Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots are set to star in Green Room, an indie thriller from Blue Ruin filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier. The plot centers on a punk band who witnesses a murder at one of their shows in a middle-of-nowhere venue and gets locked in the green room, targeted for death by a gang of racist skinheads.

The indie thriller Urge, starring Pierce Brosnan, has added Alexis Knapp, Bar Paly, Chris Geere and Nick Thune to the cast. The story follows a group of friends on an island getaway who get addicted to a inhibition-busting drug.

Fox International's Hitman: Agent 47 has been pushed back six months from February to August in 2015. The film is based on the popular video game and stars Homeland actor Rupert Friend as the title character, with Zachary Quinto playing the lead villain.

TELEVISION

FremantleMedia North America is shopping a small-screen adaptation of The Twenty-Year Death, the acclaimed debut novel by Ariel S. Winter from Hard Case Crime. The book consists of three linked novels written in the styles of Georges Simenon, Richard Price, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson that tell a single epic story about an author whose life is shattered when violence and tragedy consume the people closest to him.

Award-winning documetarian R.J. Cutler (The War Room, American High) will direct and executive produce a police drama at CBS about a black L.A. homicide detective conflicted by getting a long overdue promotion to lead a racially charged murder investigation precisely because he’s black.

Grey’s Anatomy executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater are creating a legal drama for CBS about a smart, successful 30-something defense attorney who falls for one of her clients who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime.

Fox has preemptively purchased Low Tide, a spec script by Andrew Barrer & Gabe Ferrari, a thriller that follows a small-town policewoman who gets into a psychologically daring and personal game of cat and mouse with an ingenious serial killer over the July 4th weekend.  

Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) and Neal Baer (Law and Order: SVU) are teaming up to create a prep school spy drama for the CW, about a disgraced CIA agent-turned-teacher at an elite Washington DC prep school who trains a select few to be his eyes and ears into the world of international espionage and help him earn his way back into the agency.

Pretty Little Liars executive producer/co-showrunner Oliver Goldstick is behind another new project for the CW, titled The Town. Based on the 2012 three-part ITV miniseries from Mike Bartlett, The Town centers on a young man who investigates his parents’ suicide in a small town, only to realize it was murder and anyone in the town could be suspect.

The CW network is also developing a series based on the The Illusionist (a 2006 movie in turn based on Steven Millhauser's short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist"). To be written by Mark Hudis (True Blood), the show is set in turn-of-the-century New York and follows a renowned illusionist who returns home from a decade in prison prison to find his wife married to the ruthless crime boss who framed him. He then goes undercover in the crime boss' organization to take down his foe from the inside and win back his "one true love."

E: Entertainment One Television is partnering with Shaw Media in Canada and TF1 in France to develop and produce the hostage-negotiator drama Ransom, a project from X-Files veteran Frank Spotnitz. The series is based on the life experiences of one of the world’s most successful private hostage negotiators.  

Frank Langella is set to join FX's Soviet War era spy drama, The Americans, for its third season. His role is said to be a character named Gabriel who is living in America but who actually works for the KGB.

Tao Okamoto (Wolverine) is set for a major guest-starring arc on NBC drama series Hannibal, playing the "mysterious Lady Murasaki, who possesses an alluring and classical beauty with a dark secret."

Mena Suvari is in final talks to play the lead in WE TV‘s second original scripted series, the thriller drama South Of Hell, about a demon-hunter-for-hire whose power stems from within.

Libertine Pictures and writer Neil Cross have teamed up with the international TV producer Carnival Films to develop a new series set in Rotorua, New Zealand, described as a "darkly eccentric crime drama."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

This month’s episode of Crimwav featured Hilary Davidson reading from her new book BLOOD ALWAYS TELLS, live at Noir at the Bar in Milwaukee.

A big hat tip to the Double O Section blog for noting that BBC Radio 4 has created an audio production of Ian Fleming's non-fiction travelogue, Thrilling Cities, which focused on the seedier, seemier side of far-flung travel destinations in Europe, America and the Far East that Fleming found thrilling. The first of three 15-minute segments aired October 10, but it will be available to stream on BBC's iPlayer for the next four weeks.

THEATER

American Psycho, originally slated for its U.S. premiere at Second Stage Theatre Off-Broadway in early 2015, is instead eyeing a fall 2015 premiere on Broadway, according to the show's composer, Tony winner Duncan Sheik. The musical is based on the crime novel by Bret Easton Ellis about a high-profile Manhattan businessman who also happens to be a serial killer.