Hard to believe another week has gone by, but that means it's once again time for Media Murder for Monday, with a wrap-up of the latest crime drama news:
MOVIES
Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express from Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg and Mark Gordon, who are producing the detective movie for 20th Century Fox. Michael Green (who wrote the new Blade Runner sequel for Scott) has been tasked with adapting Christie’s 1934 Hercule Poirot detective novel.
Robert Downey, Jr., says there is a Sherlock 3 in development, but the actor is also working on developing a Perry Mason project based on the novels of Erle Stanley Gardner, "as kind of a pre-Chinatown gumshoe thriller with some courtroom stakes, and action sequences.”
Van Diesel's big-screen adaptation of the hit 70s police detective TV show Kojak apparently still has some life, with Universal hiring Philip Gawthorne to write the script. Gawthorne has written for several long-running BBC series such as Eastenders, Casualty and Holby City.
The confusing Bourne saga continues: after Matt Damon signed off the spy franchise, Jeremy Renner took over with the spin-off The Bourne Legacy. When Damon decided to come back to the series, Renner's future was cast into doubt, but it appears now that both franchises are moving forward. In more Bourne news, the Damon project will be bringing back Julia Stiles to reprise her role as covert agent Nicky Parsons.
A trailer was released for the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places starring Charlize Theron, which hits DirecTV on June 18th and opens in cinemas on August 7th.
TELEVISION
ITV is producing a prequel to its popular series Prime Suspect, which starred Helen mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in the Metropolitan Police. That series was partially written by author Lynda La Plante, who will also pen eisodes of the prequel Tennison, which follows the young detective as she begins her career.
ITV also announced it has commissioned the drama series Marcella from Hans Rosenfeldt, the writer of The Bridge. The project will be set in contemporary London with a British Metropolitan Police Officer at its heart, and is described as "Scandinavian noir on the streets of Britain."
ABC has picked up a detective drama project for development from American Crime creator John Ridley. Titled Presence, it's described as "a stylish update of the classic detective genre," and follows Presence Foster, a former Army Counter Insurgency Operative who unintentionally begins a career as an unlicensed private investigator in LA.
Even before escaped murders David Sweat and Richard Matt have been recaptured, news comes that Lifetime is already planning a TV movie based on the escape, manhunt and (hopefully) eventual capture from the vantage point of Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who helped them.
CBS drama NCIS: New Orleans is promoting recurring players Shalita Grant and Daryl Mitchell to full-cast regulars. They join returning stars Scott Bakula, Lucas Black, Zoe McLellan, Rob Kervovich and CCH Pounder.
A&E announced they’ve renewed Bates Motel not only for a fourth season of 10 episodes (to start in early 2016), but they're also putting in an order for Season 5 (coming in the first months of 2017).
Charles Grodin is the latest addition to the ABC miniseries Madoff, inspired by ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross’ reports and his book The Madoff Chronicles, about now-imprisoned swindler Bernie Madoff (played by Richard Dreyfuss).
FX released a short trailer for the second season of Fargo, starring Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, with Ted Danson, Patrick Wilson, Nick Offerman and Jean Smart also on board. The second series is set around the 1979 Sioux Falls incident teased in the first season and features a young Lou Solverson (Wilson), the former state trooper played by Keith Carradine in the first season.
PODCASTS
Minnesota Public Radio profiled true crime writer James Tully, whose new book The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte tries to make the case that Charlotte Bronte poisoned her famous siblings due to rivalry, jealousy, greed and betrayal.
Ari Shapiro interviewed Kate Atkinson on the Morning Edition book club about her new novel A God in Ruins and how she crafts her characters.
This week's Crime and Science Radio featured image enhancement expert Douglas Carner discussing tampered evidence and industry secrets.
I'll tune in to see Richard Dreyfus as Bernie Madoff. He (Dreyfus not Madoff) was one of my "secret husbands" in the 1970s!
Btw, I read a number of books about Madoff and his quarter-century long scam. That guy is a stone-cold psychopath. Completely.
Posted by: Deb | June 22, 2015 at 08:58 PM
I like Dreyfus, too, Deb! I also agree with you about Madoff - not only did he take many of his investors down with him, the tragedy also destroyed his family, including his son who committed suicide. I wish I could believe he was an outlier, but I fear most of Wall Street is cut from the same cloth.
Posted by: BV Lawson | June 22, 2015 at 09:12 PM