Welcome to Monday, folks! Here's the latest roundup of crime drama news for you:
AWARDS
The annual British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs, were handed out this weekend. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was a big winner, taking home Best Film, Leading Actress (Frances McDormand), Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell), and Original Screenplay (Martin McDonagh).
MOVIES
Oscar winner Christopher Walken and rising star Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager, Steve McQueen’s upcoming Widows) have been cast in The Burnt Orange Heresy, the new neo-noir thriller from Golden Lion-nominated filmmaker Giuseppe Capotondi. The project is based on a screenplay by Oscar-nominated writer Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) and adapted from the cult novel by Charles Willeford, about an art-world scam that goes horribly wrong.
Black Bear Pictures and Anonymous Content have hired Morten Tyldum to direct and Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander to star in the adaptation of the dramatic thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter. Based on Karen Dionne's bestsller, the story centers on Helena Petterier (Vikander), who lives with a secret: her mother was kidnapped as a teen and she was the product of the relationship between captive and tormentor, remaining in captivity herself for twelve years until her captor was finally arrested. But when he escapes from prison, she becomes determined to hunt him down using all the tools he himself gave her years ago.
Scott Eastwood has signed on to join Oscar winner Morgan Freeman in the cat-and-mouse thriller The Manuscript. Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) will direct from a script by Louis Rosenberg and Joe Rosenbaum. The story follows a jailed genius (Freeman) who writes and sends chapters from a mysterious novel to an aspiring young writer (Eastwood), ensnaring him in a high-stakes ploy to recover $100 million in stolen diamonds.
Actors Gerard Butler, Tucker Tooley, Mark Canton, Alan Siegel, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and director Christian Gudegast with have all signed on to return for the sequel to the heist thriller Den of Thieves. The project, Den of Thieves 2 will find Big Nick (Butler) on the hunt in the streets of Europe closing in on a man who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange.
Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick films, might be launching another film franchise with Sandman Slim, a film adaptation based on bestselling author Richard Kadrey’s nine-book fantasy series.The story centers on James "Sandman Slim" Stark, a fast-talking, hard-boiled, supernatural vigilante who escapes from Hell to avenge his girlfriend’s murder and hunt down the magicians responsible for getting him sent "downtown." Kerry Williamson, who penned the Netflix film What Happened to Monday, will adapt the novel (a previous draft was written by Kel Symons).
20th Century Fox has slotted a release date for Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, the sequel to his Agatha Christie adaptation Murder on the Orient Express, which Branagh directed as well as playing super-sleuth Hercule Poirot. The sequel is scheduled to premiere on Nov. 8, 2019, going up against Disney’s holiday film Nicole starring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader and the second week of Wonder Woman 2.
Morgan Freeman and Forest Whitaker are in talks to join John Travolta in the action thriller The Poison Rose. Bad Boys scribe George Gallo will direct from a script he wrote with Richard Salvatore, based on Salvatore’s novel of the same name. The Poison Rose is described as being in the vein of Chinatown, L.A Confidential, and The Long Goodbye, with Travolta starring as a down on his luck PI who enjoys drinking, smoking, gambling and ladies in distress. Freeman will play Doc, the godfather crime boss of Galveston, Texas; Whitaker will play the shady owner of the town’s sanitarium for the rich and disillusioned. Also starring is John Travolta’s daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, who will portray the daughter of Travolta’s character, Carson Philips.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Ansel Elgort, and Zendaya have signed on to star in Finest Kind, a crime thriller written and directed by Oscar-winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). It follows two brothers (Gyllenhaal and Elgort) who strike a dangerous deal with a crime syndicate that draws them into the Boston underworld.
Clive Standen, who currently stars in NBC’s Taken series adaptation, has been tapped to co-star along with Theo Rossi in Verdi Productions’ crime thriller, Vault. Tom DeNucci is on board to direct the film, which is inspired by true events. The story follows a group of small-time criminals, who in 1975 attempted to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia in the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island.
Piper Perabo, best known for toplining USA’s drama series, Covert Affair, has come aboard the third installment of the Olympus Has Fallen series, Angel Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. Ric Roman Waugh is directing the sequel, which follows Mike Banning (Butler) as he continues to be a target of terrorists, this time while mid-flight on Air Force One.
The Film Noir Foundation is partnering with the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Littleton, Colorado, to present the first NOIR CITY: Denver, March 23 - 25, 2018, a three-day festival that will feature ten films. FNF founder and president Eddie Muller ("The Czar of Noir") will have a special co-host, the legendary crime fiction author James Ellroy, who will co-program the festival. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
TNT has picked up to series the suspense drama pilot Deadlier Than the Male (working title), starring Lily Rabe, Amy Brenneman, and Hamish Linklater. Created and written by Harriet Warner (Call the Midwife), Deadlier Than the Male is described as "an intense, morally complex thriller" that revolves around a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: Emma (Rabe), a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer; John (Linklater), a former serial predator desperate to find redemption; and Mary (Brenneman), a grieving mother obsessed with finding her missing daughter. As each of them is pushed to the edge, the truth about their pasts and motives grows ever murkier, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator.
Jason Statham is in negotiations to star in The Killer’s Game, an action thriller that D.J. Caruso has been hired to direct. Based on a Jay Bonansinga novel, the script centers on a veteran assassin who is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and takes a hit out on himself to avoid the pain that is destined to follow. After ordering the kill, he finds out that he was misdiagnosed and must then fend off the army of former colleagues trying to kill him. The book was published in 1997, and Hollywood has been trying to adapt since it was in manuscript form.
Multiple award-winning Big Little Lies is bringing back all of its stars for the second season. Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon confirmed their returns a few months ago, and now it was recently announced that Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, and Laura Dern will also be back. Even Alexander Skarsgård (spoiler alert ahead) who was allegedly murdered in the first season, is coming back, although it's not known if it will only be in flashbacks. The new addition to the cast is Meryl Streep, who will be playing the mother of Skarsgård's character.
The first major documentary about the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal is set to air next week. Channel 4 is to air Working with Weinstein on February 20, a documentary that explores Weinstein’s relationship with the UK film business and "meets people who worked with Weinstein across 30 years of British film and investigates how we kept his accusers quiet for decades."
Fargo star Bokeem Woodbine has been cast to play the lead role in the pilot for CBS drama Main Justice. Woodbine will play the role of Miles Blair, the new U.S. attorney general after a career in Detroit as a beat cop and then police commissioner. The series is inspired by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s life.
Netflix announced this past week that Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson will be playing Texas Ranger Frank Hamer and ex-partner Maney Gault in The Highwaymen, from director John Lee Hancock. This was the project that goes back far enough that it once had Paul Newman and Robert Redford ready to play those roles, before Newman’s health failed. The plot focuses on Hamer and Gault coming out of retirement to hunt down the notorious bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. The lawmen were out of the Rangers by the time Bonnie and Clyde started their robbery reign, but were commissioned as special investigators, coaxed by a consortium of banks to assemble a posse and end the spree of the notorious gang reputed to have killed thirteen cops and others.
The series adaptation of the action film Hanna at Amazon has found its three leads in Esme Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman, and Mireille Enos, with Sarah Adina Smith set to direct. Written by David Farr, who co-wrote the original film, Hanna follows the journey of a young girl with extraordinary skills as she evades the relentless pursuit of an off-book CIA agent and tries to unearth the truth behind who she is.
Amazon Studios has also renewed Bosch for a fifth season, ahead of the season four premiere of the hour-long cop drama in April. Bosch, starring Titus Welliver in the titular role, and based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels about LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, has become Amazon Prime Video’s longest-running one-hour series.
Former Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders star Alana De La Garza has been tapped as one of the three leads in CBS drama pilot Chiefs, from David Hudgins and Carol Mendelsohn. In addition, helmer Zetna Fuentes (How To Get Away with Murder, This Is Us, Shameless) has been tapped to direct the pilot, from Sony Pictures TV and CBS TV Studios. Written by Hudgins, Chiefs explores the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful, but very different women who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County. They band together to create a task force to catch a dangerous serial killer.
Quantico has lost yet another major character leading up to its Season 3 premiere. Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Quantico director Miranda Shaw, has officially exited the show. It was reported last year that Ellis' role would be reduced, and she would no longer be billed as a series regular, but now it appears she will not be part of the show at all. Two other series regulars, Yasmine Al Massri and Pearl Thusi, also left the series last year. Priyanka Chopra, Johanna Braddy, Jake McLaughlin and Russell Tovey remain on as the core cast of the show.
James Franco is headed back for season 2 of The Deuce, but according to Megan Abbott, a writer for the HBO series, it looks like his status on the show was never in doubt. Abbott told Entertainment Tonight at the Writers Guild Awards on Sunday that Franco, who was accused of sexual misconduct following his Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy win at the Golden Globes last month, would "of course" return for the show’s second season. The accusations were posed against Franco by five women in a Los Angeles Times expose published in January. After the news broke, The Deuce creator David Simon released a statement saying that Franco was "entirely professional as an actor, director and producer." The series, which centers around the beginnings of the porn industry, stars Franco as twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino.
PODCASTS/VIDEOCASTS/RADIO
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Vest talked about libraries closing and the importance of visiting them, and also chatted about the intensity of Karl Ove Knausgaard. Noelle Holten reviewed books from Elle Croft and Matt Wesolowski, and special guest Mark Hill discussed book title changes, doing book events, and much more.
The Story Blender podcast welcomed John Lescroart to talk about his latest thriller featuring San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy, titled Poison.
Debbi Mack interviewed thriller author Kristin Helling on Crime Cafe to discuss The Altruism Effect, which is based on the real-life Stanford Prison Experiment that happened in 1971.
Beyond the Cover's latest special guest was Brad Parks who stopped by to discuss his new stand-alone domestic suspense thriller, Closer Than You Know.
Read or Dead podcast hosts Katie and Rincey talked about romantic mysteries, with quick mentions of the Audie awards and some Stephen King news.
Suspense Radio's Inside Edition hosted two crime authors, author Phillip Donlay talking about Speed the Dawn, and bestselling author Brad Taylor talking about his latest Pike Logan Series, Operator Down.
Dennis Palumbo stopped by Crime Corner with host Matt Coyle to discuss his new book, Head Wounds, the fifth book in the series featuring psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi. Palumbo was also the featured guest on the most recent Speaking of Mysteries podcast.
The latest Crime Time podcast profiled Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, reviewed K.L. Slater’s Liar, and used the Rosemary's Baby sequel to talk about really bad endings.
The new Flash Friction podcast welcomed Aaron Philip Clark for its inaugural episode. Clark's Paul Little novels will be republished this spring by Shotgun Honey/Down & Out Books along with his third novel, The Furious Way, to be published November 2018.
THEATER
Audiobook company Audible announced that Tony Award winner Billy Crudup will return to the title role in Harry Clarke, written by Obie Award winner David Cale (Lillian) and directed by Leigh Silverman (Violet). Audible is bringing the sexually charged, wickedly funny one-man thriller to the Minetta Lane Theatre in a strictly limited 10-week-only engagement with performances beginning Wednesday, March 7th ahead of a Sunday, March 18th opening. Audible listeners will have exclusive access to discounted, premium seats.
I don't often have many dance-related news for Media Murder, but here's an interesting item: Houston choreographer and educator Heather von Reichbauer has interwoven Edgar Allan Poe's life and literary characters to create an original dance narrative work, Madness, Memories, and Woe: A Fantastical Journey Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Performances run at Houston's Match on Main Street, March 2-4.
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