Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Leonardo DiCaprio has signed to star in the film adaptation of Michael Punke's novel The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge. The gritty thriller focuses on a 19th century fur trapper who survives getting mauled by a grizzly bear, and then plans revenge on cohorts who robbed him and left him for dead. 

The film based on Laura Lippman's novel Every Secret Thing is being shown as part of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan from April 16-27. For screening times, check out the film festival's website.

The Pierce Brosnan-starring spy thriller November Man, based on the late Bill Granger’s 1987 novel, There Are No Spies, has been given a U.S. release date of August 27. Brosnan plays an ex-CIA operative brought out of retirement to track down his former pupil (Luke Bracey) in a plot involving the Russian president-elect and high-level CIA officers.

Directory Jerry Bruckheimer indicated they were in the process of getting the script for the Beverly Hills Cop sequel finished, with the hopes to start shooting at the end of the summer or in early fall. Star Eddie Murphy has signed on to rejoin the franchise.

After just three weeks' efforts, Gosnell has become the most funded movie ever on Indiegogo. The project centers on the real-life story of Philadelphia doctor Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who ran "the abortion clinic from hell" and was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. 

The first trailer was released for Gone Girl, the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel. The project stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Missi Pyle and Patrick Fugit and is directed by David Fincher.

A trailer was also released for God's Pocket, the feature-length directorial debut from Mad Men star John Slattery that's based on the novel of the same name by Pete Dexter. The film stars the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman and is set in a gritty blue-collar neighborhood where a construction "accident" leads to the burial of a body and the truth.

Want more trailers? The latest trailer for David Michod's gritty crime thriller The Rover, promises that "things fall apart" in a post-apocalyptic society where normal rules of civilization have faded.

Meanwhile, Magnolia Pictures released a teaser poster and a trailer for the conspiracy thriller Pioneer.  (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TELEVISION

FX renewed its 1980s spy drama The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, for a third season of 13 new episodes.

A&E Network gave the go-ahead to the unscripted series D.O.A. from Law & Order executive producer Dick Wolf. The series follows an elite team of detectives who re-examine controversial murder cases "in which unresolved questions linger long after the verdict."

X Files producer/writer Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer (Houdini) have created the crime series Freud: The Secret Casebook, a period drama where Sigmund Freud becomes the world's first criminal profiler.

Law & Order: SVU will welcome back B.D. Wong, who starred on the NBC drama for nine seasons, to reprise his role as Dr. George Huang in the season's penultimate episode.

Omnimystery News reported that of the final five episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot series, three will be available exclusively on Acorn TV, while only two will air on PBS. Acorn will, however, make these three episodes available to PBS later in the year.

The fledgling network Pivot announced a new programming slate, incuding the dark drama Fortitude that follows the residents of an Arctic town shaken to its core by the brutal murder of a research scientist.

ABC Family released a first look at stars Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth who will play amateur detectives in the half-hour comedy-drama Mystery Girls.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

This week on CBS This Morning: David Baldacci, author of The Target.

This week on Crime and Science Radio: When Disaster Hits: Naming The Dead, an Interview With NTSB’s Paul Sledzik.

NPR's Fresh Air program profiled author crime writer Giorgio Scerbanenco, often called "the father of Italian noir."

Black Mask magazine was founded ninety-four years ago, in April of 1920. To celebrate, Open Road Media put together a YouTube video hosted by Otto Penzler, who discusses the history of the magazine where mystery greats including Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Carroll John Daly got their start.