Welcome to another Monday and a new roundup of the latest crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN
Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry) has been set to star in Deon Taylor’s noir thriller Fatale. The film centers on a married man (yet to be cast) who is tricked into a murder scheme by a seductive female police detective (played by Swank). Production on Fatale will begin next month in Los Angeles.
Voltage Pictures has acquired the spec script, The Fishermen, by screenwriter John C. Richards. The original story centers on a soft-spoken Vietnam-era top sniper now dying of cancer who becomes a vigilante killer with the help of a sympathetic policeman.
Jennifer Lopez has signed up to star in director Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers, a film inspired by Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine article “The Hustlers at Scores,” which details a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients. Lopez will play ringleader to the group of ambitious women who take their plans of getting their full cut too far.
Alex Essoe, who just booked a role playing Danny Torrance’s mother in Warner Bros’ The Shining continuation Doctor Sleep, is also set to co-star opposite Luke Hemsworth and Maggie Q in Death of Me. The Darren Lynn Bousman-directed psychological thriller, penned by Ari Margolis, James Morley III, and David Tish, is set on an exotic island where a couple (Hemsworth and Maggie Q) on holiday wake up with no recollection of what transpired the night before. They find a video that shows them as willing participants in a ritual that inexplicably ends with him murdering her.
Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals) and James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom) will take on lead roles in the crime drama, The Seven Sorrows of Mary, directed by Portuguese writer-director Pedro Varela (Os Filhos Do Rock) from his own screenplay. Inspired by true events, the harrowing story follows Mary (Bamber), a 21 year old American exchange student, who is about to finish up her year abroad in Brazil. While out for a night on the town with her boyfriend Gabriel (Frecheville), they are both kidnapped, and Gabriel is repeatedly beaten while Mary is raped by her captors during a six-hour abduction nightmare. After she gets away, Mary is forced to choose between seizing a chance at freedom and letting Gabriel be killed or returning to her brutal attackers.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) has signed on to direct and executive produce a television adaptation of Killer Intent, the debut novel of writer Tony Kent. Kent will adapt for TV his own novel — the first in a series of thrillers following the adventures of intelligence agent Joe Dempsey, Irish lawyer Michael Devlin, and American television journalist Sarah Truman. Killer Intent will be production company Liberty Films' first foray into television.
The Good Wife's Archie Panjabi is returning to the legal drama genre as the star and producer of Adversaries, from Blindspot creator/executive producer Martin Gero and executive producer Alex Berger. Written by Berger, Adversaries is described as "a humorous, aspirational legal drama that argues the path to healing a polarized nation is through listening and empathy."
As part of a deal with NBCUniversal Television and New Media Distribution, the four-part critically praised Australian series Safe Harbour is set to make its U.S. debut on Hulu on August 24. The project tells the story of five Australians on a yachting holiday who come across a broken-down fishing boat full of desperate asylum seekers and decide to help by towing the refugees, but when they wake the next morning the fishing boat is gone. Five years later they meet some of the refugees again and learn that someone cut the rope between the two boats, and seven people died when the fishing boat sank. As each group struggles to find the truth and old secrets come to light, one question hangs over it all – who cut the rope?
The Hallmark Channel has several new mysteries in the pipeline, including an adaptation of the novel Charley’s Web by Joy Fielding, starring Susan Lucci as a columnist who uncovers the truth behind the crimes in the community; Picture Perfect, starring Alexa PenaVega and Carlos PenaVega as a photographer and the local police detective she winds up assisting; The Chronicle Mysteries, starring Alison Sweeney as a novelist and podcaster who researches the cold cases; and Crossword Mysteries, starring Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott and co-created by puzzlemaster Will Shortz.
Former Timeless star Abigail Spencer is set as the lead in Hulu drama pilot Reprisal, described as "a hyper-kinetic revenge tale following a relentless femme fatale (Spencer) who, after being left for dead, leads a vengeful campaign against a bombastic gang of gearheads."
The Netflix drama Central Park Five has unveiled its leading men, including Chris Chalk (Gotham), Ethan Herisse (Miss Virginia), Marquis Rodriguez (Chicago Fire), Caleel Harris (Goosebumps 2), and newcomers Freddy Miyares and Justin Cunningham. Based on a true story, the four-episode series will chronicle the notorious case of five teenagers of color who were convicted of a rape they did not commit. The series will span from the spring of 1989, when each were first questioned about the incident, to 2014 when they were exonerated and a settlement was reached with the city of New York.
Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers), Jordi Molla (Genius) and Narcos’ Cristina Umaña and Francisco Denis have been cast in the second season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan as series regulars, joining previously announced Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Michael Kelly (House of Cards) and John Hoogenakker (Colony). The project is a reinvention with a modern sensibility of the Tom Clancy hero, to be played by John Krasinski.
Danny Nucci (The Fosters) is set for a key recurring role on ABC’s straight-to-series light crime drama The Rookie starring Castle's Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. Nucci will play Detective Sanford Motta, a tough major assault crimes detective in the station.
Mark Tallman is set for a recurring role on the upcoming 20th season of NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing Gavin Riley, the chief of detectives who’s on his way to being governor one day. Law & Order: SVU chronicles the life and crimes of the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department and stars Mariska Hargitay, Ice T, Kelli Giddish, and Peter Scanavino.
Showtime president and CEO David Nevins said at TCA on Monday that Homeland's eighth season will be its last, although he was quick to add, "It’s not a cancellation." The political thriller has won eight Emmys during its run including best drama in 2012, plus two best actress trophies for star Claire Danes.
Showtime released a trailer for the limited series Escape At Dannemora, which stars Patricia Arquette in a story based on the real-life prison escape that made headlines during summer 2015 with the strange odyssey of two convicted murderers and the 51-year-old woman who helped them escape.
BBC One debuted the trailer for the six-part thriller, Bodyguard, which stars Game Of Thrones alum Richard Madden and Line Of Duty's Keeley Hawes. Set in and around the corridors of power, Bodyguard tells the story of a heroic but volatile war veteran assigned to protect the Home Secretary whose politics run contrary to his own.
Showtime released a trailer for Ray Donovan, which returns for its sixth season on Sunday, October 28. Liev Schreiber returns as the titular "fixer," along with Susan Sarandon, who plays media mogul Sam Winslow.
Liev Schreiber is also the featured narrator in the upcoming two-hour documentary Charles Manson documentary called Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes, and Fox just released a September 17 premiere date along with a teaser trailer.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Criminal Element has an online poll soliticing your vote for your favorite true crime podcast.
The Bookshelf podcast included an interview with crime writer Ann Cleeves, known for her Shetland Quartet and Vera Stanhope novels mysteries.
RTE Roundup featured Declan Burke with the with a round-up of the latest crime fiction.
The Australian podcast Sundays with Libbi Gorr, welcomed crime fiction writer Emma Viskic, the award-winning author of the Caleb Zelic series that includes And Fire Came Down and Resurrection Bay.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste offered up a live installment of the "Hungover Gameshow." Battling it out for the coveted prize of nothing, the two crime writers were joined by Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Alex Michaelides, Alison Belsham, Chris McGeorge, Emma Kavanagh, Mason Cross, and Richard Osman.
CrimeFriction featured author Rob "Krav Maga Boffin" Hart to discuss Hawaii, movies, and his latest novel, Potter's Field.
The special guest on Speaking of Mysteries was Lori Rader-Day who talked about her latest, Under a Dark Sky, where she sends a character who’s pathologically afraid of the dark to a dark sky park.
The MysteryRats Maze podcast featured excerpts from The Deepest Grave: A Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery by Jeri Westerson.
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