Here's your latest weekly wrap-up of crime fiction news on stage, screen, and video games:
MOVIES
Steven Spielberg is developing author Michael Crichton’s thriller Micro at DreamWorks. The story "follows a group of graduate students lured to Hawaii to work for a mysterious biotech company, only to find themselves miniaturized and cast out into the rainforest, with nothing but their wits and scientific expertise to protect them."
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is joining Dakota Fanning and Guy Pearce in the upcoming thriller Brimstone. He'll play an outlaw who has a crucial role in the tale of retribution, replacing Robert Pattinson. Fanning stars as Liz, a heroine on the run from her past who's chased by the evil Preacher (Pearce).
Josh Brolin, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Olivia Munn have rounded out the cast of Otto Bathurst’s crime thriller Three Seconds, based on the bestselling novel by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom. The story follows an ex-con, working undercover for the police, who is sent into a maximum security prison to break a criminal organization’s stranglehold on amphetamine dealings.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have signed on to produce a Warner Bros. adaptation of House of Deceit, a book proposal by BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger about the FIFA soccer (a/k/a football) corruption scandal. Gavin O’Connor (The Accountant) has been hired to direct, with Anthony Tambakis on board to pen the script.
Another week, more Bourne casting news: the franchise starring Matt Damon (not the Jeremy Renner reboot) is allegedly in talks to sign on Viggo Mortenson as the bad guy, and Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander has landed the critical co-starring role.
Robert Downey Jr. has a project in the works based on David Howards' upcoming book, Chasing Phil: The World’s Greatest Con Man, Two Undercover FBI Agents, And Their Amazing Around The World Adventure. The book centers around the FBI’s first foray into white-collar crime using young agents as undercover operatives tasked with infiltrating the shady world of a rich con man.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed on to star in 478, a revenge thriller based on a script by Javier Gullon. The story follows a man whose wife and child are killed in a plane crash, which leads Schwarzenegger’s character to pursue the air traffic controller responsible for the tragedy.
A new trailer was released for Hitman: Agent 47, starring Rupert Friend as a mysterious assassin genetically engineered to be the perfect killer.
The upcoming latest installment of Mission Impossible (titled Rogue Nation) also released a new trailer.
TELEVISION
Despite never having achieved huge ratings, this news is a bit of a shocker: NBC is cancelling Hannibal after three seasons. The season’s final episode will be shown on September 3, although showrunner Bryan Fulmer hinted that the show could return in another form or on another network, and Deadline reported there "has been a significant interest in Hannibal from other outlets."
NBC spared Aquarius the same fate however, renewing the David Duchovy-starring series about Charles Manson for a second season.
Bryan Cranston and David Shore’s pilot Sneaky Pete was given a pass by CBS, but Amazon may pick up the drama about a con man (Giovanni Ribisi) released from prison who assumes the identity of a cellmate. Amazon's streaming service will ultimately make the decision where to turn the pilot into a series based on account viewing data and customer feedback.
Another potential CBS project going through a transformation of a different sort is the legal drama Doubt, written by longtime Grey’s Anatomy executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater. The network is looking to recast both lead roles, played in the original pilot by KaDee Strickland and Teddy Sears.
Justified executive producer Chris Provenzano is working on another Elmore Leonard adaptation for a new AMC series called Gunsights. Based on Leonard’s Western novel set in 1893 Arizona, the plot centers on Army officer Brendan Early and scout Dana Moon, who used to work together for the 10th Cavalry until they find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict between mining company thugs and a group of settlers.
Director David Fincher is taking on a new HBO project, the remake of Dennis Kelly’s U.K. mystery thriller series, Utopia. Rooney Mara is eyeing an unspecified starring role that would reunite her with Fincher for the first time since 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher, who intends to direct every episode of Utopia's first season, is also re-teaming with Gone Girl author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn to adapt the Channel 4 series.
ITV announced that Stephen Mangan and Michael Weston are to star in the 10-part, supernatural crime drama series Houdini & Doyle, from House creator David Shore. The series focuses on the relationship between early 20th century illusionist Harry Houdini and mystery writer Arthur Conan Doyle.
Blythe Danner has come aboard the Bernie Madoff miniseries to play Ruth Madoff, the convicted Ponzi schemer's wife.
Alana De La Garza (Forever) will take on a recurring role on the second season of CBS’ Scorpion. She'll play the smart, tough and driven new Head of Homeland Security "who needs the Scorpion team to be successful, but is it because it’s best for the team or because it’s best for her?"
Lili Taylor's is being promoted to a cast regular for the second season of American Crime. In the first season she played a victims rights advocate, but will have a different role in Season 2.Cast members Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Regina King, Elvis Nolasco and Richard Cabral have previously been confirmed to return in new roles for the second season.
Channel 4 has commissioned a second season of Paul Abbott's police procedural No Offence.
NBC announced its fall premiere dates, including The Mysteries of Laura and Law & Order: SVU (September 23); The Blacklist (September 24); Chicago P.D. (September 30); Chicago Fire (October 13); and Grimm (October 30).
Rolling Stone magazine profiled HBO's True Detective series, the shady history of California noir, and how the show's new season draws on everything from Chandler to Chinatown.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
NPR's Scott Simon chatted with crime novelist Val McDermid about her new book, Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime.
Another NPR interview focused on Daniel Silva about the "double-edged sword" Of writing an Israeli spy protagonist.
The Canadian Broadcast Company's Mystery Book Panel returned with their annual summer reading list.
Mary Higgins Clark appeared on the Today Show to discuss her latest book, The Melody Lingers On.
NPR's Fresh Air program welcomed Noah Charney, author of The Art of Forgery: The Minds, Motives and Methods of the Master Forgers.
THEATER
Three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf has replaced Elizabeth Marvel as the leading lady to Bruce Willis in the new Broadway adaptation of Stephen King's Misery. She'll play the role of the obsessed fan played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 film version.
GAMES
Sam Barlow, writer and lead designer of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Aisle, launched his first indie title Her Story. Playing like an interactive true crime documentary, the game lets you go hands-on with a police database full of live action video footage.
Tin Man Games is developing the popular TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is based on a series of historical detective novels by Kerry Greenwood. The game will be called Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze, and will be a "chooseable-path adventure and visual novel."
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