MOVIES
If you're headed to the Toronto Film Fest, Deadline has a rundown of the films that will be featured, including Life of Crime, based on Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch, about two common criminals in 1970s Detroit (played by John Hawkes and Mos Def) who kidnap the housewife (Jennifer Aniston) of a corrupt real estate developer (Tim Robbins) and hold her for ransom; Mystery Road, about a detective who returns to his outback hometown to investigate the brutal murder of a teenage girl found in a drain under a highway outside of town; and Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman as a father who takes the law into his own hands after his young daughter goes missing.
Judge Dredd star Karl Urban told Comic Con that the movie "exploded" on home video, selling 650,000 units in the first week, prompting him and producer/screenwriter Alex Garland to plan a sequel. The original film was based on a popular comic strip and focused on a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, leading a cop to team with a trainee to take down a gang that deals a reality-altering drug.
Fight Club is getting a sequel—as a graphic novel. Author Chuck Palahniuk, on whose work the 1996 Brad Pitt film was based, said, "Chelsea Cain has been introducing me to artists and creators from Marvel, DC and Dark Horse, and they're walking me through the process. It will likely be a series of books that update the story 10 years after the seeming end of Tyler Durden."
Via Omnimystery News: Tribeca released a trailer for the thriller A Single Shot, adapted from the novel by Matthew F. Jones, about a hunter who becomes the hunted in the backwoods of West Virginia.
TELEVISION
ABC has put in a development order for Lawless, about a maverick lawyer who returns to her hometown to right the wrongs she left behind. It is inspired by the real life of crusading trucker-turned-lawyer Wynona Ward, founder of Have Justice Will Travel, which provides free legal representation and support services to victims of domestic violence in rural areas.
ABC also announced a limited series about the Cold War, based on the book Circle of
Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed, scheduled to premiere in 2014.
Jack Wagner (The Bold and the Beautiful), Rachel Blanchard (Clueless) and Cameron Mathison (All My Children) have been tapped to star in a Hallmark two-hour backdoor pilot and potential primetime series, My Gal Sunday. The project is based on the book of short stories by Mary Higgins Clark about attorney/PI Sandra "Sunday" O'Brien-Parker (Blanchard) and her new husband/partner Henry Parker (Mathison), whose deep political ties and romance put them at the center of intrigue and scandal.
Sherlock season three has cast its nemesis for Benedict Cumberbatch's sleuth. Lars Mikkelsen (who appeared in the original Dutch series The Killing) will play Charles Augustus Magnussen, who is likely based on a character from one of Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories about a murderous blackmailer.
Ruth Bradley (Big Thunder) and Boardwalk Empire alum Meg Steedle have been added to the cast of the World War II sci-fi/crime drama from executive producer Gale Anne Hurd. Horizon centers on a secretary (Bradley) at the FBI who discovers that her husband might have been killed in a battle with a spaceship in the South Pacific. Steedle will play the secretary's best friend and a refined debutant-turned-upper-level FBI secretary.
Michelle Forbes (who played a Dionysus-worshiping immortal on HBO's True Blood and a grieving mother on
AMC's The Killing), has landed a recurring role in the NBC
drama Chicago Fire. Forbes will play a high-ranking consultant with the State Fire Marshal's office.
Terrence Howard has joined M. Night Shyamalan's limited series for Fox, Wayward Pines, playing a Sheriff who takes offense when Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) comes
in to town to investigate the disappearance of two agents.
There were many sneak previews of the upcoming 2013-14 television season at the recently-wrapped ComicCon, incuding a panel about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Although the panel didn't include footage, it did have actors like Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson) and Ming-Na Wen (Agent Melinda May), as well as pilot director Joss Whedon talking about the project. You can see a portion of the panel at CinemaBlend.
ABC released a few first looks at the surprises coming up in season 6 of Castle. New cast members include House star Lisa Edelstein as a tough Fed whom Beckett wants to emulate (she'll appear in at least three episodes) and Myko Olivier as Pi, whom Alexis (Molly Quinn) met in Costa Rica.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The July 27 edition of Suspense Radio featured author Marcus Sakey, Toni Hill, and Dan Graffeo.
THEATER
New casting was announced for the National Theatre's West End production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, currently running at the Apollo Theatre, with the new company to begin performances Sept. 2. The play was adapted by Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel of the same name about a 15-year-old amateur detective with Asperger's Syndrome.
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