MOVIES
Aaron Sorkin is in negotiations to adapt Michael Lewis' best-selling nonfiction book Flash Boys for Sony. Envisioned as a financial thriller similar to another Lewis book, Moneyball, the plot deals with the practice of high-frequency trading on Wall Street and how it became a way to rig the system.
As Kevin Bacon takes a break from The Following while it's on summer hiatus, he's joining the cast of not one but two thrillers: the untitled Black Mass project opposite Johnny Depp as notorious Irish mobster Whitey Bulger, with Bacon playing the FBI Special Agent in charge of the Boston field office; and Cop Car, an indie thriller from director Jon Watts about a police officer hunting down the two kids who stole his car for a joyride, unaware that there’s a dead body in the trunk (with Bacon playing the corrupt cop). Bacon has already filmed another role in the supernatural thriller 6 Miranda Drive.
Sam Raimi is spearheading the adaptation of Jake Tapper‘s bestselling book The Outpost: An Untold Story Of American Valor. The Afghanistan-set thriller details the true-life siege upon American Combat Outpost Keating in Kamdesh.
Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, and Ralph Fiennes are in talks to join George Clooney in the Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar! movie. The plot centers on "a studio executive and fixer in the Golden Age of Hollywood, whose job it was to keep the salacious private scandals of the town's biggest stars out of the press."
In a bit of timely World Cup-themed news, Bugeater Films has optioned writer-director Darryl Wharton-Rigby's Wall Pass, a feature treatment for a soccer-themed thriller inspired by current events surrounding soccer's biggest event. It's inspired in part by the real-life tale of the government of Ghana delivering $3 million in cash in order for its team to continue playing, with a twist: when the courier is ambushed on the way to make the drop, he has less than 12 hours to recover the stolen money.
Will Poulter (We're the Millers) is in negotiations to join Leonardo DiCaprio in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's revenge thriller, The Revenant.
Wes Bentley and Jaimie Alexander have signed on to star in psychological thriller Broken Vows, which also marks the feature directorial debut of Belgian Bram Coppens. The plot centers on a charming yet troubled man who erupts into psychotic rage when a woman rejects him.
James Bond fans will have to wait a little longer; director Sam Mendes has brought back Skyfall original writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to Bond 24 to "punch up" John Logan's screenplay, a move that may "cause a significant delay in the production."
Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films and Grindstone Entertainment released a trailer for the thriller The Prince, starring Jason Patric as a long-retired assassin who is pulled back into the life when someone grabs his daughter. Patric is joined by Bruce Willis in the film, playing a crime boss with a score to settle that goes back 20 years.
TELEVISION
Irish crime fiction author Stuart Neville's book Ratlines is being devloped into a TV series. The adaptation of the novel, which is about Nazis harboured by the Irish state following WWII, is being jointly developed by Belfast-based KGB Screen and Dublin-based Ripple World Pictures, with development funding from RTE Drama and Northern Ireland Screen.
Sarah Jessica Parker may be returning to television in an adaptation of Busted: A Tale Of Corruption And Betrayal In The City Of Brotherly Love, a police crime thriller written by Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker. Co-produced by Anonymous Content (True Detective), the story follows the true-life efforts of Ruderman and Laker to uncover one of the biggest police corruption scandals in Philadelphia’s history, which earned them a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
Anti-mafia journalist and author Roberto Saviano will present the series based on his best-selling expose Gomorrah at the Munich Film Festival. Weinstein Company has picked up U.S. rights for the series and is also believed to be considering an English-language adaptation.
AMC renewed its Revolutionary War spy series Turn for a second season.
The 10-episode one-hour crime drama Spotless starts pre-production in London in early July. Billed as a "darkly humorous and irreverent" family drama that revolves around organized crime, the international cast includes Canadian actor Marc-André Grondin (C.R.A.Z.Y) , France’s Denis Ménochet (Inglourious Basterds), British actress Miranda Raison (24: Live Another Day) and Downton Abbey’s Mr Bates, Brendan Coyle.
Fans of Pablo Schreiber, who plays prison guard George "Pornstache" Mendez on the Netflix comedy Orange is the New Black, will be disappointed to hear the news that his participation will be limited in the upcoming third season. But fear not—Schreiber will be a series regular in HBO's new show The Brink, a dark comedy about a geopolitical crisis and its effect on three desperate men, U.S. Secretary of State Walter Hollander (Tim Robbins), lowly Foreign Service officer Alex Coppins (Jack Black), and ace Navy fighter pilot Zeke Callahan (Schreiber).
CBS released its fall schedule, including NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans, which will air back-to-back on Tuesday evenings, Person of Interest, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, CSI, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, and Elementary.
Fox released a trailer for its Batman prequel series Gotham, with the cast discussing their roles. We also learn a little more about Detective James Gordon's involvement in the Wayne Murder case.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The latest Crime and Science Radio features Dr. D.P. Lyle and Jan Burke hosting "You’ll Tell Me No Lies: An Interview With Paul Bishop, Interrogation Expert, Author, and Retired LAPD Detective."
NPR's summer series "Crime in the City" continues with a look at rural West Virginia in the fictional city of Guyandotte, where Julia Keller's mystery series is based.
Omnivoracious sat down for a Q&A with Karin Slaughter, talking about her new standalone crime novel, Cop Town.
THEATER
The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick, Tony nominee Craig Bierko, Emmy nominee Matt McGrath, and stage and screen actress Annika Boras will star in the premiere of Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley's The Danish Widow. Shanley describes the mystery play as "disturbing, funny, deadly serious, sexy - like a Hitchcock film with a modernist edge." The production is part of the Powerhouse Theater season at Vassar College and runs July 16-27.