Happy Monday! Time once again for this week's crime-drama news:
MOVIES
Emily Blunt is in talks to take on the starring role in the movie version of Paula Hawkins' bestseller, The Girl on the Train, directed by Tate Taylor. There are two additional "meaty roles" for actresses, but there's no word on who else will be hopping on board to join the cast.
The first trailer was released for Spielberg’s Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies, which reunites the director with frequent collaborator Tom Hanks in the project based on the real-life 1960 case of downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.
New photos and a trailer were released for the upcoming Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.
A trailer was released for the revenge drama Lila & Eve starring Viola Davis (Lila) and Jennifer Lopez (Eve) as a grieving mother and her friend who take matters into their own hands to track down the killers of Lila's son.
TELEVISION
Fox is developing a new 24 spin-off that will revolve around a new, twenty-something male terrorist hunter working alongside an older, more seasoned female agent. Although there are no current plans for Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer to be a regular character, he might appear in a guest-starring role.
Fringe star John Noble will join the cast of CBS' drama Elementary as a series regular for the upcoming fourth season, playing Sherlock Holmes’ wealthy, estranged father.
USA Network is developing the drama Apex, which centers on a female assassin who saves the life of a teenage outcast and the two form an unlikely bond. Finding themselves at the heart of a dangerous conspiracy, the duo fights for their survival while uncovering the truth.
Filming has begun on Dickensian, which Deadline called "a sort of super-literary-hero mash-up." The 20-part BBC One period drama brings together some of Charles Dickens' most iconic characters, using plots culled from backstories from Dickens' novels. The cast includes Stephen Rea as Inspector Bucket from Bleak House, Pauline Collins as Mrs. Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit, Caroline Quentin as Oliver Twist's Mrs. Bumble, and Peter Firth (Spooks) and Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game).
Showtime’s CIA drama Homeland is not only adding a new locale for Season 5 (Germany), the show is adding four new series regulars, including a new boss and a new love interest for Carrie. The new additions are Miranda Otto (The Lord Of The Rings), German actor Sebastian Koch, Alexander Fehling (Inglorious Basterds) and Sarah Sokolovic, who join returning stars Claire Danes, Rupert Friend, F. Murray Abraham and Mandy Patinkin.
Joel McHale has signed up for a guest-starring stint on Fox’s new six-episode installment of The X-Files, which reunites original stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. McHale will play the anchor of a popular conservative Internet news network who becomes an unlikely ally for Fox Mulder.
Justified's Nick Searcy has joined the cast of the Hulu event series 11/22/63, from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and author Stephen King, based on King's alternate-history novel.
Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt has signed up to play the real-life Victorian era serial killer Mary Ann Cotton in Dark Angel, a two-part drama from ITV.
Tomorrow night, BBC2's new two-part thriller Stonemouth premieres (based on the novel by Iain Banks), and star Christian Cooke (Doctor Who) talked about the project and his role.
CTV, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, unveiled its lineup for the fall with new additions that include the mystery thriller Blindspot by Greg Berlanti (producer of The Flash and Arrow); the FBI thriller Quantico, about top new recruits; Shonda Rhimes' new show The Catch, about a forensic accountant who exposes fraud; and the supernatural police procedural Lucifer from CSI's Jerry Bruckheimer.
Speaking of Quantico, ABC tweaked its fall schedule and moved the FBI drama to Sunday into the 10 p.m. hour after production on the period piece Of Kings and Prophets, the show originally scheduled for that slot, was delayed.
Female-driven WE-TV ordered two unscripted series set in the legal world, both set to premiere in 2016. Ladies Of Law follows a group of four interconnected, powerful and glamorous African American female lawyers specializing in entertainment law in New York City, while Sisters In Law is set in Houston.
Former U2 manager Paul McGuinness is producing a TV crime drama series with a team that includes director Neil Jordan and crime author John Banville. Titled Riviera and set in the south of France, the series centers on a large Franch/Italian seemingly legitimate family business empire that conceals a criminal enterprise.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The latest Crime and Science Radio is titled "The Anatomy of Innocence: An Interview with Author, Legal Scholar, and Advocate Laura Caldwell."
From Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Passport to Crime department, a podcast of a story in translation. “Checkmate in Chimbote” by Belgium’s Bob Laerhoven, past winner of the Hercule Poirot Prize, is read by his translator, Josh Pachter. (The story first appeared in English in EQMM’s June 2014 issue.)
THEATER
The Tony Awards were handed out last night, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was a big winner (Best Play, Best Actor for Alex Sharp, Best Director for Marianne Elliot, Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design). The work is based on the novel by Mark Haddon about a boy with an Asperger-like condition who tries to solve the murder of a neighbor's dog.
The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is staging a production of Dial M for Murder through August 2. The play was written by Frederick Knott and first performed on stage in 1952 before he later adapted the work for an Alfred Hitchcock-directed film version in 1954.
Peter Colley’s comic thriller I’ll Be Back Before Midnight! is part of Valley Summer Theatre’s lineup in Nova Scotia, with a run from July 8 through August 2. The play premiered in 1979 and has since been produced in 30 countries, 48 U.S. states and was made into a Hollywood film.
An adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None comes to the New Theatre, Cardiff, for a brief stint running June 30 through July 4. The top-notch cast is headlined by BAFTA-nominated actor Paul Nicholas.
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