Top o' the week means it's Media Murder for Monday time, with the latest crime drama news from around the globe:
MOVIES
The Mentalist star Simon Baker is heading home to Australia for his feature film directing debut, the surf-themed thriller Breath. The project is based on the novel by best selling Australian author, Tim Winton, and follows two teenagers in 1970s coastal Australia who form an unlikely bond with a reclusive surfer and his mysterious wife. Baker will also produce alongside Better Call Saul's Mark Johnson and See Pictures’ Jamie Hilton and star as the reclusive surfer.
Warner Bros is developing a new installment of The Fugitive, with the producers from the 1993 film, Arnold and Anne Kopelson, returning for the project. However, the studio didn't say if original stars Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones would be coming back for an encore.
Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) will star in the tech world drama-thriller The Circle, which is based on Dave Eggers' 2013 novel about a recent college graduate (Vikander) who lands a job at a powerful tech company called The Circle, which is co-owned by a charismatic man (played by Tom Hanks). Vikander is also set to star in Warner Bros.' spy film The Man From U.N.C.L.E. later this year.
Abbie Cornish and Dermot Mulroney will star alongside Diego Klattenhoff (of The Blacklist) in the psychological thriller Lavender, with Ed Gass-Donnelly directing from a script he co-wrote with Colin Frizzell. The plot follows the aftermath of an accident that leaves a photographer (Cornish) struggling with severe memory loss and strange clues among her photos that suggest she may be responsible for the deaths of family members she never knew she had.
Anna Friel and James Frencheville have joined Pierce Brosnan in the cast of the thriller I.T. The plot centers on a publisher who tries to keep his life from completely unraveling after firing an unstable I.T. guy who has gotten too close to his family.
Nicolas Cage is set to play a police officer in the psychological thriller EXIT 147, which follows a group of three people, each in their own stories that intertwine, leading the characters into sadistic mind games. Cage is also on board for Dog Eat Dog, a gritty crime thriller based on the book by Eddie Bunker that will be adapted by screenwriter Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull). Cage teamed up with Schrader for last year's The Dying of the Light, a film that was allegedly so butchered by producers that both Schrader and Cage consequently disowned the project, but this time Schrader will have complete creative control.
Jamie Foxx has been cast in director Noam Murro’s heist movie Blink, playing a hospital caregiver whose patient is the victim of a bank robbery with ulterior motives.
Liam Neeson is in final negotiations to star in the cat-and-mouse thriller A Willing Patriot, playing a CIA agent who tries to outsmart and capture a terrorist who is planning an attack. A wide domestic release deal of the film is expected to be announced during the Cannes Film Festival.
In what would be a move-against-type for him (except for the mostly-forgotten Number 23 from 2007), Jim Carrey is in talks to star in the indie thriller True Crimes, inspired by David Grann's 2008 New Yorker article "True Crimes – A Post-Modern Murder Mystery." That story hinged on a murder investigation that takes clues found in a crime novelist’s book, which strikes a bizarre resemblance to the case.
Martin Scorsese is taking on Kenneth Branagh's "gritty, immersive" Macbeth stage project, hoping to film a documentary about Branagh's production by reuniting the original cast and filming performances over the course of a few weeks at Leavesden in Hertfordshire.
Dime Crimes #34 is a new short noir film from director Ed Hellman and writer John Michael Wagner. The plot centers on Doll, a homebody with a stash of pulp fiction, who's thrown into the world of her favorite stories when she sees a gun hidden in the waistband of her charming new tenant. Unbeknownst to her apathetic fiancé, Doll debates confronting the man and joining him in a life of adventure. As the tenant’s mystery is exposed, Doll is forced to realize that she alone has the ability to turn her fantasies into a reality. You can catch a trailer for the film on its official website. (Hat tip to James Reasoner.)
TELEVISION
ITV3 will screen a repeat of Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford two-part mystery Road Rage on May 23 and May 30 as a tribute to the celebrated writer who died earlier this month. Road Rage, which was originally broadcast in 1998, stars George Baker, who also wrote the screenplay, as Chief Inspector Wexford.
Not only is Twin Peaks getting a reboot, David Lynch is returning to helm the project, following some contractual back-and-forthing that some feared would keep him away. The other bit of good news for Twin Peaks fans is the show will be getting more airtime than the prevously-announced "nine hours," although the total number of episodes wasn't disclosed.
Deadline has a handy list of all the summer TV premiere dates for new and returning shows, including Hannibal on June 4, Major Crimes and Murder in the First on June 8, Rizzoli & Isles on June 16, True Detective on June 21, and much more.
CBS renewed Person of Interest, although only for thirteen episodes. This is the same strategy CBS used with The Mentalist, leading industry insiders to speculate the shortened fifth season will signal the end of the series.
CBS also finally decided how it's going to end its long-running series CSI - with a a two-hour finale, featuring original stars William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger. Ted Danson fans can relax, however, since the actor is moving to CSI: Cyber opposite Patricia Arquette, reprising the D.B. Russell character.
The new CBS crime thriller series for the Fall season, Limitless (adapted from Alan Glynn's novel The Dark Fields), is based on the 2011 Bradley Cooper-starring film about a drug that enhances the brain's ability, but at a terrible price. Cooper has been involved as producer of the series, but it was announced he'll also recur in the show, reprising his character from the film.
Following the success of 24: Live Another Day, Fox is contemplating another limited-run series of 24 possibly as early as next year, although star Kiefer Sutherland may not be involved. It's still early in the developmental process, so Sutherland fans don't need to panic just yet.
USA Network has added another original drama with a 13-episode series pickup for Queen of the South, a thriller set in the world of Mexican drug cartels that's based on a wildly popular show on Telemundo. The story centers on a woman (played by Alice Braga) who is drawn into the world of high-stakes drug trafficking when her drug-dealer boyfriend is murdered.
Amazon revived the Victorian-era detective drama Ripper Street in 2014 shortly after the BBC decided not to renew the show for a second season. Season 3 of the period drama launched on the UK’s Amazon Prime Instant Video in November last year and was streamed more than any other TV show, attracting larger viewing audiences than some major U.S. series. Thanks to those numbers, Amazon has now committed to two further seasons for Prime Instant in the UK.
The Hallmark Channel renewed Cedar Cove for a third season. The show is based on Debbie Macomber’s mystery book series and stars Andie MacDowell.
After some last-minute contract wrangling, it appears that Stana Katic will return to Castle this fall, after all. The show was recently renewed for another season, but Katic was the only holdout in the cast.
ABC’s anthology drama American Crime, starring stars Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Penelople Ann Miller, will feature some of the same actors from its first season in different roles when the show comes back for Season 2.
Production on the international crime series Sorjonen will begin in Lappeenranta, Finland this summer. According to director Mikko Oikkonen, Lappeenranta makes for an interesting film location because of its proximity to the Russian border, framing the tale of a top police detective who moves to his wife’s home town in Lappeenranta after a family tragedy.
Nordicana heads to the Troxy theatre in London June 6-7, with screenings of various Scandinavian crime dramas, including three brand new series, ITV Encore’s Jordskott, More4’s new 6 part WWII drama The Saboteurs, and the new French Crime series from Channel 4, Witnesses. Many stars from the shows will also be hand for the event.
Film Noir Foundation Eddie Muller will host TCM's Summer of Darkness this June and July when the network will dedicate 24 hours each Friday to a lineup comprised exclusively of film noir. Muller will present four movies each night during prime-time, 36 films in all. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
The BBC released a teaser-trailer for the Sherlock Christmas Special 2015 (although it also looks like it continues the story line from the previous season's cliffhanger).
The new trailer for Season 2 of True Detective is out, this time with more details and actual dialogue.
A new trailer has been released for season three of Orange Is the New Black, which returns June 12.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The latest podcast from AHMM features Jim Fusilli reading his story "The One-Armed Man in the Luncheonette" from the June 2014 issue.
GAMES/COMICS
Glu Mobile announced they will create a free-to-play mobile game under license from Paramount Pictures in coordination with the theatrical release of the new film Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, delivering the action of the movie to mobile audiences worldwide this summer.
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