MOVIES
Paul Thomas Anderson has plans to adapt Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel Inherent Vice. The plot follow Larry "Doc" Sportello, a pothead private eye wandering through the Summer of Love in 1969 Los Angeles. Anderson apparently wants Robert Downey Jr. to play the lead role, although that may depend upon Downey's busy schedule.
Fresh on the heels of their Oscar win for The Hurt Locker, director Kathryn Bigelow and fellow Oscar winner and screenwriter Mark Boal are working on an international thriller with a black ops theme, based on a true story. The working title is Triple Frontier and apparently several big-names are interested in participating, including Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Will Smith.
TV
James Ellroy is set to star in an Investigation Discovery project titled James Ellroy's LA: City of Demons. As the press release states, the six-part series "shamelessly showcases Ellroy's larger-than-life personality and his vivid verbal style as he exhumes, explores and exposes the delicious dirt that cascades behind the silver screen."
AMC has started work in Vancouver on the network's new original series, The Killing, from writer and executive producer Veena Sud (Cold Case), co-produced by Mikkel Bondesen (Burn Notice). The Killing is based on the successful Danish television series Forbrydelsen, telling the story of the murder of a young girl in Seattle and the subsequent police investigation. The first season of thirteen one-hour episodes premieres in March 2011.
The winner of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, pseudonymous author Alix Bosco, has even more to celebrate: her novel Cut & Run has been optioned by Screenworks for production as a television mini-series in New Zealand.
Rachel Nichols was brought on board the TV show Criminal Minds for a three-episode arc, but even before her first show airs, she's been signed as a full-time regular to replace A.J. Cooke. She'll play Ashley Seager, an FBI cadet with an unusual family history who Agent Hotch invites to help consult on a case.
PODCASTS/RADIO
Patricia Cornwell joined Good Morning America to talk about her latest novel to feature Kay Scarpetta, Port Mortuary.
Thriller author David Morrell appeared on Blog Talk Radio to discuss the effect of e-books in the publishing world, his beginnings, his future, his trip to Iraq, and various other topics.
THEATER
Lisbeth Salander is taking to the stage, as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo holds its world premiere at Copenhagen's Norrebro Theatre. The play, based on the first of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, was developed with Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's former partner.
The Ellroy thing looks like a hoot. Cartoony writer and cartoony man! Should be great TV!
Posted by: Paul D. Brazill | December 08, 2010 at 05:14 PM
Yes, and the description in the press release is even wilder than the one quote I used above -- definitely "must see TV."
Posted by: BV Lawson | December 08, 2010 at 06:11 PM