Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Johnny Depp has signed on to play real-life criminal-turned-fugitive Whitey Bulger in the film Black Mass. The producers are also in negotiations with Tom Hardy to play John Connolly, an FBI agent and friend of Bulger, currenly in prison for tipping off Bulger he was about to be indicted.

Actor Bill Paxton is putting on his director's hat for the adaptation of Joe Lansdale's novel The Bottoms. The story of the Edgar Award-winning novel about a crime coverup in a small town with racial undertones that leads one victim's family to pursue the truth.

Hannah Ware (Betrayal) has signed to star with Rupert Friend and Zachary Quinto in Agent 47, the reboot of Hitman from Fox Studios.

SC Films International has signed Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, Peter Weller, Michael Jai White, Celina Jade and Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa to the cast for the action thriller Skin Trade. The story follows a New York City detective whose family is killed by a Serbian crime boss and heads to Bangkok to team up with a Thai detective to get revenge.

Kate Winslet, Aaron Paul, and Michael B. Jordan have joined the cast of Triple Nine. The storyline follows a group of corrupt policemen who find themselves on the wrong end of a blackmail threat from the Russian mafia.

Ian McShane is joining the cast of The Man On Carrion Road, playing an aging retired Sheriff of a small border town with violent tendencies who teams with the town's new sheriff (Patrick Wilson) to stop a mysterious cartel butcher.

Paladin acquired the thriller The Maid’s Room from director Michael Walker, for a release in both theatrical and digital formats. The story follows a maid caring for a spoiled family in the Hamptons who gains leverage when the son of her employers comes home with a bloodied car after a hit and run.

Nicolas Cage is in talks to star in Men With No Fear, play Marty "The Mule," newly released from prison after being set up by his former boss, Frank, a small-time neighborhood crook.

TELEVISION

Amazon just released ten new pilots viewers can watch for free and vote on, including Bosch, based on the procedural novels by Michael Connelly. The viewer feedback will help determine which pilots will go to series. (Hat tip to Ominimystery News.)

Sissy Spacek has been added to the cast (that already includes Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn and Linda Cardellini) in Netflix's untitled 13-episode psychological thriller from the creators of Damages. The project follows a close-knit family of adult siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when the black sheep oldest brother, Danny (Mendelsohn), returns home. Spacek is set to play the siblings' mother.

Former Fringe star Lance Reddick is heading to The Blacklist playing "The Cowboy," one of Red's (James Spader) many assets, although a new assignment for The Cowboy from Red will "leave Red in shock."

Hank Azaria and Sherilyn Fenn have signed on for multi-episode arcs on the second season of Showtime's drama series Ray Donovan, starring stars Liev Schreiber as LA's best professional "fixer." Azaria will play the ambitious head honcho of the Los Angeles FBI, and Fenn will play his frumpy wife.

Film director McG is joining NBC’s drama pilot The Mysteries Of Laura as director/executive producer. The show is based on the popular Spanish series Los Misterios De Laura and follows the life and relationships of a female homicide detective who can handle murderous criminals but not her evil twin sons.

ABC has hired Jace Alexander (Law & Order, The Blacklist) to helm the pilot Agatha. The plot centers on a former convict turned big city criminologist brought in to help local police crack a case—only the Chief detective she's been hired to help is her estranged father.

The latest NCIS spinoff, NCIS New Orleans has tapped some new cast members, incuding CCH Pounder (The Shield) to play Dr. Wade, the Jefferson Parish Medical Examiner; Zoe McLellan (JAG), playing Special Agent Brody; and Scott Bakula as Special Agent Pride.

USA Network says that the current season of Psych will be its last, with the series finale on March 26. The finale will be followed by the Psych After Show, a one-hour live Q&A in front of a studio audience featuring the cast and show creator Steve Franks. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Ryan Phillippe (Damages) and Natalie Martinez (Under The Dome, End Of Watch) have signed on to star in ABC's Secrets & Lies, centering on a family man who finds the body of a young boy and quickly becomes the prime murder suspect. The project is an adaptation of an Australian mystery series.

The Killing is adding Tyler Ross, Sterling Beaumon and Levi Meaden to its cast for the show's six-episode fourth and final season.

Netflix renewed its original series House of Cards for a third season. The show stars Kevin Spacey as a ruthless Washington-insider congressman, with Emmy winner Robin Wright playing his equally ambitious wife.

TNT has picked up six more episodes of the breakout docu-reality series, Cold Justice, which follows former prosecutor Kelly Siegler and former crime-scene investigator Yolanda McClary as they dig into unsolved cold murder cases.

Don Johnson is returning to television again as a lawman (the first such role since Miami Vice and Nash Bridges) in the supernatural From Dusk Till Dawn on the El Rey Network. He'll play Sheriff Earl McGraw, fixated on capturing the notorious Gecko brothers after their bank heist leaves several dead, with a trail that leads to a strip joint in Mexico filled with vampires.  

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Dean Gialamas, Director of the Los Angles County Sheriff’s Department’s Crime Lab, was the guest on the most recent Crime and Science Radio podcast.

Elizabeth Foxwell noted that the latest episode of the Warner Archive Collection podcast discusses the release of Bill Elliott Detective Mysteries (1955–57), a DVD of films with Elliott as a detective working in the LA sheriff's office.

Thanks to Elizabeth for also pointing out that the KPFA radio program Bookwaves has two versions online of a documentary on Elmore Leonard that includes archival interviews. 

Comments

[sandra seamans]

Isn't that CSI New Orleans an NCIS spin-off? At least that's what I've been reading.

[BV Lawson]

Ack! You are so right, Sandra, and thanks for the catch. I'm on the road today, so that made it harder to take care of this sooner. Apologies to the "NCIS" folks.