I hope everyone in the U.S. enjoyed a happy, healthy, holiday weekend. But it's Monday again, which means it's time for the latest roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN
Tom Shepherd, who scripted Robert Downey Jr.’s forthcoming The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, has been signed to write Paramount's Matt Helm project, based on Donald Hamilton’s long-running book series of spy thrillers. Bradley Cooper is set to star as the title character, with George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci all serving as executive producers. Four of the books were made into films in the 1960s starring Dean Martin, but they were more spoofs of the source material. Hamilton’s Helm was a U.S. special agent/assassin during World War II who left the life to raise a family in Santa Fe but is forced to return to his former life.
The Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, has found its lead in Alessandro Nivola, who is in final talks to play Dicky Moltisanti, Tony's (James Gandolfini) mentor and Christopher's (Michael Imperioli) father. The Many Saints of Newark takes place in the 1960s, more than 30 years before the HBO series, when Italians and African-Americans were essentially at war in New Jersey. Moltisanti is described as a "charismatic but violent man" who falls in love with his own father's extremely young bride. He's the mentor to a teenage Tony Soprano, who is under Moltisanti's tutelage after Tony's father goes to prison. Other Sopranos fan-favorite characters are also expected to appear in the film.
The latest and final Department Q film The Purity Of Vengeance has become the highest-grossing Danish film at the local box office. The latest installment, based on the fourth book in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s book series about crime unit Department Q, charts how a series of mysterious disappearances in 1987 are all eerily connected to the same person.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
NCIS star and executive producer Mark Harmon is behind a new crime drama project at CBS, based on author John Sandford's best-selling Prey novels. The show would focus on Minneapolis homicide detective Lucas Davenport and his best friend and profiler, psychology professor and nun Elle Krueger. The two were brought together by a shared tragedy and now work together to hunt the most dangerous criminals in Minnesota.
Netflix has ordered the new docuseries The Innocent Man, based on John Grisham’s best-selling book, with a December 14 premiere. Innocent Man is a story that gained national attention thanks to Grisham’s nonfiction work, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. The Netflix six-part documentary series blends new footage with archival video and photos and focuses on two murders that shook the small town of Ada, Oklahoma, in the 1980s and the controversial chain of events that followed.
The Crown star Kate Phillips will take the lead role in Miss Scarlet and The Duke, a British crime drama that marks A+E Networks International’s first moves into international scripted co-productions.The series was created by the writer of Grantchester and The Mallorca Files, Rachael New, and follows the first ever-female detective in 19th century London.
AT&T Audience Network has ordered a third season of the drama Mr. Mercedes, based on the Stephen King novels, with 10 hour-long episodes. Brendan Gleeson will return to star as retired Detective Bill Hodges, who becomes obsessed with the psychopath Brady Hartsfield, a/k/a Mr. Mercedes (played by Harry Treadaway). Also returning is Holly Gibney (Justine Lupe), who became Detective Hodges' partner in a private investigative agency during the second season.
Chaske Spencer is joining the Season 4 cast of NBC’s Blindspot in a recurring role. Although details are mainly being kept under wraps, it is known that he'll be playing Dominic Masters, someone who works for Madeline Burke (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). In Season 4, Jane Doe/Remi (Jaime Alexander) continues to fight the effects of the ZIP poisoning she received in Season 3, which has destroyed her recent memory. This, as the FBI team hunts a dangerous enemy operative, and a deadly new foe emerges.
ABC’s summer procedural drama series Take Two was cancelled after it wrapped its 13-episode first-season run. The straight-to-series drama starred Rachel Bilson as Sam, the former star of a hit cop series who’s fresh out of rehab following a bender of epic proportions. Desperate to restart her career, she talks her way into shadowing rough-and-tumble private investigator Eddie (Eddie Cibrian) as research for a potential comeback role.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed law enforcement officer and author of authentic hard-boiled crime fiction, Gavin Reese.
The latest episode of the Crime Cafe featured the Philip Marlowe radio episode “The Persian Slippers.”
Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham talked about Tom Cruise being too short for Jack Reacher, how boring the Goodreads Choice Awards are, and do a spoiler-filled discussion of the new Tana French book, The Witch Elm.
The latest Crime Files podcast was recorded live at the Rooftop Book Club event and featured authors Rachel Abbott, Elly Griffiths and Sabine Durrant, and was chaired by editor, Claire Frost.
The new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast featured the mystery short story, "What A Little Cinnamon Can Do," written by mystery author L. D. Barnes and read by Fresno actor Julia Reimer.
BBC Radio's Open Book podcast chatted with Lee Child, author of the phenomenally successful Jack Reacher series, who told host Mariella Frostrup why his famous creation continues to fascinate him.
THEATER
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time returns to the UK's National Theatre for a strictly limited season beginning November 29th. The play centers on the the young autistic Christopher, whose detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.
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