Monday greetings to all and hope you enjoy the latest roundup of crime drama news:
MOVIES
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners is planning a film of the psychological thriller The Wife Between Us by the writing duo of Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen (the novel hits bookstores Jan. 9 from St. Martin’s Press). Described as being in the same vein as Girl on the Train, the female-centered thriller tells the tale of Vanessa, whose hot, hedge-fund husband Richard abandons their marriage, spinning her into wine-soused financial straits. When Vanessa learns that Richard is newly engaged to a woman she thinks of as her "replacement," it seems like the novel is headed straight for familiar erritory. But Hendricks and Pekkanen "flip expectations when they reveal exactly why Vanessa wants to stop the wedding ... and then they flip them again and again."
Scott Rudin Productions has acquired rights to the bestselling Jennifer Egan novel Manhattan Beach. Egan's book has the atmosphere of a noir thriller and follows a young woman named Anna into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. After her father disappears under mysterious circumstances and the country is at war, Anna goes to work at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to the men who have gone off to fight. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. But one evening at a nightclub, she meets an old associate of her father with ties to New York’s criminal underworld, and she begins to uncover why and how he might have vanished.
Lionsgate acquired rights to E. Lockhart’s New York Times bestseller Genuine Fraud and tapped the Girls duo of Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner to adapt the book and produce the film. The plot of Genuine Fraud is said to be a bit tricky to summarize, but it’s essentially a psychological suspense novel about Jule West Williams, an orphaned young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life as she travels around the world and tries to stay one step ahead of those who have underestimated her skills ... which include a knack for accents and disguises.
Mads Mikkelsen will star in the action-thriller Polar, set in the gritty underworld of political assassins. Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund is helming Jayson Rothwell’s adaption of the Dark Horse graphic novel Polar: Came With the Cold by Victor Santos. Mikkelsen will play the world’s top assassin Duncan Vizla, a/k/a the Black Kaiser who is retiring when his former employer marks him as a liability to the firm. Against his will, he soon finds himself being hunted by an army of younger, faster, ruthless killers who will stop at nothing to have him silenced. Having no choice but to return to the shadowy life he thought he’d left behind, he must use his arsenal of deadly skills to outsmart his enemies and protect an innocent woman.
Nicolas Cage is set to star in Highland Film Group’s action thriller A Score To Settle, from Beautiful Boy director Shawn Ku. Cage stars as Frank, a convicted mob enforcer battling a terminal illness who is released from prison many years after taking the fall for a crime he didn’t commit. Now free, he sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him.
In the new trailer for the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed thriller The Commuter, Liam Neeson once again makes use of his special set of skills to get out of a life-or-death situation — and this time it’s a Hitchcockian trip on a train as a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) proposes an enticing opportunity to Neeson’s unassuming character.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
CBS has put in development the police drama Chasers, based on Lorenzo Carcaterra’s bestselling novel of the same name, from NCIS: Los Angeles creator Shane Brennan, Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS TV Studios. Written by Brennan, Chasers centers on a renegade vigilante law enforcement unit made up of "broken badge" ex-cops – those forced into early retirement – who unite to bring down the most vicious criminals in New York City.
Nathan Fillion is back on the beat at ABC in the cop drama The Rookie from writer Alexi Hawley, who previously worked with Fillion as an executive producer on ABC’s Castle. The Rookie is inspired by a true story and centers on John Nolan (Fillion), who leaves behind his cushy small-town life and moves to Los Angeles to become a police officer, where he finds himself as the oldest newbie in the LAPD.
Fox is developing a one-hour police procedural that hails from Virgil Williams, the co-writer and executive producer of Criminal Minds. Titled Hard Knocks, the series would follow a brilliant, male ex-con turned university criminology professor and a tenacious female detective who team up to tackle crime by combining unique insight into the criminal mind and superior investigative skills.
Ahead of this Sunday’s Season 5 finale, Showtime has ordered a 12-episode sixth season of its hit drama series Ray Donovan. A change of location also is in the works with Hollywood’s favorite celebrity fixer moving to the Big Apple from Los Angeles, where it has been based for the past five seasons.
A hat tip to The Rap Sheet for noting that lovers of Nordic crime fiction on television should be happy to hear that Season 2 of the Icelandic series Trapped — which producers promise will feature "an even more complex and challenging murder case" than the initial 10 episodes — has started filming in northern Iceland. Meanwhile, more plot details were forthcoming for the concluding season of the Swedish drama The Bridge, plus a trailer. The Bridge is scheduled to return to Nordic TV screens in January 2018.
Jeff Kober (Sully) is set for a key recurring role in CBS’ veteran crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles. Kober will portray Harris Keane, who will play an important part in Hetty’s (Linda Hunt) past and their meeting will change Hetty’s future. His first episode will air November 5.
Netflix has released a new trailer for the upcoming original film Bright. Scripted by Max Landis and directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad), the action-thriller takes place in an alternate present day in which humans live alongside magic folk like elves and orcs. Joel Edgerton plays the first orc to join the LAPD, and he’s paired with a human character played by Will Smith. Together, the two must navigate their own personal differences while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the future of the world as they know it.
Ahead of the season 3 premiere, Blindspot has dropped an action-packed new trailer that spans the globe as well as offering a look at Jane’s (Jaimie Alexander) new, super-cool bioluminescent tattoos that will lead her and Kurt on thrilling new worldly adventures. The premiere kicks off in Venice and goes on to additional locations in Spain, Australia, and Morocco.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
CBS This Morning featured John Grisham talking about the student debt crisis inspired his latest legal thriller, The Rooster Bar.
Two Crime writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste celebrated 50 episodes of the podcast by sharing audio of an event during a recent tour of Northern Ireland libraries; welcomed Noelle Holten of crimebookjunkie.com for book reviews; chatted with special guest David Torrans of No Alibis Bookshop; and talked about the brand new crime fiction festival "Noireland."
On Inside Thrill Radio, authors Micki Browning, J.J. Hensley and Isabella Maldonado discussed inside details from their high ranking police and Secret Service positions, as well as the paths that led them to turn to fiction.
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