MOVIES
Rosamund Pike, who starred in the Jack Reacher movie, has landed the lead in David Fincher's big-screen adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl. She'll play opposite Ben Affleck, who was already on board for the project, scheduled to start production in September.
Relativity Media is giving its film Out of the Furnace a wide release on Dec. 6. The story centers around a blue-collar factory worker (Christian Bale) who seeks vengeance when his younger brother, played by Casey Affleck, disappears and the local cops aren't much help. Woody Harrelson plays the heavy, while Forest Whitaker stars as one of the local cops investigating the case. Also in the all-star cast: Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard and Willem Dafoe.
There is movement toward a new Bourne franchise installment, with Anthony Peckham scripting a film that will continue the storyline of Aaron Cross, the character played by Jeremy Renner in the 2012 Bourne Legacy. Peckham also wrote the screenplay for the first Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey, Jr.
David Yates, who directed the final four installments of the Harry Potter series, is in final talks to helm the remake of the mob drama Scarface. The plan is update the story and characters, giving it more of a contemporary feel.
CBS Film has picked up the screen rights to Children of Paranoia, the debut YA novel by Trevor Shane about a young assassin caught up in a secret war that’s been waged for centuries, with assassinations passed off as accidents or acts of random violence.
Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris is joining an all-star cast that includes Liam Neeson and Joel Kinnaman in the crime thriller Run All Night, about an aging mob hit man (Neeson) forced to take on his former boss (Harris), the leader of a prominent criminal organization in Philadelphia.
Great Gatsby star Elizabeth Debicki has landed a leading role in the film reboot of the 60s TV spy drama The Man From U.N.C.L.E., joining headliner stars Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill. Debicki's role is described as a femme fatale, although she won't be the only female in the cast, with Alicia Vikander playing an agent.
TELEVISION
Jack Bauer will return to Fox next year for 24: Live Another Day, which picks up several years after the end of the show and will depict a single day, packed into 12 hour-long episodes. Mary Lynn Rajskub, a regular on the original series, will return for the new show along with star Kiefer Sutherland.
Billy Bob Thornton is set to star in the small screen mini-series adaptation of the film Fargo for FX. His role is described as "the rootless, manipulative man who meets a small-town insurance salesman and sets him on a path of destruction." (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)
Fox handed out a series order for the adaptation of the popular British series Broadchurch, set to debut on American screens in the 2014-15 season. The story revolves around the tragic and mysterious death of a young boy found dead on an idyllic beach surrounded by rocks and a jutting cliff-face from where he may have fallen. (With a nod to Omnimystery News.)
Smash star Jeremy Jordan is set to guest-star on the upcoming season of Elementary, playing Joey Castro, the son of a former surgical patient of Joan's (Lucy Liu).
Syfy renewed its time-travel police drama Continuum, starring Rachel Nichols and Victor Webster, for a third season.
J.H. Wyman and J.J. Abrams (the team behind Fringe) chatted up their new series Almost Human during a Television Critics Association press tour session. The duo credited NYPD more than the supernatural Fringe as a blueprint for the show, which is set 35 years into the future when human cops in the LAPD are paired up with androids.
In another Television Critics Association panel, Mike Schur assured the audience that his new cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine is not a parody, with the comedic elements taking second place to telling a real cop story for stars Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher.
Fans of the BBC Sherlock series can get a small (spoiler-free) "hit" of their Sherlock fix via this trailer for the upcoming third series of the show to premiere in the UK later this year and in U.S. markets early in 2014.
PODCASTS
Indie publisher Untreed Reads, which started out as digital-only but is adding audio and print-on-demand, has also started an author podcast. It's available via Stitcher Radio (a free app for either Android or Apple devices) or you can listen online. Episode One features author Kevin J. Cunningham.
In case you missed it, the July 27th edition of Suspense Radio is archived online, with guests Marcus Sakey, Antonio Hill and Dan Graffeo.
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