MOVIES
Daniel Silva's books about Gabriel Allon, a former Israeli intelligence operative turned art restorer, are coming to the big screen, courtsey of Universal Pictures and producer Jeff Zucker. Although the studio isn't sure which book the first film will be based upon, Universal has picked up rights to all past and future books in the series.
Author Bret Easton Ellis, whose books including American Psycho have been adapted into films in the past, is writing an original screenplay for a thriller titled Bait, about a disturbed woman who holds a group of American students hostage in shark-infested waters.
Universal Pictures is producing a supernatural crime thriller trilogy, The Death Walks the Streets, to be released in 2013. The three films follow a group of three friends working "for an organized crime figure torn between morality and monstrosity, in a world where horror is commonplace." Although the screenplays have been written and all three will be shot simultaneously, no director has been chosen.
Writer-director Sheldon Turner's By Virtue Fall has lined up actors Eric Bana, James Spader, Carla Gugino, Ryan Phillippe, Treat Williams and Kim Coates. The plot revolves around a pair of ATF agents who end up enemies after one frames the other for a crime.
Actor John Travolta will portray mobster John Gotti Sr. in the film Gotti: Three Generations. The film centers on the relationship between John Gotti Sr., the head of the Gambino crime family who died in prison in 2002, and his son John Gotti Jr. who took over the family business.
If you just can't get enough of Arnold Schwarzenegger, then you're in luck: the ex-California governor will star in the Governator cartoon by comicbook legend Stan Lee and Andy and Amy Heyward of A Squared Entertainment. Following that, Schwarzenegger says there will be a cartoon TV series, then games and finally a movie. He did say that he'd be back...
TV
Author Louise Penny announced in her April newsletter she's signed a contract to bring the first two books in her series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec as made-for-TV films. Not much in the way of details yet, other than she will be an executive producer for the films, and they will be filmed in Quebec. (Hat tip to Murder by the Book.)
The movie Transporter is going to be made into a 12-episode TV action drama on Cinemax, following the same character of professional transporter Frank Martin, who navigates a seedy underworld of criminals.
FX Networks renewed both Justified and Archer for a third season. Justified is the series based on the US Marshal Raylan Givens character from Elmore Leonard's novels, and stars Timothy Olyphant; Archer is an animated comic spy series set at the International Secret Service agency.
The Beeb (BBC4) has added The Killing, the Danish show remade by Fox that debuted on American TV last night, and Spiral, a French police procedural, to the spring/summer lineup.
FX also announced they've greenlighted Powers, based on the comics of the same title by Brian Michael Bendis, and are pursuing Kyle Chandler for a lead role. Powers is a police procedural set in a world where superpowers are common, and focuses on detectives Deena Pilgrim and Christian Walker, who work for a special police unit investigating crimes committed by superhumans.
PODCASTS
Elizabeth Foxwell notes that BBC Radio 7 has become BBC Radio 4 Extra: Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher on the 1860 Road Murder will be featured this week, along with Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe in Bones and Silence.
In what is likely to be more common, filmmaker Michael Stromenger has created an online murder mystery video series, Curtain Call, a serialized thriller that has a new episode every Wednesday.
GAMES
Coming to a Nintendo near you, Easy Interactive is releasing Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy. The game has players taking on the role of a famous crime writer intenton uncovering the mystery behind Poe's unfortunate death.
Daniel Silva's books should make terrific movies. I like the idea of an art restorer/spy hero. But I wonder how much of his art job they'll actually show. I've only read one of the books in the series, mainly because I got to reading other stuff. But I always meant to come back...
Posted by: Yvette | April 04, 2011 at 02:29 PM
That's a good question, since the studio is looking for another Bourne-esque type spy thriller, as I understand it. We'll just have to wait and see...
Posted by: BV Lawson | April 04, 2011 at 02:46 PM
Meant to mention: the Louise Penny news. Wow. Can't wait to see these. With Penny as executive producer, they should stick pretty close to the actual books. These are perfect for visualization, especially with such a setting and such colorful and complex characters.
By the by, with the Daniel Silva books - who do you see as Gabriel?
I would love to see Jake Gyllenhaal tackle something edgy like this. What do you think? He'd have to assume an accent though. But he's the right age, I think.
Posted by: Yvette | April 04, 2011 at 07:22 PM
Gyllenhaal might be able to play Allon as a younger man; in the books his first wife didn't talk to him for 13 years after their son was killed (and I'm not sure about his age at the time?) so he's probably near 40ish; Gyllenhaal is 30. Silva has a dossier about Allon on his web site, where he refers to Allon simply as medium height, build, green eyes and black hair, graying at the temples...
Posted by: BV Lawson | April 05, 2011 at 12:53 PM