Media Murder for Monday

It's Media Murder for Monday time again, with the latest news on crime dramas on stage and screen, including the Writers Guild of America Awards.

AWARDS

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) handed out their top honors this past weekend. You can get all the winners here, but The Imitation Game, written by Graham Moore (based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges) won for Best Adapted Screenplay, and True Detective, written by Nic Pizzolatto, won for Best TV Drama Series and Best New Series.

MOVIES

Diane Kruger will star opposite Bryan Cranston in the thriller The Infiltrator, to be directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer). The project is based on the Robert Mazur autobiography and revolves around a customs and excise agent (Cranston) and his undercover alias.

ARC Entertainment snapped up North American rights to the thriller The Squeeze from writer-director Terry Jastrow. Christopher McDonald stars as a notorious gambler who discovers a modest young man with uncommon golf skills (Jeremy Sumpter) and convinces him to start playing in high-stakes matches that grow higher and higher until the game becomes life or death.

The Orchard acquired North American theatrical and digital rights to Matthew Heineman’s drug-themed documentary Cartel Land.

The first trailer and publicity photos for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. were released, featuring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as the spy duo.

A trailer was also released for the thriller Regression, about a detective investigating the case of a young woman who accuses her father of an unspeakable crime that leads to a horrifying nationwide mystery.

Daniel Craig had to take a brief period off from filming the next Bond film Spectre, thanks to a knee injury, although it didn't delay production. Meanwhile, the studio released a new photo with 007 in action, along with early behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot in Austria.

TELEVISION

AMC bought a spec political thriller script by Darby Kealey that centers on an award-winning actress who is kidnapped by the dictator of a foreign country and becomes the centerpiece of a covert power struggle.

James Franco is set to star in the adaptation of Stephen King's novel 11/22/63 from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. The plot revolves around an unassuming divorced English teacher who stumbles upon a time portal and goes on a quest to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Revolution co-star David Lyons has come aboard the drama pilot Game Of Silence from CSI's Carol Mendelsohn. Lyons will play a rising attorney on the brink of success who could lose his perfectly crafted life when childhood friends threaten to expose a dark secret from their violent past.

Zach Gilford has been cast in ABC’s untitled drama pilot from Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal alumna Jenna Ban. The story centers on the return of a politician’s young son who was presumed dead after disappearing over a decade earlier, leading to new mysteries.

ABC also hired directors for two more pilots, including British veteran Tom Shankland (Ripper Street) for L.A. Crime, a character-driven, “true-crime” procedural that explores sex, politics and popular culture across various noteworthy eras in Los Angeles history, and fellow Brit Coky Giedroyc (The Hour) for the 1978-set female-cop procedural Broad Squad.

Eric McCormack (Perception) has signed on to play the male lead in Fox’s family dramedy pilot Studio City, written by Krista Vernoff and directed by Sanaa Hamri. The series is  inspired by Vernoff’s real-life experience growing up as the daughter of a drug dealer to the stars

Banshee got the go-ahead from Cinemax for a fourth season. Antony Starr will return as Lucas Hood, ex-con and master thief who assumes the identity of the sheriff of Banshee, Pa., and continues his criminal pursuits while enforcing his own code of justice.

TNT renewed its fantasy crime fighting series The Librarians for a second season. The show stars Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane, Lindy Booth, John Kim, John Larroquette, and Noah Wyle.

The CW also renewed fantasy-romance-procedural Beauty and the Beast.

THEATER

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is heading to the UK's Ipswich Regent Theatre October 5-10. Last year, the company also produced Christie's The Mousetrap.