MOVIES
It's official: the sequel to the American film version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo starts filming later this year. and Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are back on board. What's not official: will David Fincher return to direct?
Screenwriter Zach Helm has come onboard to adapt Deep Water, the 1957 suspense novel by Patricia Highsmith, for Fox Films. The book is about an upscale suburban husband allows his wife to have affairs...but then the paramours start disappearing. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)
It appears that the comedic Police Academy films featuring a bunch of trainee police misfits are going to get a reboot. A new script by David Diamond and David Weissman will be produced by Police Academy veteran Paul Maslansky, with filming expected to start later this year.
David Fincher gives inside info to the Hollywood Reporter on the making of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Among the tidbits: he did a lot of research at Weather.com.
TV
At the Golden Globes last night, crime drama Homeland was a big winner, taking home Best Drama and Best Actress awards (Claire Danes). Idris Elba won Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his work in Luther, the British psychological drama where he plays Detective Chief Inspector John Luther.
It took 150 years to happen, but a TV version of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is in the works for the BBC. Described by T.S. Eliot as the"first and greatest of English detective novels," the three-part series will follow the original story in which Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard us called in to solve the theft of a precious stone. The new drama is scheduled to air over Christmas 2012 but has yet to be cast.
Possibly spurred by the success of shows like the Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, AMC is developing a TV series based on the film Goodfellas, penned by Goodfellas co-writer Nicholas Pileggi with Jorge Zamacona. The original 1990 film followed star Ray Liotta over a span of decades as he grew up to become a gangster and climbed the ranks of an organized crime unit.
After NBC acquired the US rights to the Israeli crime thriller Timrot Ashan (Pillars of Smoke), the television network has finally ordered a pilot for a potential series, to be titled Midnight Sun. The story, about a police investigation of a cult from the Golan Heights that has mysteriously disappeared, is being written by Lisa Zwerling (FlashForward, The Event).
TNT has given the go-ahead for a pilot based on John Buntin's book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead) will write and direct the pilot about the battle for the soul of the city waged between the LAPD and the West Coast mob.
The producers of the popular TNT crime drama The Closer insist it won't be the same show as its Major Crimes spin-off series set to debut this summer, with most of the same cast. They say that Crimes will feature more of a "group view" and look at the justice system differently through the lens of “How much justice can we afford?”
The USA Network renewed its longest running series, Psych, for a 7th season. The show stars James Roday stars as police consultant Shawn Spencer, who solves crimes with powers of observation so acute that Santa Barbara Police Department detectives think he's psychic. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)
Psycho: the prequel. That's the idea behind the pilot Bates Motel that A&E is developing, showing us how Norman Bates developed into the demented serial killer and some back story behind his mother, Norma. A&E is also adapting Those Who Kill, a Danish series based on the work of author Elsebeth Egholm.
The CW has ordered a pilot based on the classic comic book character of superhero crime fighter Green Arrow, set in a new world with an original story.
On a panel this past week, author Elmore Leonard admitted that he's always tried to make his stories as visual as possible so they’ll sell to Hollywood. "From the very beginning I’ve been in it to make money, and writing visually is the way you do it."
During that same TCA event where Elmore Leonard appeared, AMC confirmed the fifth season of Mad Men will debut on March 25, with its first two-hour premiere. The Killing‘s second season will start on April 1.
Casting (not) against type? Susan Lucci., long-time star of the soap opera All My Children will host and narrate the 10-part series Deadly Affairs on Investigation Discovery this fall. The show will include real-life stories of office romances, love triangles and adultery.
THEATER
If you're in the Houston area, check out a new production of the Edgar Award-nominated play Deadly Murder at the Theatre Suburbia through February 4th. The play "combines suspense, humor, attempts at drawing-room comedy, bizarre twists, violence and sturdy actors in an unlikely medley offering something for everyone."
Comments