We start off the week with the latest news of crime dramas on the big and little screen:
MOVIES
Australian author Anna Snoekstra’s debut novel The New Winter (to be published by Harlequin imprint Mira in June 2016) has been optioned by Universal Pictures. The story centers on a 25-year-old runaway claiming to be a girl who disappeared 11 years ago, but when her family takes her in, family secrets that led to the daughter’s disappearance begin to surface.
Sony Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Branden Kramer’s cyber-suspense thriller Ratter, starring Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), Matt McGorry (Orange is the New Black) and Rebecca Naomi Jones (The Switch). Kramer directed from his own script (based on the short online film Webcam), with Benson taking on the role of a graduate student living alone in New York City, where she’s watched by a “ratter” who stalks her by hacking into all of her personal technology, eventually going from virtual stalking to physical stalking.
Marion Cotillard is in negotiations to co-star with Brad Pitt in Paramount, New Regency and Graham King’s untitled period spy thriller. Robert Zemeckis is directing the film from a script by Steven Knight, although the plot and full details of the project have been kept under wraps.
Lou Diamond Phillips has signed on to star in the thriller The Night Stalker, with production slated to begin this summer. He'll take on the role of real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez, dubbed “the Night Stalker” by the Los Angeles press during his 1985 killing spree.
Irish actor Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction) has joined the cast of Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, set in Boston in the late seventies. Those already signed include Brie Larson, Noah Taylor, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Enzo Cilenti. Larson plays a woman who has brokered a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen and a gang that is selling them a stash of guns. But when shots are fired in the handover, a game of survival ensues.
London Has Fallen, the thriller sequel to 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, is moving to a 2016 release date, thanks to schedule conflicts with films like Fox's The Martian and Sony's The Walk. London Has Fallen once again stars Gerard Butler as former Special Forces soldier Mike Banning, who in this outing must thwart a plot to assassinate world leaders gathering for the Prime Minister’s funeral in London.
Speaking of dates in the future, Sony has set a Sept. 29, 2017 release date for its sequel to the Denzel Washington thriller The Equalizer, with Washington expected to reprise his role as vigilante Robert McCall.
Robert Redford has bowed out of directing the 9/11 thriller, Against All Enemies, due to scheduling conflicts. Redford is the latest in a long line of director/actor shakeups for the project, which is based on Richard A. Clarke's bestselling memoir.
Daniel Craig returns for his fourth outing as 007 in a new TV spot for Spectre.
A trailer was released for Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan’s action thriller No Escape.
A new trailer was released for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the spy thriller based on the 1960s hit television series.
In the trailer for Alejandro Amenabar’s upcoming thriller Regression, Emma Watson struggles to access repressed memories after she accuses her father of a crime. The film also stars Ethan Hawke as Detective Bruce Kenner, David Thewlis as the psychologist, and David Denick as the father.
TELEVISION
Blythe Danner (Meet The Parents) and Lyne Renee (Strike Back) have joined the cast of ABC’s Madoff miniseries, which is based on the infamous swindler Bernie Madoff and the $65 billion Ponzi scheme he masterminded. Danny Deferrari and Stephen Gevedon have also come on board the project, which stars Richard Dreyfuss as Madoff.
It appears that fans of the supernatural private eye drama Constantine (starring Matt Ryan) on NBC are finally out of luck. There were encouraging signs the producer might be able to get another network to pick up the show after NBC canceled it, but those efforts didn't pan out. Executive producer Daniel Cerone announced the show’s official end and thanked fans for the support.
On the other hand, fans of the crime drama Power on Starz will be relieved to hear the network has renewed the series for a third season. The show stars Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren and Naturi Naughton and is set in two different worlds, the glamorous New York club scene and the brutal drug trade.
Leonard Roberts (American Sniper) has been added to the cast of another show based on a true-life case, Ryan Murphy’s FX drama American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson. Roberts will play Dennis Schatzman, the journalist who jumped on the O.J. Simpson soapbox to cry out about the LAPD’s war against African-Americans.
The latest trailer for New Detective's Season Two (which premieres on June 21) is a "wordless, pulse-pouding look at the four main characters," including Ventura County Sheriff’s detective Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) and motorcyle cop Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch), as they skirt the line between the law and crime.
CBS announced the premiere dates for its fall schedule including Scorpion and NCIS: Los Angeles (September 21); NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, and Limitless (September 22); Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods (September 25); Criminal Minds (September 30); CSI: Cyber (October 4); and Elementary (November 5).
ABC also announced its fall schedule, with Castle premiering on September 21; How to Get Away with Murder on September 24; and the debut series Quantico on September 27.
Fox Tweeted a "first look" photo of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully during production on the upcoming X-Files limited series.
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