempest, based on a soon-to-be-published manuscript (and the first in a trilogy) by Julie Cross about a 19-year old time traveler who witnesses his girlfriend's murder just as he jumps back two years.

Two new stars were added to the growing cast for the fourth installment in the Mission Impossible series:  Indian actor Anil Kapoor, (24 and Slumdog Millionaire) and French actress Lea Seydoux (Ridley Scott's Robin Hood).

Billy Ray has been signed to write and direct a new version of the Argentinian thriller The Secret in Their Eyes. The story is based on the novel by Eduardo Sacheri and follows a retired criminal investigator in 2000 Buenos Aires who is writing a novel to try and deal with an unresolved rape and murder from 1974 that still haunts him.

TV

The first episode of Hardcover Mysteries on the Investigation Discovery network premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET. and features David Baldacci talking about the inspiration for his first bestseller, Absolute Power. You can check out an episode preview here and also a clip of Baldacci appearing at the Library of Congress event about the series.

Writer/producers Ron Moore (Battlestar Galactica) and Naren Shankar (CSI) are in the very early stages of developing a remake of the 1960s classic The Wild, Wild West starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as Secret Service agents in the Old West.

Filming started last week on the BBC crime drama based on Denisa Mina's novel Field of Blood, set in Glasgow in 1982. It stars Oscar winner Peter Capaldi and Jayd Johnson.

If you're a fan of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, you can rejoice: Kathryn Erbe will also be returning for the final season, joining Vincent D'Onofrio, both of whom left after season eight.


PODCASTS/RADIO

Scottish crime fiction author Stuart MacBride was interviewed for the "One-to-One" program on Deutsche Welle (in English) talking about his book series featuring unorthodox Detective Inspector Roberta Steel.

"Last Call with Carson Daly" interviewed James Ellroy, about his latest, The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women.

Radio New Zealand International featured Carl Hiaasen talking about his Florida-based crime fiction novels.