Here's the latest crime drama news on the air, on the stage and on screen:
MOVIES
Benjamin Bratt will star alongside Bryan Cranston and Diane Kruger in The Infiltrator, a fact-based thriller directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer). The project tells the story of a customs and excise agent (Cranston) who went undercover as a money launderer and infiltrated the bankers behind the Medellin drug cartel. Bratt will play Roberto Alcanio, who dealt directly with the infamous Pablo Escobar.
Nicola's Books of Ann Arbor Michigan is partnering with the Michigan Theater for a weekly film series through April of movies based on noir books. After such showings as The Maltese Falcon, the store also sells copies of the book that inspired the film, as well as other noir titles. (Hat tip to Shelf Awareness.)
The first trailer was released for Mr. Holmes, featuring Ian McKellen as an elderly version of the iconic detective. Based on Mitch Cullin’s novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, the plot features the detective teaming up with a young boy to solve one last mystery.
A trailer was released for The Connection, which was inspired by the real-life story of Marseilles magistrate Pierre Michel (played by Jean Dujardin) and his relentless crusade to dismantle the most notorious drug smuggling operation in history: the French Connection.
TELEVISION
The Dublin Murder Squad series of crime novels by Tana French are to be developed as a TV series by Euston Film and Veritas Entertainment. The producers hope to offer the series to "the international television market."
NBC has cancelled the spy drama Allegiance after only five episodes. There's no word on whether the network will make the remaining produced episodes available for viewing via another means.
Rob Kazinsky (True Blood, Pacific Rim) will play the lead role in Fox's pilot scifi-supernatural-thriller police procedural drama Frankenstein. The project is from Rand Ravich (Crisis) and Howard Gordon (Homeland) and follows the story of Ray Pritchard (played by Kazinsky), a morally corrupt retired cop given a second chance at life when he's brought back from the dead. Now younger and stronger, he has to choose between his old temptations and his new sense of purpose.
Another True Blood alum, Rutina Wesley, is headed to ABC’s Broad Squad, a 1978-set drama pilot about Boston’s first female patrol officers, where she'll play one of the four central female cops.
Eddie Izzard is set to star in HBO's drama pilot The Devil You Know alongside newcomer actresses Nadia Alexander and Ismenia Mendes. Co-written by Orange Is The New Black creators Jenji Kohan, Bruce Miller and Tracy Miller and directed by Gus Van Sant, the period drama focuses on the infamous Salem Witch Trials in 17th century New England. Izzard plays farmer Thomas Putnam, the conservative, rigid and devoutly Puritan patriarch of the powerful Putnam family.
Giovanni Ribisi has snagged the lead role in the CBS drama pilot Sneaky Pete, written/executive produced by Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston and House creator David Shore.
Dreama Walker will star opposite KaDee Strickland in Doubt, the CBS drama about a smart, chic, successful defense lawyer at a boutique firm who shockingly gets involved romantically with one of her clients who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime.
The upcoming fifth season of Homeland will jump two-and-a-half years in the future in Europe (most likely, Germany), where Claire Danes' Carrie will no longer be an intelligence officer.
TNT has ordered 12 additional episodes of real-life investigative series Cold Justice for premiere on April 10. The show follows former prosecutor Kelly Siegler as they assist local law enforcement in trying to close long-unsolved cases. Additionally, the network ordered two new Justice Served specials hosted by John Walsh (America’s Most Wanted). The specials will update viewers on victims’ families and the status of cases as they have wound their way through the legal system.
PODCASTS/RADIO/VIDEO
The latest podcast from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine features a story from the late, long-time contributor of stories to that 'zine. "The Problem of the Lobster Shack" features a locked room with an escape artist bound and chained at the center of it. (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)
THEATER
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is bringing an adaptation of Stephen King's novel Misery to Broadway, which will mark the Broadway debut for Bruce Willis. Willis will play the housebound writer Paul Sheldon, who becomes a prisoner of Annie Wilkes, to be played by Elizabeth Marvel (Other Desert Cities, House of Cards).
Final casting has been announced for Lonny Price's production of the crime musical Sweeney Todd that begins performances at the London Coliseum March 30, prior to an official opening March 31 (running April 12). The lead role of the demon barber of Fleet Street will be sung by Bryn Terfel, with Emma Thompson playing Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime.
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