It's the start of the week and time for a roundup of the latest crime drama news including a couple of novel adaptations, more TV reboots, and another coup for Stephenie Meyer:
MOVIES
The US rights for the thriller-western The Scent of Rain & Lightning have been acquired by SP Releasing. The film stars Maika Monroe (It Follows), Maggie Grace (Taken) and Bonnie Bedelia (Parenthood) and based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Nancy Pickard. The story follows Jody Linder (Monroe), a Midwestern twenty-something whose past resurfaces when the man convicted of killing her parents has his sentence pardoned, and Jody gradually faces the possibility the wrong man was convicted of the crime. The further Jody delves into the past, more and more startling truths begin to emerge about her family’s tragic past, and Jody must put the pieces together to reveal the truth.
Jim Parsons, Haley Joel Osment, Terry Kinney, and Dylan Baker have joined Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. The project follows the relationship between the notorious serial killer (Zac Efron) and his longtime girlfriend (Lily Collins) who at the time, had no knowledge of the crimes. Parsons will be playing Larry Simpson, the lead prosecutor of the 1979 Miami trial that finally convicted Bundy; Osment will be playing “Jerry” opposite Collins; Baker will be playing David Yokum, the tough nosed Utah prosecutor; and Terry Kinney will be playing Detective Mike Fisher who sought to prove Bundy’s heinous crimes.
Kaya Scodelario (Maze Runner: Death Cure) has also joined the cast of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile directed by Joe Berlinger, playing Carole Ann Boone, the ex-wife of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy (Zac Efron). Bundy had an ongoing relationship with Boone that lasted through his 1979 televised trial, which ultimately resulted in the murderer’s death sentence. As previously announced, John Malkovich will be playing Judge Edward Cowart who presided over said trial.
Willem Dafoe has joined Edward Norton to star in the thriller Motherless Brooklyn, Norton’s long-in-development adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel. Norton is attached to direct from his own script and produce through his Class 5 Films production company. Lethem’s protagonist, Lionel Essrog (Norton), has Tourette syndrome and works as a private eye at a makeshift detective agency. The story, set in 1954, focuses on a young woman protesting against a powerful developer, who designs neighborhoods as slums so his people can buy up property. Dafoe will play the developer’s brother.
Actor Robbie Jones (One Tree Hill, Necessary Roughness) has come aboard New Line’s Tim Story-directed Shaft sequel, which stars past Shaft actors Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Roundtree as well as new comers Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall, Alexandra Shipp, Cliff Smith, and Matt Lauria. The story follows John Shaft Jr. (a.k.a. JJ), a cyber security expert and FBI analyst who reluctantly enlists his estranged father to help to find out who killed his best friend Karim and bring down a drug-trafficking/money-laundering operation in NYC.
Bill Nighy and Chris Geere have come aboard Legendary/Universal’s live-action Pokémon franchise film, Detective Pikachu, joining Ryan Reynolds, Ken Watanabe, Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton. Rob Letterman is directing from a script by he co-wrote Nicole Perlman.
Production has halted on Blake Lively's spy thriller The Rhythm Section as the actress struggles to recover from on-set hand injury she suffered while filming a stunt sequence. Lively's recovery is taking longer than anticipated, and a second surgery is going to be needed which will extend the healing and rehabilitation period required. It's unclear when filming will recommence, although according to The Hollywood Reporter, one insider said that just under half the movie has been shot, while another source said it could be five months before the production resumes.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Tomorrow Studios is developing a TV series based on thriller novel The Chemist by Twilight author Stephanie Meyer. The book follows the gripping tale of a woman who was one of the darkest secrets of a U.S. government agency so clandestine it didn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it’s her only chance to erase the giant target on her back but it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous.
More than a decade after the release of the feature film adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s best-selling novel, Gone Baby Gone, Fox has ordered a pilot for a TV series adapting the story of working class Boston detectives investigating a young girl’s kidnapping. Written by Black Sails creator Robert Levine, the pilot will be a one-hour drama following private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, who are "armed with their wits, their street knowledge and an undeniable chemistry" as they attempt to tackle cases that the law can’t in the working-class Boston borough of Dorchester. Levine and Lehane are both set to executive produce the pilot, which is aiming for Fox’s 2018-2019 TV season.
CBS has ordered a small-screen version of L.A. Confidential, a new take on the James Ellroy detective novel that inspired the Oscar-winning 1997 film. Jordan Harper (Gotham, The Mentalist) will pen the pilot and serve as an executive producer on the project, should it go to series. Like the novel and film, L.A. Confidential is a crime drama set in 1950s Los Angeles, but CBS promises that the story gets "a thoroughly 2018 treatment in terms of tone, music and style." The plot centers on a trio of homicide detectives, a woman reporter and an aspiring actress whose paths cross "while the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous 1950s Los Angeles," per the official description.
CBS also ordered pilots for three more dramas, including: Red Line, a racially charged cop show about a white policeman accidentally killing a black doctor, executive-produced by Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti; Main Justice, a legal thriller from Jerry Bruckheimer that's based on the life of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; and The Code, a military drama about U.S. Marine Corps attorneys, from Craig Sweeny (Limitless) and Craig Turk (The Good Wife).
Last week, I noted that new reboots of Magnum PI and Cagney and Lacey were in the works at CBS. In a nod to increasing diversity in programming, the network is allegedly planning on casting a non-white actor as the iconic detective, Magnum, and Lacey in the classic procedural also is likely to be non-white.
The CW announced new pilot orders including two crime-centric shows: In the Dark, a dramedy from Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films banner and CBS Television Studios, which centers on a flawed and irreverent blind woman who is the only "witness" to the murder of her drug-dealing friend; and Skinny Dip, which is based on the novel of the same name by Carl Hiaasen in which a woman teams with a jaded ex-cop to exact her own twisted brand of revenge on her cheating spouse who tried to kill her, and winds up uncovering a wider conspiracy in the process.
"Dirty John," the Los Angeles Times' popular true crime podcast about the twisted life of "Dirty" John Meehan, is getting a scripted anthology series adaptation at Bravo, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show is reportedly nearing a two-season pickup with the first season based on the podcast and the second telling an entirely new, closed-ended story that's yet to be determined. On the podcast, journalist Chris Goffard tells the story of con man John Meehan and his wife Debra Newell and her two daughters, Jacquelyn and Terra, whose lives are forever changed by Meehan's abuse and deception. Additionally, Bravo's sister network Oxygen, which recently rebranded as a true crime network, has commissioned a companion documentary series about Meehan's crimes.
Ilene Chaiken will write and executive produce an untitled pilot project with Melissa Scrivner Love for Fox TV. The hourlong drama pilot will center on FBI Special Agent Clementine Otis, who is in the midst of investigating a domestic terrorism threat when a personal indiscretion – an affair with a prominent general – shatters her life and threatens her career at the FBI.
Niels Arden Oplev (Mr. Robot) has been tapped to direct and executive produce the pilot episode of F.B.I., CBS’ upcoming 13-episode drama series from Dick Wolf, boss of the Law & Order and Chicago franchises. The series chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
NBC offered up a first look for the upcoming SVU episode (February 7) which brings back Sam Waterston's character Jack McCoy to the courtroom to face off with Mariska Hargitay. The actor played District Attorney’s office denizen McCoy for 16 seasons on the Dick Wolf-created original series and appeared in three SVU episodes. Here’s the official synopsis: “When an infant goes missing, the SVU finds themselves taking sides in a family’s right-to-die court case. Meanwhile, Barba’s interference in the case puts the entire DA’s office in jeopardy.”
PODCASTS/VIDEOS/RADIO
The new Crime Cafe podcast with host Debbi Mack included mystery author S.G. Wong talking her hardboiled supernatural series set in 1934 Crescent City and featuring Lola Starke.
David Putnam visited Crime Corner with Matt Coyle. Putnam is a retired California law enforcement officer who worked on teams for Patrol, Investigations, SWAT, Narcotics, Violent Crimes, Criminal Intelligence, Internal Affairs, Detective Bureau and as child protective services coordinator before turning his hand to writing crime fiction.
Hosts Katie and Rincey of the Read or Dead podcast discussed the Edgar Awards nominees, the new Staunch book prize, and books by black authors to kick off Black History Month.
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