Welcome to another Monday and a roundup of the latest crime drama news:
MOVIES
Steven Spielberg's latest project, The Papers, is lining up an all-star cast. The project is based on the Washington Post's publication of the classified Pentagon Papers in 1971 and will feature Meryl Streep as Post publisher Kay Graham, Tom Hanks as Post editor Ben Bradlee, Sarah Paulson (American Crime Story), Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), Matthew Rhys (The Americans), and Jesse Plemons (Fargo). The movie will see a limited release on Dec. 22 and go wide on Jan. 12, 2018.
Nicolas Cage is set to star in the action thriller Mandy, directed by Beyond the Black Rainbow helmer Panos Cosmatos. The film is currently in pre-production, with plans to shoot this summer in Belgium. The story is set in the primal wilderness of 1983 where Red Miller, a broken and haunted man hunts an unhinged religious sect who slaughtered the love of his life.
Forest Whitaker is boarding David M. Rosenthal’s action-thriller How It Ends, which is set against a mysterious apocalyptic event that turns the roads into mayhem and follows a young father who will stop at nothing to get home to his pregnant wife on the other side of the country.
MPI Media Group has acquired all U.S. rights to Francesca Eastwood’s thriller M.F.A. for release this fall under its Dark Sky Films banner. The project is directed by Natalia Leite from a debut screenplay by actress Leah McKendrick (Bad Moms) who also co-stars along with Clifton Collins Jr. (Westworld). M.F.A. follows Eastwood’s art student character, who’s forced to take action to protect herself after being sexually assaulted by a fellow classmate. Attempting to cope with her trauma, she impulsively confronts her attacker, leading to a violent altercation that culminates in his accidental death.
Logan's director James Mangold is attached to helm Disorder, a remake of the 2015 French film from Sony and Escape Artists. The original film was directed by Alice Winocour and follows Matthias Schoenaerts as an ex-soldier with PTSD who’s hired to protect the wife and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman.
Universal has released the first trailer for the Doug Liman-directed film American Made, starring Tom Cruise in the real-life story of pilot Barry Seal, a hustler who is tapped by the CIA to to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history. Set in the 1980s, the crime drama co-stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones and Jayma Mays.
Couldn't make it to Cannes this year? Welcome to the club. Fortunately, Crime Fiction Lover has a roundup of "The top five crime films of Cannes 2017."
The San Rafael, California, Cinema & Psyche series will feature a NeoNoir Masterwork Festival on six nights beginning June 19. Organizations have lined up Klute, The Conversation, Body Heat, House of Games, The Grifters, and Miller’s Crossing, with each session including background info, film clips, a film viewed in full, and a lively discussion.
TELEVISION
Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro has signed on to star in Showtime's upcoming limited eight-part series Escape at Dannemora. It's based on the 2015 prison break that saw two convicted murderers escape from New York's Clinton Correctional Facility with the help of a female prison employee, leading to a massive manhunt. Benicio Del Toro will star as Richard Matt, the mastermind behind the escape, while Paul Dano will play Matt's partner in crime, David Sweat, and Patricia Arquette will play the accomplice.
Another Oscar-winner, Julia Roberts, is in talks to head to the small screen for Homecoming, from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. The limited series is a political thriller that centers on a caseworker at a secret government facility and is presented in a collage of telephone calls, therapy sessions, and overheard conversations. The project is based on the fictional podcast of the same name, which debuted last November and starred Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, Amy Sedaris, and David Cross.
Fox has canceled 24: Legacy, although it's not giving up on the series. The network has plans to attempt another reboot of the franchise by developing a 24 anthology series, following new stories for each season with new cast members.
Season 3 of Fargo may be its last, according to show creator Noah Hawley, who said that "There's only a certain amount of storytelling you can tell in that vein...So watch the 10th hour [of season 3] because it might be the last."
NCIS is losing one of its stars when the new season premieres in the fall. Jennifer Esposito, who played NCIS Special Agent Alex Quinn on Season 14, is leaving the show after just one season. She remains in the CBS family via her ongoing recurring role on Showtime’s The Affair as Nina Solloway, Noah’s (Dominic West) sister. Additionally, Esposito has booked a co-starring role opposite John Travolta in the feature Speed Kills for Hannibal Classics.
Greg Plageman is the new executive producer and showrunner for Season 2 of NBC’s Taken. Plageman, who was previously the showrunner and EP on CBS’ Person of Interest, takes over the reins of the show that stars Clive Standen as Bryan Mills, a former Green Beret who becomes a deadly CIA operative. Taken is based on the film trilogy that starred Liam Neeson, with the TV series picking up Mills’ story 30 years earlier in life.
Julianne Nicholson has landed the role of defense attorney Jill Lansing in NBC’s Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, marking Nicholson’s fourth series with Law & Order franchise creator Dick Wolf. The Menendez Murders is an eight-episode series offering a dramatization of the real-life murder trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez that dominated headlines in the 1990s. Constance Marie (Switched At Birth) and Carlos Gomez (Madam Secretary) have also joined the cast.
The Acorn TV original crime series Loch Ness begins on Monday, June 19 and is described as an atmospheric murder mystery thriller starring Laura Fraser (Breaking Bad) and Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey). The haunting shores of Scotland’s most iconic loch is the stunning backdrop for the six-part drama written by Stephen Brady (Vera) and produced by ITV Studios for ITV in the UK. Shortly after its ITV broadcast, Loch Ness will premiere in the U.S. beginning on consecutive Mondays, starting June 19, 2017 through the finale on July 24. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
Acorn TV also announced its summer slate of returning favorites Vera, Midsomer Murders, and Murdoch Mysteries.
A&E Network has pushed back the premiere dates for its documentary Biggie: The Life of Notorious B.I.G. and also its limited series Who Killed Tupac? Originally scheduled for June 28 and June 29, respectively, Biggie will now air September 4, while the six-part Shakur series will debut some time in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Netflix has unveiled the first full trailer for Gypsy, in which Oscar nominee Naomi Watts plays a therapist who crosses the line with her patients and gives in to her desires, throwing her family life into utter chaos.
Discovery provided a first look trailer for its eight-part limited series about Ted Kaczynski’s one-man war against modern society, Manhunt: Unabomber, which follows the FBI’s famed hunt for the deadliest serial bomber in history.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Film critic and bestselling author Stephen Hunter discussed G-Man, the 10th book in his Bob Lee Swagger family saga, on Big Blend Radio.
A Stab in the Dark, the podcast hosted by award-winning crime writer Mark Billingham, returned to the world of podcasts this week, hosting a new series investigating the worlds of crime fiction and TV crime drama. The second series of the show starts off with Rebus creator Ian Rankin talking about the 30th anniversary of his iconic detective, how the character has changed over the years, and his thoughts on the detective’s return to television later in 2017. Over the next two months, guests will include award-winning crime writers Lee Child, Belinda Bauer, Sarah Hilary, Bill Beverly, Karin Slaughter and Laura Lippman, as well as creator of The Wire David Simon and Sherlock’s Mark Gatiss.
Author John Lescroart stopped by Capital Public Radio to talk about his long career of 30 bestsellers and his latest novel, Fatal, which introduces a new character, Sergeant Beth Tully of the San Francisco PD.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste welcomed their special guest, author and screenwriter Jordan Harper, who's worked on The Mentalist and Gotham. His debut novel is She Rides Shotgun.
Beyond The Cover featured a round table discussion with authors Jon Land (Caitlin Strong series) and Allison Brennan (Lucy Kincaid series).
Read or Dead is a new mystery/thriller podcast From Book Riot that will appear twice monthly. Hosted by Rincey Abraham and Katie McLain, the show will discuss everything related to mysteries, thrillers, suspense books, and even some book-adjacent news and topics. The first episode features a discussion about some adaptations they are excited to see and upcoming releases they can't wait to read.
THEATER
Unbound Productions have taken their outdoor immersive theatre concept and expanded into the mystery genre, mounting their first major production under the moniker Mystery Lit with Holmes, Sherlock and the Consulting Detective. Written by Jonathan Josephson, the prodution combines three of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries into one epic whodunit set in the Los Angeles Arboretum's historic Santa Anita Train Depot that doubles as the dark and foggy night intrigue of Victorian England. The production runs through July 1.
GAMES
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is currently in the process of developing a virtual reality project based on his iconic series, and he's working with Sony to potentially make this a part of its PlayStation VR system. It's currently unknown if the new Breaking Bad experience will utilize an episodic storytelling format or if only one standalone story will be told.