Millennium Trilogy producer Yellow Bird is developing a 10-part original series based on an idea by bestselling Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø. The political thriller will be titled Occupied and is described as a political thriller set in a not so distant future where Russia has staged a "silk-glove" invasion of Norway to officially secure the oil import for the rest of the world.
Steven Spielberg has signed on to direct American Sniper, an adaptation of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's autobiography that will star Bradley Cooper in the title role.
Colin Firth is in talks to star in The Secret Service, Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of a comic he co-created. The story follows a young man from the rough neighborhoods of London who gets recruited by his uncle (the role Firth would play) into a British spy school of the sort that churns out suave, sophisticated gentlemen-agent types in the 007 mold.
Stephen King's next thriller, Joyland, due to be published next month by Hard Case Crime, has been optioned for film, with Tate Taylor adapting the book and also directing. The project deals with a murder in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)
Daniel Radcliffe has been signed to star as American investigative reporter Jake Adelstein in the upcoming film adaptation of Adelstein's 2009 memoir Tokyo Vice. The plot follows the reporter's time working at the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper in Tokyo covering the crime beat and gangsters, including the “John Gotti of Japan."
Film4 has landed a script from Jacob Kostoff and Todd Louiso that adapts the classic Shakespeare play Macbeth about the ambitious Scotttish lord who seizes the throne with the help of his scheming wife and three witches. Michael Fassbender is in talks to star in the project.
Joe Carnahan (The Grey, The A-Team) has signed on to direct the film adaptation of Chuck Hogan's 2010 crime thriller Devils in Exile. Hogan's previous book Prince of Thieves (released as The Town) was made into a movie in 2010 starring Ben Affleck. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)
TV
Former X-Files star Gillian Anderson's brand new crime series The Fall will launch on the BBC and Netflix this month. The show is set in Northern Ireland and follows a police officer investigating a string of murders.
BBC America has renewed the thriller Orphan Black for a second season. The show stars Tatiana Maslany as Sarah, a woman who adopts the identity of a woman whom she witnesses committing suicide, and then learns that they are actually clones of each other.
Tom Berenger is joining Season 2 of TNT's successful Closer spin-off, Major Crimes, playing the estranged spouse of Mary McDonnell's Capt. Sharon Raydor.
Former NCIS regular Mike Franks (Muse Watson) will make his second posthumous appearance as an otherworldly sounding board for Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in the season finale the show. Also guest-starring on the episode is John M. Jackson, who was a regular on JAG when that series launched NCIS as a spinoff 10 years ago.
NBC's supernatural police procedural Grimm saw its ratings climb in its new time slot of Tuesday evenings at 9 pm ET.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
In honor of this weekend's Edgar Awards, the Mystery Writers of America posted a video with Edgar winners and nominees such as Lawrence Block, Ruth Rendell, David Handler and Caroline B. Cooney discussing their craft and sharing their thoughts about the genre’s highest accolade and mystery’s biggest night of the year.
Adrian Raine, author of The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, chatted with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air.
THEATER
This year's Tony Award nominations include nods to The Mystery of Edwin Drood for Best Revival of a Musical and Stephanie J. Block as Best Lead Actress in the play.
Ian Rankin (author of the Inspector Rebus series), is joining Mark Thomson, artistic director of Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum, in writing the stage play Dark Road, which will premiere at the theatre during its 2013-14 season. The play explores the disturbing world of serial killers and marks Rankin's first foray into the playwriting realm.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, based on the 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon, was the big winner at the Olivier Awards, the British theater's highest honor. It won for best new play, best actor for Luke Treadaway, best supporting actress for Nicola Walker and best director for Marianne Elliott.
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