Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Paramount is planning a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion. The original film was based on Francis Iles's 1932 novel Before the Fact, and Veena Sud will adapt the book/film for the new project. The plot centers on a dowdy young heiress who marries a charming scoundrel only to become convinced he's planning to kill her for her money.

Director Michael Mann is in talks to direct The Big Stone Grid, a crime thriller based on a spec script by S. Craig Zahler, to be produced by Moneyball producer Michael De Luca. The project is said to have echoes of Marathon Man and involve two veteran police officers who uncover a vast extortion ring that operates in the catacombs beneath New York City.

Robert Downey, Jr.'s film adaptation of the Perry Mason TV series, based on the books of Erle Stanley Gardner, has signed Marc Guggenheim to pen the script. Guggenheim is an attorney himself, who has worked on such shows as The Practice and Law & Order.

TV

A BBC pilot for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, based on the novels by the late Douglas Adams, was apparently popular enough that the Beeb is going ahead with a series order. Stephen Mangan will again star the holistic detective who "sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unraveling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza." (Hat tip to Omnimystery.)

CBS has signed Johnny Lee Miller to star in their modern-day version of Sherlock Holmes, titled Elementary. BBC Sherlock producer Sue Vertue said, "Let's hope their pilot script has stayed further away from our Sherlock than their casting choice...We have been in touch with CBS and informed them that we will be looking at their finished pilot very closely for any infringement of our rights."

The cast of the pilot, formerly known as Golden Boy, continues to grow. Ryan Phillippe has already signed on to play Detective Clark, the cop at the center of the story, who rises quickly through the ranks from officer to detective to police commissioner. Chi McBride and Kevin Alejandro are also on board, and The Runaways co-star Stella Maeve was just added.

British novelist Graham Hurley's police duo Detective Inspector Joe Faraday and Detective Paul Winter, are proving popular in their new TV adaptation -- in French. Hurley tried to get British TV interested for years without success, but within two months of the French company contacting Hurley they had signed a contract, found a TV station, chosen actors, appointed a scriptwriter and started filming.

A&E's crime and justice program The First 48: Missing Persons returns with new episodes Thursday, March 15. The first season averaged enough viewers to make it rank in the top five crime and justice programs on cable.

THEATER

The Jungle Theater of Minneapolis is staging Dial M For Murder through March 18. Directed by Bain Boehlke and starring Cheryl Willis and Michael Booth, the play is based on the same plot as the 1954 film version by Alfred Hitchcock.