Monday greetings to all and welcome to the latest roundup of crime drama news:
MOVIES
Universal has optioned the rights to Tamer Elnoury and Kevin Maurer’s book American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent that Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail will direct and his Emmy-winning star Rami Malek will headline. Elnoury is a longtime undercover agent and active Muslim who joined the elite counter-terrorism unit after Sept. 11. In his book, he reveals his experience about infiltrating and bringing down a terror cell stateside, running up against the clock to foil them, with worn techniques which still entail listening, recording, and proving terrorist intent.
Orion Pictures is setting up Songs of the Damned, which is a fictional account of Chicago inmates who escape prison through producing a musical play. Adam Hashemi will make his feature film directorial debut for the project, and award-winning music producer Mark Ronson will compose original music. Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton) is in talks to join for a production that is eyeing a fall start.
This week brought a trailer-load of, well, trailers. Here are some of the latest:
A second and completely different trailer has arrived for The Girl In The Spider’s Web, the latest incarnation centering on the character Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. The role this time is played by Claire Foy, who takes over the reins from Rooney Mara.
Fox released the first trailer for Widows, based on the Lynda La Plante novel that was previously adapted as a British miniseries. The film adaptation stars Viola Davis the leader of a group of four women whose husbands were killed during a bank robbery and now the widows must come together to try to deal with the debt left behind from the failed job. The film is directed by Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) from a script he co-wrote with Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), and the cast also includes Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Lukas Haas and Brian Tyree Henry.
The first trailer was released for The Old Man and the Gun, writer-director David Lowery’s film based on the true story of the man who escaped from San Quentin at age 70 and embarked on an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Tucker’s commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek) who loves him in spite of his chosen profession. Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter and Tom Waits co-star.
A trailer also dropped for Operation Finale, starring Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Lior Raz, Melanie Laurent, Nick Kroll, Joe Alwyn, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Aronov, Ohad Knoller, Greg Hill, Torben Liebrecht, Mike Hernandez, Greta Scacchi and Pêpê Rapazote. The film is based on the true tale of the 1960 covert mission of legendary Mossad agent Peter Malkin as he infiltrates Argentina and captures Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who masterminded the transportation logistics that brought millions of innocent Jews to their deaths in concentration camps.
Rounding out trailer-ville is the first trailer for Bad Times at the El Royale, Fox’s period crime thriller set in majestic Lake Tahoe. Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at the rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption — before everything goes to hell. The cast includes Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman and Chris Hemsworth.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Orphan Black and Queer As Folk‘s Temple Street Productions have acquired TV rights to prolific Canadian author Kelley Armstrong’s trio of Rockton mystery novels that include City Of The Lost, A Darkness Absolute and This Fallen Prey which have all been published in the past two years. Rockton is a Utopian commune and a survivalist outpost as well as an extreme adventure and a penal colony that takes in those seeking refuge from their lives. Homicide detective Casey Duncan takes refuge in Rockton to help her best friend escape a brutal ex-husband, but she also has something to hide. Before Casey was a cop, she killed a man. As she soon discovers, the town is in desperate need of a police detective, because the supposedly safe paradise has just had its first-ever murder.
Fox will explore the gruesome murders carried out by Charles Manson’s "family" in a new two-part Liev Schreiber-narrated documentary based on a vault of unseen footage of the cult. Inside The Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes is a retelling of the Manson story using original 16mm footage that was found in the archives of Robert Hendrickson, the filmmaker behind Oscar-nominated doc Manson who died in 2016. The series will look at how the members, who carried out a number of grisly murders, including the brutal attack on Sharon Tate, went from peace-loving hippies to mass murderers.
ABC Studios International has picked up an eight-part crime series for the streaming service Stan. The division, which is run by former ABC casting chief Keli Lee, is producing crime drama The Gloaming with The Kettering Incident’s Victoria Madden and Boys In The Trees producer John Molloy. The drama, which will be shot in Tasmania, follows unorthodox, troubled cop Molly McGee, who leading an investigation into the murder of an unidentified woman. To solve the case, Molly has to team up with Alex O’Connell, a man she hasn’t spoken to in twenty years, and they discover that the murder has links to a cold case from the past. What begins as a routine investigation exposes something more insidious, and to catch the killer, Molly and Alex have to face the ghosts of their past.
Fox confirmed that Corinne Massiah and Marcanthonee Reis, who recurred on the freshman drama 9-1-1 last season, have been upped to series regulars. They play May and Harry, the respective daughter and son of LAPD Sgt. Athena Grant (Angela Bassett) and Michael Grant (Rockmond Dunbar) in the first-responders procedural.
HBO has released a fresh look at the TV adaptation of Sharp Objects, based on Gillian Flynn's debut novel that sees five-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams as reporter Camille Preaker returning to Wind Gap to investigate the murder of two young girls. The premiere of the eight-part miniseries will be simulcast on HBO and Sky Atlantic on Monday, July 9.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Blue Plate Special host Terri Lynn Coop served up award-winning mystery author Paul D. Marks to talk about his lates novel, White Heat, which is set in 1992 against the turmoil of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers charged with assaulting motorist Rodney King.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste had a lot to chat about, including the changing face of non-fiction, and who they would want to write an autobiography with. Keith Nixon also reviewed The Chosen Ones by Howard Linskey and The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven, and the special guest was Doug Johnstone talking about writing psychological thrillers, nuclear physics, angry turtles, and getting the band back together.
Kings River Life's Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast offered up its premiere episode by starting off with the mystery short story, "The Pub Crawl", written by mystery author Nancy Cole Silverman and read by Fresno actor Cyndle Cee. The Pub Crawl was previously published by Out of the Gutter. Each episode will feature mystery short stories and mystery novel first chapters read by actors from the San Joaquin Valley.
Suspense Radio Inside Edition welcomed author Jenny Milchman talking about her latest book Wicked River.
Preston Lang stopped by the Crime Syndicate podcast to chat about and read from his newest noir novel, Sunk Costs, out now from All Due Respect Books.
THEATER
The Hampstead Theatre, London is staging Fiona Doyle's The Strange Death of John Doe through July 7, extending its original run due to high demand. Inspired by real events and set in present-day London, the story surrounds the unidentified body of an anonymous young man with fatal head injuries who's found face down in a suburban street. Clinically named as "John Doe" by the pathologists working on the case, they must uncover the truth and piece his story – and body – back together. A breakthrough sends DC John Kavura into overdrive and as his investigation unravels, he uncovers a haunting story of our time.
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