Monday means it's time for the latest news about crime dramas on screens, big and small, and on the air:
MOVIES
George Clooney has come on board the latest Coen Brothers film - this time to direct. The project is based on the Coens' script Suburbicon, a noirish, small crime drama set in the 1950s.
Indican Pictures has snapped up film rights to This Last Lonely Place, a noir thriller executive produced by the Santana film division of the Humphrey Bogart Estate, with hopes for an early 2016 release. Directed and written by Steve Anderson, the project tells the story of an unsuspecting cab driver (Rhys Coiro) who, on his last night on the job, finds himself roped into helping a wealthy investment banker (Xander Berkeley) cover up a brutal crime.
Hollywoodland screenwriter Paul Bernbaum is penning the screenplay for a new period noir thriller, Skin Trade, based on the true story of FBI agent Pat Livingston and the Mafia-related pornography sting that nearly claimed his life.
Veteran character actor and Oscar winner Chris Cooper is joining Ben Affleck’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel, Live By Night. Cooper joins an all-star case headed by Affleck, Chris Messina, Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller and Zoe Saldana. The story follows a young gangster’s climb up the ranks during the Prohibition era.
The next Jack Reacher film added its final cast members just in time for production to start in New Orleans. Holt McCallany signed on for the sequel to the 2012 Tom Cruise film and will play one of the villains. The second Reacher outing finds returning to his old army base and ends up being accused of the murder of his old friend, so he must solve the mystery of the murder while also running from the law.
Scott Shepherd has been added to the cast of the new Jason Bourne movie in a role that’s rumored to be the director of the CIA. He joins Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, and Tommy Lee Jones for the project.
TELEVISION
Fox is developing a drama from writer David Slack (Person Of Interest) and Sleepy Hollow co-creator and executive producer Len Wiseman. Inspired by the July New York Times Magazine article, “Who Runs the Streets of New Orleans” by David Amsden, the show will explore what happens "when an enigmatic tech billionaire makes a deal with a bankrupt, dying city to provide a privately owned-and-operated police force."
Fox also put in development the pilot Incrimination, an hourlong legal drama from Mistresses executive producer Rina Mimoun and writer-producer Justin Lo. The project is described as "a salacious soap" and centers on a young woman with narcissistic personality disorder who infiltrates a law firm in order to find the truth behind her sister’s murder.
CBS gave a full season order to Limitless, the follow-up to the 2011 Bradley Cooper film of the same name, about a slacker who unlocks the full potential of his mind when he takes a brain-enhancing drug called NZT and sets about helping the FBI solve their most complex cases.
Anne Heche has signed on to guest-star on Quantico, playing a former FBI agent and medical examiner named Dr. Susan Langdon.
The BBC is working on a deal with China to release the Sherlock Victorian Christmas special in movie theaters there, part of the global cinema event executive producer Steven Moffat talked up at Comic-Con in July that will see the project released in “select theaters” around the world.
Meanwhile, PBS revealed the broadcast date for the Sherlock Victorian special as January 1, meaning it will premiere in both the U.S. and the U.K. on the same date. Shooting for season 4 of the series will begin in the spring.
Misha Glenny's non-fiction 2008 book McMafia is going to be adapted for a BBC1 drama series with eight 60-minute episodes centering around one Russian family living in exile in London. The Mail praised the book as "organised crime's version of Fast Food Nation" for its hard-hitting look at global crime and its far reaching influence. The project has an impressive pedigree, with creators Hossein Amini (Snow White And The Huntsman) and James Watkins (The Woman in Black) and writers David Farr (Spooks), Peter Harness (Doctor Who) and Laurence Coriat (Me Without You).
B.D. Wong will be making a guest appearance on Law & Order: SVU this November, reprising his role as SVU resident head shrinker Dr. George Huang.
FX released two new teaser clips for the upcoming American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. The videos don't show Cuba Gooding Jr., who stars as O.J. Simpson, although they do show John Travolta's as Simpson's lawyer Robert Shapiro.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Hank Phillippi Ryan was the latest guest on Crimefiction FM, discussing the new (and fourth) book in her suspenseful Jane Ryland series, What You See.
The most recent Speaking of Mysteries podcast profiled the new work, Women Crime Writer’s: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman.
New York Times bestselling author Russell Blake joined CrimeFiction.FM to discuss his new book, the fifth in the Artemis Black Mystery series, Black in the Box.
Debbi Mack's Crime Cafe featured a rebroadcast of the classic, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe - "Who Shot Waldo?", courtesy of Old Time Radio Researchers Group.
Crime and Science Radio offered Part Two in an interview with the FBI’s Betsy Glick and Edward You, and Biotech Futurist Andrew Hessel.
Suspense Radio One on One featured a discussion with two mystery authors, George Chronis and Melissa Lenhardt.
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