MOVIES
Amma Asante has been set to direct the upcoming film adaptation of David E. Hoffman’s drama thriller The Billion Dollar Spy, which tells the true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War. Hoffman is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and contributing editor to The Washington Post, who won the Pulitzer in 2010 for his book about the arms race The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy. The film adaptation, scripted by Ben August (Remember) will be produced by Walden Media and Akiva Goldsman.
Four-time Oscar nominee Ridley Scott is in talks to direct 20th Century Fox’s spy thriller Queen & Country, based on the award-winning graphic novel by Greg Rucka that follows a British female intelligence agent used as bait to lure the mastermind behind a terrorist attack in London out of hiding. Queen & Country: Operation Broken Ground won the 2002 Eisner Award for Best New Series.
French actress/director Melanie Laurent is putting her Gallic spin on the feature adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto’s noir novel Galveston. The project follows Roy (played by Ben Foster), a New Orleans ex-con who is intended to go down in a set-up by his kingpin Stan (Beau Bridges); however, he comes up the survivor with some valuable documents in hand alongside call girl Raquel (Elle Fanning). They flee Louisiana and wind up in the latter’s hometown of Galveston, where he plots his revenge as he is slowly dying.
Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren have been cast in The Good Liar, a Bill Condon-directed thriller set up at New Line Cinema to be adapted from Nicholas Searle’s debut novel. The pic reunites McKellen and Condon from their collaborations on Gods and Monsters and Mr. Holmes. Jeffrey Hatcher wrote the script, which is about career con artist Roy Courtnay (McKellen), who can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Mirren) online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.
The Josh Trank written and directed Al Capone biopic, Fonzo, is boosting its cast with the addition of Matt Dillon (Wayward Pines), Linda Cardellini (Bloodline), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Katherine Narducci (The Sopranos, HBO’s Wizard Of Lies). They join previously announced Tom Hardy as the title character of iconic Chicago gangster Al Capone, who sees dementia rot his mind after a long incarceration as his past becomes present as harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. Cardellini will play Capone’s long-suffering wife Mae; Dillon is his closest friend Johnny; MacLachlan plays his doctor Karlock; Narducci plays Rosie, one of his sisters.
Oscar-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri has signed on for the indie film Vault, joining Theo Rossi, Clive Standen, and Samira Wiley, and Don Johnson in Verdi Productions’ crime drama directed by Tom DeNucci. Inspired by true events, the pic is about a group of small-time criminals, who in 1975 attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia. Palminteri will play Raymond Patriarca in the film, which is slated to begin filming this month in Rhode Island.
Abi Morgan, the playwright and screenwriter whose big-screen credits include The Iron Lady, Shame and most recently Suffragette, has been set to adapt Tangerine, the upcoming Christine Mangan debut psychological thriller novel (due March 28) that Imperative Entertainment scored rights to in November 2016. The drama is set against the simmering political climate of 1950s Morocco and follows two female characters, once inseparable roommates, who after an unexpected encounter in Tangier attempt to rekindle their friendship only to find their dark, tangled backstory reemerges, and quickly devolves from obsession to madness.
20th Century Fox has chosen Scott Frank to rewrite The Force, the adaptation of the bestselling NYPD corrupt cop thriller novel by Don Winslow. James Mangold has been developing to direct, and this reunites him with Frank after they shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination with Michael Green for Logan, Hugh Jackman’s farewell to his signature X-Men character Wolverine. The book tells the story of a corrupt detective in the NYPD’s most elite crime-fighting unit, Sgt. Denny Malone, who is forced to choose between his family, his partners and his life.
Harry Shum Jr. and Shiloh Fernandez have signed on for key supporting roles in the Mike Gan written and directed thriller Plume, joining previously announced cast Josh Hutcherson, Suki Waterhouse, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey. The film follows a lonely, unstable gas station attendant Melinda (Cobham-Hervey), tired of being overshadowed by her more confident, outgoing co-worker Sheila (Waterhouse). When the gas station is held at gunpoint by Billy (Hutcherson), a desperate man in need of quick cash, Melinda finds an opportunity to make a connection with the robber, regardless of who gets hurt. Shum Jr. will play Officer Liu, a wholesome local police officer subject to the obsessive affections of Melinda. Fernandez plays Perry, Sheila’s boyfriend who finds himself unwittingly enmeshed in Melinda’s dangerous games.
Will Sasso has booked a role in Boss Level, the action thriller starring Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo from writer-director Joe Carnahan. The film follows a retired Special Forces veteran (Grillo) who is trapped in a never-ending loop resulting in his death. To end his suffering, he must figure out who is responsible and stop them. Gibson is Col. Clive Ventor, the powerful head of a shadowy program. Sasso will play Brett, Ventor’s confident, arrogant and a touch sadistic second-in-command.
TELEVISION
Epix will air the eight-episode espionage drama Deep State in the U.S. The project stars Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Game of Thrones' Joe Dempsie, and is described as a "grounded, visceral thriller, moving between the deeply personal story of a family man fighting to escape his past and the violent, dark excesses of government and global corporate power."
Nicole Kidman is reuniting with Big Little Lies showrunner David E. Kelley for another HBO limited series. The actress is set to star in and executive produce The Undoing, an adaptation of the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz that follows Grace Sachs, a successful therapist who’s on the brink of publishing her first book when a chasm opens in her life: a violent death, a missing husband and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations.
Frequency's Peyton List has been tapped as the female lead opposite Joseph Morgan in Fox’s untitled drama pilot based on the best-selling book Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. Laysla De Oliveira also has been cast as a series regular in the project, from 20th Century Fox TV and Miramax, which was behind the 2007 movie adaptation directed by Ben Affleck. Written by Black Sails co-creator Robert Levine and directed by Phillip Noyce, the untitled project centers on private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Joseph Morgan) and Angela Gennaro (List) who, armed with their wits, their street knowledge and an undeniable chemistry, right wrongs the law can’t in the working-class Boston borough of Dorchester.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Ten Days in the Valley) is set for a lead role opposite Robin Tunney and Adam Rayner in the ABC drama pilot, The Fix. Described as "part legal thriller, part confessional, and part revenge fantasy," The Fix is written by Marcia Clark, Elizabeth Craft, and Sarah Fain and directed by Larysa Kondracki. After losing the biggest case of her career and being shredded by the media, former prosecutor Maya Travis (Tunney) has left Los Angeles for a quiet life in rural Oregon. Eight years after her devastating defeat, the murderer strikes again, forcing Maya to return to L.A. to confront him one more time. Akinnuoye-Agbaje will play Steven "Sevvy" Johnson, a charismatic Oscar-winning actor who was accused of murdering his wife and another woman.
Soon-to-be-former Grey’s Anatomy cast member Sarah Drew has been tapped as co-lead Cagney in CBS’ Cagney & Lacey drama pilot, with Blindspot alum Michelle Hurd already cast as fellow co-lead Lacey in the reboot of the iconic 1980s police procedural. Written by Bridget Carpenter and directed by Rosemary Rodriguez, the new Cagney & Lacey will follow the two female police detectives and friends who keep the streets of Los Angeles safe.
Former Rookie Blue star Missy Peregrym will lead the cast of F.B.I., Dick Wolf’s upcoming 13-episode CBS drama series that chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Peregrym will play the female lead, FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell, who engages immediately and commits deeply to the people she works with and is protecting. Maggie came to New York with conviction – and is working incredibly hard not to let a recent personal tragedy derail her new life, personally or professionally.
Damnation's Sarah Jones is set as a female lead in the CBS drama pilot L.A. Confidential, based on James Ellroy’s classic noir novel that follows three homicide detectives, a female reporter (Alana Arenas), and a Hollywood actress (Jones) whose paths intersect as the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous 1950s Los Angeles. Jones’s Lynn is a sharp Veronica Lake-like beauty, an aspiring Hollywood actress – and not one to compromise her principles. When she finds a best friend brutally murdered and Jack Vincennes (Walton Goggins) unexpectedly at the scene before she’s had time to call the police, Lynn knows she has something on the LAPD detective – and decides to use it to help solve the horrible crime. The role of Lynn was played by Kim Basinger in the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential, earning her an Oscar.
Happy Endings alum Zachary Knighton is set as a lead playing Rick Wright, opposite star Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks, in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot. Directed by Justin Lin, the reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series follows Thomas Magnum (Hernandez), a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. With help from fellow vets Theodore "TC" Calvin and Orville "Rick" Wright, as well as that of disavowed former MI-6 agent Juliet Higgins (Weeks), Magnum takes on the cases no one else will, helping those who have no one else to turn to.
Former Wings star Steven Weber is set for a key series regular role opposite Kylie Bunbury, along with Lisseth Chavez (The Fosters) and Dennis Oh (NCIS: New Orleans) in Get Christie Love, ABC’s reboot drama pilot. The new Get Christie Love is an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. Weber will play Steve, Christie’s law school teacher a decade ago, and now serves as her mentor and day-to-day confidant.
Good news for fans of Netflix's The Sinner: a second season is on the way. Picked up from the USA Network, the first season (adapted from a book by German writer Petra Hammesfahr) followed Jessica Biel, playing Cora Tannetti, a mother and wife who was raised in an incredibly religious family who commits a murder for what appears to be no reason. The second season would follow Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) who is called back to his hometown in distant rural New York to assess a disturbing new crime: an 11-year-old boy's horrific double-homicide and his seemingly inexplicable motive. As Ambrose comes to realize there's nothing ordinary about the boy or where he came from, his investigation leads him straight into the hidden darkness of his hometown and pitting him against those who'll stop at nothing to protect its secrets.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The Joined Up podcast welcomed psychological thriller writer, Sam Carrington, to talk about her work and how her background in UK's prison service as an Offending Behavior Facilitator informs her writing.
Gillian Flynn shared details on Windy City Live about her next novel and an HBO series she's working on with Amy Adams.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host Luca Veste was joined by bestselling crime writer Angela Clarke to talk about book releases, the Staunch prize, infamous people and what they were reading, and much more, including special guest Katerina Diamond.
Suspense Radio welcomed Laura Childs, to talk about the latest in her Tea Shop Mystery series, and also Dennis Palumbo, discussing the fifth book in his Daniel Rinaldi mystery series.
Writer Types chatted with authors Alison Gaylin, Owen Laukkanen, Peter Swanson, and Dharma Keller, and the weekly "Unpanel" featured contributors to the anthology "novel in stories," Night of the Flood.
Book Riot's Read or Dead podcast hosts Rincey and Katie flailed over the potential of new Gillian Flynn books, discusssed the new Obama/Biden buddy mystery, and talked about some great mystery comics.
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