Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone will be at the helm of a biopic about Edward Snowden, based on The Snowden Files, journalist Luke Harding's account of events surrounding reports about Snowden in The Guardian newspaper.

Universal Pictures is remaking the South African thriller iNumber Number about an undercover police detective who crosses over from cop to robber in order to orchestrate a major heist. David DiGilio has been hired to write the script.

In more remake news, Kamala Films and producer Guy Stodel are teaming up for an English-language remake of the Spanish heist thriller 25 Kilates, about a petty thief and a mob enforcer who hatch a daring plan to break free from the criminal underworld in Barcelona.

Writer-director Bryan Bertino has been hired by MGM to script Abe, based on the chilling short film about a robot serial killer from British writer/director/VFX artist Rob McLellan.  

Jeremy Renner is joining Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg in the 2015 installment of the Mission Impossible franchise, directed by Christopher McQuarrie.

Josh Brolin is set to co-star in Sicario, a CIA drama about a Tucson SWAT officer who is recruited on a cartel-destroying mission. He joins Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro in the cast.

Tom Hardy has signed on board The Revenant, a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as nineteenth century fur trapper who seeks revenge on friends who stole his belongings after he was mauled by a bear and left for dead.

Christian Slater will star opposite James Franco in Adderall Diaries, directed by Pamela Romanowsky. The story follows a troubled and drug-addicted writer (Franco) who becomes fascinated by the trial of a man suspected of killing his ex-wife (Slater) and decides to create a book focusing on the case.

The official trailer was released for November Man, the upcoming film starring Pierce Brosnan an ex-CIA operative who gets caught up in a plot involving his former protege and the Russian president-elect.

TELEVISION

NYBD Blue creator Steve Bochcho's latest crime drama, Murder in the First, premieres tonight on TNT. The series stars Kathleen Robertson, Taye Diggs, and Tom Felton in the procedural that follows one long case thoughout each season, a la The Killing and True Detective.

Sundance Channel is airing the six-part series Rectify, starring Aden Young as an ex-con adjusting to his former life in small-town Georgia when the politician who put him behind bars makes it his business to see that he gets sent back to jail.

Life Of Pi star Suraj Sharma is joining the cast of Showtime's Homeland for the upcoming fourth season, according to TV Guide, which also reported that Laila Robins (In Treatment) and Corey Stoll (House of Cards) will be on board.

Dominic Cooper will reprise his Captain America role as Tony Stark's father in Marvel's Agent Carter. The limited television series is part of ABC's midseason schedule next year, and continues the theme of fighting crime in the post-World War II 1940s.

Two of Exorcist director William Friedkin’s crime dramas, Killer Joe And To Live And Die In L.A., are being developed as potential TV series.

Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones) is joining the cast of Netflix's upcoming series Narcos, which follows "the true-life story of the growth and spread of cocaine drug cartels across the globe" and their battle with law enforcement.

NBC announced its Fall Schedule, including crime dramas The Blacklist on Mondays, Chicago Fire on Tuesdays, Law & Order:SVU followed by Chicago P.D. on Wednesdays, and Grimm on Fridays.

PODCAST/VIDEOS/RADIO

NPR's Diane Rehm Show featured an interview with David Ignatius, author of The Director, a CIA thriller being adapted for film by Sony Pictures.