It's Monday again, which means summer is flying by, but even better, it's time for the latest wrap-up of crime drama news:
MOVIES
James Franco and Ahna O’Reilly are developing a movie version of Alex Marwood’s murder mystery The Killer Next Door, with Franco producing and O'Reilly to potentially star. The story centers on six neighbors forced into an unlikely alliance without realizing that one of them is a killer who will do anything to protect his secret.
Red Planet Entertainment and Pathbender have optioned the nonfiction book Gray Water: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy by Jamie Smith, a self-described CIA operative and co-founder of the private military company Blackwater. Although the accuracy of his memoir has been called into question, the producers believe the controversy will only add to the mystique surrounding the project.
The Guardian reported that the film adaptation of the bestselling mystery novel The Girl on the Train will be set in the U.S. instead of its original English setting. In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, the book's author Paula Hawkins said it was likely to take place in upstate New York, adding, "I’m not really concerned about the repositioning as I think it is the type of story that could take place in any commuter town."
Right after GG Walker's thriller novel All Is Not Forgotten sold to St. Martin’s Press following a bidding battle (with plans to publish in early 2017), Warner Brothers closed a significant preemptive acquisition of film rights. Reese Witherspoon is set to produce and may play the role of the mother of a teenage girl who is brutally raped and decides to give their daughter a pill to erase her short term memory so she won’t relive the trauma of the attack.
20th Century Fox snapped up film rights to Epic Magazine's true story "Pipino: Gentleman Thief" by Joshua Davis and David Wolman. The project concerns the exploits of master thief Vincenzo Pipino, who scaled multiple stories and clay rooftops to steal art, clothing, and jewelry in 1990’s Italy.
TELEVISION
The 2015 Emmy Award nominations were announced last week, with several crime dramas coming away with multiple nods, incuding Better Call Saul, Homeland, and Orange is the New Black for Outstanding Drama; Kyle Chandler (Bloodline), Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), and Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan) for Best Actor in a Drama Series; Claire Danes (Homeland), Viola Davis (How to Get Away With Murder), and Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) for Best actress in a Drama Series. Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Curtain, Poirot’s Last Case also picked up a nomination for Outstanding Television Movie. For all the nominee lists, check out the official Emmy website.
BBC One is partnering with Lifetime for a miniseries based on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. The UK will premiere the program as a three-episode series later this year to coincide with Agatha Christie’s 125th anniversary, with the U.S. premiere on Lifetime as a two-part miniseries in 2016. The iconic novel follows ten strangers with dubious pasts lured to an isolated island where they're accused of crimes and start to die myteriously, one by one.
AMC's Revolutionary War spy drama Turn has been renewed for a third season. The series center around the Culper spy ring during the war, focusing on Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell), a man recruited into spying despite the fact other members of his family are loyalists.
Downton Abbey actress Michelle Dockery has been cast in Good Behavior, a drama pilot ordered by TNT that's based on novels by Blake Crouch. Dockery will play Letty Dobesh, a thief and con artist fresh out of prison. When she overhears a hitman being hired to kill a man's wife, she sets out to derail the job, "setting her on a collision course with the killer and entangling them in a dangerous and seductive relationship."
Peter Krause has landed the male lead in ABC's midseason drama The Catch from Shondaland (the production company behind How to Get Away With Murder). Krause replaces Damon Dayoub who appeared in the pilot. The plot focuses on Alice Vaughan (The Killing's Mireille Enos), a fraud investigator who is pitted against a successful con man who lives the good life with other people’s money.
Deadline reported that Sunkrish Bala (The Walking Dead) has booked a season-long arc on ABC's Castle, playing Vikram Singh, "a high-strung, tech analyst with a complicated past."
The same Deadline article also noted that Anabelle Acosta (Ballers) is set for a multi-episode arc on ABC’s new FBI series Quantico, and a separate report adds that Josh Hopkins is also joining Quantico to play Special Agent Liam O’Connor, taking over the role played by Dougray Scott in the pilot.
Although the CSI series-ending finale has lined up many former cast members from previous seasons, two names will be absent: Eizabeth Shue and George Eads have declined to participate, even though Eads' character, forensic investigator Nick Stokes, was already written into the script.
Alana de la Garza and Annie Funke will star opposite Gary Sinise in CBS’ Criminal Minds spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, which "follows FBI agents helping American citizens who find themselves in trouble abroad."
Fargo's Allison Tolman will guest star on Amazon's drama Mad Dogs, joining Coby Bell in a recurring role. The drama follows four former frat brothers who travel to Belize for a reunion and luxury vacation that's interrupted by a series of wild events exposing dark secrets, deception and murder.
The Fox programs Bones and Sleepy Hollow are having a crossover episode. I'm not exactly how they intend on pulling that off, but it will be across two episodes, one on each show sometime late in the 2015-16 season.
Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver and Lena Headey (Game Of Thrones) have boarded the BBC’s reboot of the classic children’s animated series Danger Mouse. Oliver will voice the role of mad scientist wolf Dr. Augustus P. Crumhorn III, while Headey will be the voice of U.S. Secret Agent Jeopardy Mouse.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
NPR's Fresh Air welcomed Don Winslow, author of The Cartel, who spent 10 years immersed in the Mexican drug wars before writing the novel.
THEATER
Chuck Palahniuk, the author behind Fight Club, announced that he’s working on a rock opera based on his hit novel, with David Fincher (the filmmaker who helmed the movie version), and Julie Taymor, a renowned theatrical director, both on board the project.
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