Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Deon Meyer’s novel 13 Hours may be headed to the big screen. The author Tweeted this week that "there is a good chance that Sean Bean will play Benny," the book's worn-out, alcoholic but brilliant detective Benny Griessel. The film could also be part of a trilogy of films based on Meyer's novels.

The longlist of nominees have been announced for the BAFTA Awards (the British version of the Oscars). David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the book by Steig Larsson, received 13 nominations, including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and acting nods for Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, based on John Le Carré's book, had 16 nominations, including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenply and acting nominations for Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, John Hurt and Kathy Burke. The biopic J. Edgar was also nominated for awards, including Best Original Screenplay.

Those familiar with Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's modern updating of the Arthur Conan Doyle classic series may be surprised to hear he's signed on to play a villain in the upcoming Star Trek movie sequel. However, Cumbersnatch has a history of wide-ranging roles from comedy to biopics, starring as physicist Stephen Hawking.

TV

Producer Louise Vesth is adapting for European televions the best-selling crime novels of Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen featuring detective Carl Morck of Copenhagen's Department Q for "cases of special focus."  Nikolaj Arcel, a co-writer of the original Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is scripting the series.

Starting today on Hulu and Hulu Plus, you can stream the award-winning Canadian crime drama Endgame. It centers on a brilliant chess master (played by Shawn Doyle) who becomes a hermit in his luxury Vancouver hotel after the murder of his fiancée, and works as a detective to pay the bills, solving mysteries with the help of a band of hotel employees and chess fanatics.

CW has ordered Cult, a one-hour thriller drama from Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl), about mysterious disappearances linked to a TV series that are investigated by a young female production assistant working on the show and a journalist blogger.

Of several spec scripts passed along to the networks in this new year, Chris Carter (The X-Files) has a female-driven mystery thriller titled Unique, about a woman’s quest to solve her husband's murder that vaults her into a global mythological conspiracy .

Irish actor Kevin Ryan has come onboard BBC TV's upcoming seies Copper, a police drama set in 1860s New York City. Ryan will play Detective Francis Maguire, an Irish-American cop working alongside Tom Weston-Jones (M-15/Spooks).

Musician/actor Harry Connick Jr. has been signed for a multi-episode arc on NBC's Law & Order: SVU, playing Executive Assistant District Attorney David Hadena and a love interest for Mariska Hargitay's Detective Olivia Benson.