Lots of news to report on this week's crime drama roundup, thanks to the spring television upfronts where the networks let us know which shows will live and which will not:
MOVIES
Starting off with movies first, TriStar has attached Mark Pellington to direct The Trap, an adaptation of the Melanie Raabe novel that Oscar-nominated Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy is adapting. The book was originally published in German as Die Falle and is a twisted thriller about a reclusive author who sets the perfect trap for her sister’s murderer after she becomes convinced she's seen the killer on TV.
IFC Films acquired domestic rights to Sweet Virginia, the Jamie M. Dagg thriller that screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. The story centers on a motel owner (Jon Bernthal) with a dark past who unknowingly starts a rapport with a young hitman (Christopher Abbott) responsible for a spate of violence that suddenly has gripped a small town.
Italian director Luca Guadagnino has signed on to direct an untitled thriller penned by Steven Knight, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal being courted to star in the project. The story follows two old friends, one a business titan and the other a journalist. Other details are being kept under wraps, although it will allegedly be set in an exotic locale and also have a strong female lead.
Liam Neeson will star in Retribution, a remake of the Spanish thriller El Desconocido. Retribution follows a successful Wall Street executive who discovers on his way to work that a bomb has been planted in his car by an unknown assailant. He is forced to follow a series of orders throughout the day or else the bomb will be detonated - a situation made worse because the man’s family is in the car with him.
Kristin Scott Thomas is set to star in Paramour, inspired by the true story of the BMW heiress Susanne Klatten. When the mysterious and seductive Helg Sgarbi enters her life, they embark upon a passionate, illicit affair – until Helg reveals his sinister true intentions.
Margot Robbie is set to star in Dreamland, a thriller that will be directed by Sundance winner Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and is set in the 1930s amid the devastation of the Dust Bowl. The story centers on a 15-year-old boy and his quest to capture a fugitive bank robber (Robbie) and collect the bounty on her head to save the family farm from foreclosure. Against all odds, he beats out the FBI and the local police to find her, only to discover that she's far more than what the authorities claim her to be.
TELEVISION
It's upfront season in TV land again, which means fans of various television programs will find out if their favorites will return or have been given the axe. Here are quick rundowns for ABC, CBS, NBC, the CW, and Fox. Variety also has a list of cancellations.
Looking closer at ABC, a mild shocker is the fact that ABC canceled American Crime, the anthology series that debuted in 2015 and went on to win some fourteen Emmy Awards. Also getting the boot is the mystery television series Secret and Lies. At the same time, the network picked up the pilot For the People to series, a project that has been called the legal version of veteran Grey's Anatomy, as well as The Crossing, a futuristic conspiracy thriller, and the magician cop series Deception.
The stalwart CBS franchises such as NCIS will keep chugging along, and Elementary was also renewed. New shows include Alan Cumming starring in Instinct as a former CIA operative who abandons his regular life as a professor to help the NYPD track a serial killer; Wisdom of the Crowd is a drama centering on a tech innovator (Jeremy Piven) who creates a crowdsourcing app to solve his daughter’s murder; S.W.A.T. starring Shemar Moore; and SEAL Team, which stars Boreanaz as a member of the elite Navy group.
NBC made a decision on three of Dick Wolf’s four Chicago dramas, renewing flagship Chicago Fire as well as Chicago PD, and Chicago Med. There is no decision yet on the newest entry in the franchise, freshman Chicago Justice. Veteran drama Law & Order: SVU was also picked up, as well as a renewal order for a third season of Blindspot, a second season of Taken, and a fifth season of The Blacklist. New programs include the heist crime dramedy Good Girls, Law & Order: True Crime – The Menendez Murders and Reverie, featuring a former hostage negotiator.
Fox issued an official renewal for Season 4 for its pre-Batman crime drama Gotham, but canceled its genre-bending supernatural crime drama Sleepy Hollow after four seasons. Also canceled is the Fox network's Rosewood, a police procedural starring Morris Chestnut, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Gabrielle Dennis, Lorraine Toussaint, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Anna Konkle, that just wrapped up its second season.
The CW network canceled Frequency, which starred Peyton list as NYPD Detective Raimy Sullivan, who discovers she is able to speak to her deceased father Frank Sullivan in 1996 via his old ham radio. Her attempts to save his life change the present in unforeseen ways, so she must work with her father across time to solve a decades-old murder case in order to fix the damage she caused. However, since the show ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, the producers are giving fans a mini-epilogue.
The Acorn Streaming Service's lineup next year will include ITV’s atmospheric thriller Loch Ness, the final episodes of hit BBC One detective drama George Gently; smash hit ITV detective drama Vera, Series 7; the legal drama Janet King, Series 3; and award-winning Canadian cop drama 19-2.
Meanwhile, in other news, UK-based indie Eleventh Hour Films has acquired rights to Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series of detective novels, and attached ’71 writer Gregory Burke to pen a contemporary TV drama adaptation. Executive Producer Jill Green promises "a fresh and revisionist take in every way introducing both Rebus and Edinburgh to a new generation." An earlier Rebus series starred John Hannah and later Ken Stott and aired on ITV.
Psych, one of USA Network’s most popular shows, is set to return to the small screen, with the original cast reuniting for a two-hour holiday film creatively called Psych: The Movie. The TV movie will pick up three years after the 2014 series finale, and although details are vague, the gang will reunite after a mysterious assailant targets one of their own.
Ben Stiller’s Escape From Clinton Correctional is nearing a series order at Showtime. Benicio del Toro and Patricia Arquette will star in the eight-part limited series based on the prison break in upstate New York in the summer of 2015.
Choice Films and Adam Dunn’s Aurelian Productions are teaming to develop Big Dogs, based on Dunn’s futuristic crime books, with director David Platt (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) attached to helm the first two episodes. The series is set in a violent, decaying New York City, where an underworld economy of illegal, debauchery-ridden nightclubs linked by a web of taxicabs is thriving.
Snowfall, FX's period drama about the birth of the crack epidemic that ravaged communities throughout the nation and changed the culture forever, will premiere Wednesday, July 5, the network announced Monday.
Judge Dredd is heading to the small screen for a series called Judge Dredd: Mega City One. The futuristic series follows a group of policemen and women who comb their metropolis for criminals and boast their status as "the law" by carrying out curbside executions, if need be.
Audience Network has set the summer premiere For David E. Kelley’s Stephen King adaptation of Mr. Mercedes for Wednesday, August 9.
The Oxygen Network is getting into crime programming with a slate of true crime shows including Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, hosted by NBC News’ Craig Melvin.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Author Meg Carter discussed her latest psychological thriller The Day She Can’t Forget on the BBC's Steve Yabsley's podcast.
Second Sunday Crime host Libby Fischer Hellman welcomed Texas author Caleb Pirtle to chat about his latest noir suspense thrillers.
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio blog continued its lists with "Top Ten Greatest American Radio Detective Performances, Part Three."
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