Here's the latest crime drama news from stage, screen, and on the air:
AWARDS
The Golden Globe winners last evening included several book-to-screen adaptations, with The Revenant (Best Picture), Steve Jobs and The Martian garnering multiple awards. Mr. Robot won for Best TV Drama and the show's Christian Slater also won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced their BAFTA Award nominees, with Best Film nods to The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, Carol, and Spotlight.
The Producers Guild of America announced their nominees for the best movies and television of 2015. Bridge of Spies was among the film honorees, while on the TV side, American Crime, Fargo, and True Detective were among the finalists.
The Art Directors' Guild also announced the 20th annual Excellence in Production Design Awards, which will be presented Jan. 31 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
MOVIES
Orange is the New Black actress Laura Prepon is joining Emily Blunt in the adaptation of Paula Hawkins' novel, The Girl on The Train. Prepon will play Cathy, the landlord, roommate, and college friend of Blunt’s Rachel Wilson character.
TELEVISION
BBC America has officially ordered a new series based on Douglas Adams' humorous private eye Dirk Gently novels. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency will be helmed by Max Landis (Chronicle) and follows unconventional detective Dirk and his reluctant assistant Todd as their work takes them on a wild ride and into dangerous situations. The show's first season, which be set in the U.S. instead of the U.K., will consist of eight one-hour episodes.
Fox is developing the hour-long scripted drama Boost Unit (working title) from Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions and Imperative Entertainment. Written by Jonny Umansky and Zach Hyatt, Boost Unit is described as a "high-octane action-packed drama that follows the newest recruit of the LAPD’s Auto Theft Task Force, a notorious getaway driver with a hidden past."
ABC has handed out a pilot order to the scripted drama anthology The Jury, a project described as 12 Angry Men meets podcast Serial. The show follows a single murder trial as seen through the eyes of the individual jurors, "exploring the biases and experiences that influence the jurors’ judgment and how their preconceptions change along the way."
Alexander Skarsgard has signed on to join Nicole Kidman in the HBO limited series Big Little Lies. The project is based on the best-selling book by Liane Moriarty and is being adapted by David E. Kelly. The story follows three mothers of kindergarteners whose pristine lives begin to unravel to the point of murder. Skarsgard will play Perry, husband to Nicole Kidman’s Celeste, with Wild's Jean-Marc Vallee directing and a roster of actors including including Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Adam Scott, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, Kathryn Newton, Hong Chau and Santiago Cabrera.
House star Hugh Laurie is returning to primetime as the lead the drama series Chance, based on the titular novel by author Kem Nunn. Hulu has given a two-season, 20-episode order for the Fox 21 TV Studios show and is eyeing a 2016 premiere. Chance is described as a provocative psychological thriller centered on Eldon Chance (Laurie), a San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist who reluctantly gets sucked into a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness.
Former Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan is also set to headline a new series, taking on the male lead in Hulu’s original drama Shut Eye. The show takes a darkly comedic look at the underground world of Los Angeles storefront psychics and the organized crime syndicate that runs them.
Although fans of Castle may be nervous about the up-in-the-air status of the show's return for a ninth season, ABC president Paul Lee stated that the network wants Castle to continue for more seasons and would like to see the show’s original stars back. However, Lee also noted that if stars Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic decide not to return, the network is exploring other options for a Castle spin-off.
Michael Weatherly, who has played Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo since NCIS launched in 2003, confirmed via Twitter that he is leaving the show at season’s end. Weatherly landed an overall producing deal with NCIS studio CBS TV Studios and has been increasingly active on the producing side of the business.
Laura Dern is joining the cast of Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival in a mystery role. Additional cast members previously reported include former Twin Peaks stars Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee and Sherilyn Fenn, plus Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Knepper, Balthazar Getty, Amanda Seyfried, Miguel Ferrer and Bailey Chase.
TNT’s long-running drama Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon as police detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander as medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles, will end after the seventh season airs in summer 2016, with 13 episodes.
Person of Interest's executive producer, J.J. Abrams, has said that it is quite likely that the upcoming fifth season of the CBS crime drama will likely be its last. The news doesn't come as a complete surprise, after the network gave the show a reduced, 13-episode order for Season 5 that has yet to be put on the schedule.
The Office alum Jenna Fischer has booked a recurring role on NBC’s comedy-drama series The Mysteries Of Laura. The show stars Debra Messing as a brilliant and messy detective and single mother of twins, while Fischer will play an attorney and single mom who makes waves for Laura when sparks fly between her character and Laura’s ex-husband Jake (Josh Lucas).
The BBC has announced a slate of more than 35 hours of new drama, including The Replacement, a three-part psychological thriller made by Left Bank Pictures; the six-part thriller Requiem; and Woman in White, an adaption of Wilkie Collins’s mystery novel produced by Origin Pictures with BBC Northern Ireland.
TNT has opted not to proceed with the thriller pilot Home, from writer Aron Eli Coleite, Jerry Bruckheimer TV and Warner Horizon, about a seemingly idyllic suburban family. The network also shelved its Robbers pilot, a project described as being in the literary-noir tradition of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men.
CBS has set March 31 as the premiere date for Rush Hour, its new series based on the series of buddy cop films starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker (roles taken over by actors Justin Hires and Jon Foo in the TV show). The network also moved the premiere date of the spin-off series Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (starring Gary Sinise, Alana De La Garza, Daniel Henney, Tyler James Williams, and Annie Funk) to March 16 instead of the previously-announced March 2. The Sherlock Holmes series Elementary will shift to CSI: Cyber’s timeslot on Sundays, and CSI: Cyber will move to the temporary time slot of Wednesdays.
TNT released a promo trailer that includes looks at two of its upcoming summer series: Good Behavior, based on the Letty Dobesh books by Wayward Pines author Blake Crouch, stars Michelle Dockery as a thief and con artist whose life is always one wrong turn, one bad decision from implosion. Animal Kingdom, inspired by the 2010 Australian feature, stars Barkin as the matriarch of a Southern California family whose excessive lifestyle is fueled by their criminal activities.
Hulu released a trailer for J.J. Abrams' adaptation of the time-traveling Stephen King novel, 11/22/63.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
In a Q&A with the Guardian’s Mark Lawson, Scottish author Ian Rankin revealed why, after the death of two close friends including fellow novelist Iain Banks, he took a year-long sabbatical from writing before penning another installment of the best-selling Rebus series.
Paranormal, horror, thriller, and crime author W. D. Gagliani chatted with mystery author Debbi Mack on the Crime Cafe podcast about his Nick Lupo paranormal thriller/crime fiction series and other work.
GAMES
Kalypso Media announced a partnership with French publisher Microïds to bring the boxed retail versions of the adventure title Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the United Kingdom, North America and Brazil. Adapted from the classic Agatha Christie novel of the same name, the game offers players an opportunity to step in the shoes of Christie's famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot, interviewing characters, gathering evidence, and solving challenging puzzles in order to collect clues and piece together the mystery to bring the "A.B.C." murderer to justice, all rendered stylishly in cel-shaded 3D.
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