Director Lynne Ramsey signed Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender to star in her upcoming project Jane's Got A Gun, and Joel Edgerton (Zero Dark Thirty) is also in talks to join the cast. The film follows a woman who is forced to reach out to a former lover when her criminal-husband becomes the target of a deadly gang.
Mireille Enos and Scott Speedman are joining Ryan Reynolds in the cast of the psychological thriller Queen of the Night. The plot follows a father (Reynolds) who has spent eight years trying to get over his daughter's abduction and assumed death, but a series of new and disturbing clues makes him believe his daughter is still alive. Enos will play Reynolds' wife and Speedman a detective.
Director Olivier Megaton (Taken 2) has signed on to the action thriller Taking Gotham, based the real-life secret unit of the NYPD created in response to a string of brutal robberies. The team is forced to go underground to clear their names after being falsely accused following a deadly sting operation.
Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan is rewriting American Desperado, a film created as a star vehicle for Mark Wahlberg. The project is based on the book American Desperado: My Life As A Cocaine Cowboy by Jon Roberts, who made a fortune smuggling cocaine into the U.S. for the Medellin Cartel.
During a recent press conference, the producers of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy kept hopes alive for a sequel to the espionage thriller starring Gary Oldman, which would be an adaptation of John le Carre's novel Smiley's People.
TV
Co-developer/executive producer of Law & Order: Criminal Intent Rene Balcer is bringing a "cyber mystery series" called DarkNet to the USA Network. The project is described as The X-Files meets The Matrix and follows a pair of cyber-crime investigators who stumble across a far-reaching conspiracy to change the course of human evolution.
AMC liked the pilot for a remake of the BBC mini-series Low Winter Sun enough that it's decided to order a ten-episode series. The show will star Mark Strong (Zero Dark Thirty) and Lennie James in the "contemporary story of murder, deception, revenge and corruption in a world where the line between cops and criminals is blurred." (Hat tip to Ominimystery News.)
"Z," a modern-day version of the legend of Zorro, may be heading to the USA Network, with Naren Shankar (CSI, Grimm) serving as showrunner. The update would set the tale in Los Angeles and follow the rise of Diego Moreno from orphaned teen to infamous hero fighting to save the city.
Now that AMC appears to have come to its senses and ordered a third season of The Killing, thus rescuing it from cancellation, they're overhauling the cast. Billy Campbell (who played Seattle city councilman Darren Richmond), and Brent Sexton and Michelle Forbes, who played the grieving parents of murder victim Rosie Larsen, have been dropped.
The Hannibal Lecter series has added X-Files star Gillian Anderson to the cast, in a multi-episode storyline in which she will play Hannibal's therapist.
A&E released a promo video for the re-imagining of the classic horror story Psycho, which will focus on Norman Bates in his younger years.
Want to know when your favorite show will return with new episodes in January? Here's a handy chart.
PODCASTS/VIDEO
The Mysterious Bookshop, The Mysterious Press and Open Road unveiled the The Mysterious Podcast, available via iTunes. The first episode features interviews with authors David Corbett and Nelson DeMille!
THEATER
A musical version of Woody Allen's crime-comedy film Bullets Over Broadway is actually heading to Broadway. The plot centers on an idealistic young playwright newly arrived on Broadway who agrees to hire the untalented actress/girlfriend of a gangster in order to get funding for his project. The musical is currently scheduled to open sometime in late 2013/early 2014.
One of the original great works of crime fiction, Shakespeare's play Macbeth, is getting a new West End production starring James McAvoy (Atonement) in the title role.
Shia LaBeouf will make his Broadway debut as he joins Alec Baldwin in the cast of the new production of Lyle Kessler's play, Orphans. LaBeouf will play Treat, a thief supporting his younger brother, while Baldwin plays an older gangster. The play originally premiered in 1983 and has had many staged versions and one film adaptation.
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