It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN
Paramount Pictures is rebooting Face/Off, the 1997 John Woo-directed action thriller that starred John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and has hired Oren Uziel to write the script. In the original film, Travolta played FBI agent Sean Archer, obsessed with catching a homicidal sociopath named Castor Troy who's responsible for killing the fed’s son. The agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and takes the mug of his nemesis so he can be sent to prison to find out a bomb’s whereabouts and stop an attack. The plan goes awry when the bad guy wakes up and takes the face of the FBI agent.
Lionsgate is in final talks to acquire the action spec script, Shadow Force. Kerry Washington and Sterling K. Brown will star in and produce the Leon Chills-scripted action drama that is described as "a two-hander action picture reminiscent of films like Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) has signed on to star in the indie drama, Chicago 1919, with Julie Dash (The Rosa Parks Story) set to direct. The project follows two young African American brothers and their involvement in the Chicago race riot of 1919, an extremely violent racial conflict provoked by ethnic White Americans against Black Americans that began on the south side of Chicago. During the riot, thirty-eight people died, and it was the worst of the nearly twenty-five riots in the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919.
Con O’Neill (Chernobyl) and Sarah Jane Potts (Kinky Boots) will lead the cast in the UK revenge-thriller, Don’t Leave Me. The project follows a suicidal man, now working as a church handyman and soup kitchen worker, as he tracks the killers of his wife and daughter.
Teresa Ruiz (Narcos: Mexico) has been added to the cast of The Minuteman, an action thriller starring Liam Neeson. Ruiz also joins actors Katheryn Winnick and Juan Pablo Raba in the story of a rancher (Neeson) on the Arizona border who becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy desperately fleeing the cartel assassins (led by Raba) who’ve pursued him into the U.S.
According to the LA Times, two venerable institutions are throwing their energies behind a search for lost Sherlock Holmes films. The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Baker Street Irregulars are on a mission to recover and restore missing Holmes films from the silent era and beyond. Finding the bygone works will involve the Library of Congress, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and historians, collectors, and national film archives in Britain, Germany, France and other countries. Previous such efforts have located a missing 1916 Holmes production starring American actor William Gillette, which turned up in 2014 in Paris.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Netflix is adapting Harlan Coben’s mystery thriller, The Woods, as a Polish original. It's the latest international adaptation of a Coben book for Netflix, with the digital platform also remaking El Inocente in Spain with Oriol Paulo, and The Stranger and Safe in the UK. Set in two time spans, 1994 and 2019, The Woods tells the story of a Warsaw prosecutor, Pawel Kopinski, who is still grieving the loss of his sister from twenty five years ago – the night she walked into the woods at a summer camp and was never seen again. But now, the discovery of a young homicide victim – a boy who vanished along with Pawel’s sister – reveals evidence that links him to her disappearance.
Production company, Bad Wolf, is developing a gritty drugs, sex, and nightclubs drama set in the aftermath of World War One. Soho 1918 follows the birth of the nightclub scene in Soho and tells the true story of a conservative, god-fearing 42-year old single mother, Kate Meyrick, who builds a nightclub empire and criminal family enterprise. She eventually becomes the most dangerous woman in London as well as a competitor to Brilliant Chang, the baron of Soho’s gritty underworld.
Six-time Emmy winner John Lithgow is set as a lead along with Jeff Bridges in FX’s drama pilot, The Old Man. FX has also tapped Jon Watts, who directed and co-wrote blockbusters Spider-Man: Homecoming and its sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home, to direct and executive produce. The project is based on the eponymous novel written by Thomas Perry and centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. Lithgow will play Harold Harper, who is called back to service by the FBI after suffering a terrible personal loss. He has a complicated past with rogue fugitive Chase (Bridges), which makes him uniquely suited for hunting him down.
Swedish actor Adam Pålsson has been tapped by Netflix to star as Henning Mankell’s renowned detective protagonist, Kurt Wallander, in a six-episode English-language series due out next year. A prequel series of sorts, the "young Wallender" tells the story of detective Kurt Wallander’s first case when he is in his 20s working as a uniformed police officer. The cast also includes Richard Dillane as Police Commissioner Hemberg, Leanne Best as Frida Rask, and Ellise Chappell as Mona Wallander. The streaming network is hoping for the same success that has made a hit of Shaun Evans’ Inspector Morse prequel, Endeavour.
Ken Watanabe has signed on to executive produce and also star opposite Ansel Elgort in Tokyo Vice, a drama series for HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming platform. Based on the book by Jake Adelstein with a script by Tony-winning playwright J.T. Rogers, the project is based on Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police vice squad where an American journalist embeds himself to reveal corruption.
Game of Thrones star Richard Dormer is set to lead the cast in BBC America’s The Watch, based on Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Dormer stars as Sam Vimes, Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing. The eight-part series, set in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork where crime has been legalized, follows a group of misfit cops who rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe.
Victoria’s Jenna Coleman, Dunkirk’s Billy Howle and Nocturnal Animals’ Ellie Bamber will topline the BBC/Netflix drama, The Serpent. The trio join Tahar Rahim, who plays Charles Sobhraj, one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century. Sobhraj was the chief suspect in the unsolved murders of up to 20 young Western travelers across India, Thailand, and Nepal’s "Hippie Trail" in 1975 and 1976. A psychopath, con man, thief, and master of disguise, he slipped repeatedly from the grasp of authorities worldwide and had arrest warrants on three different continents.
Chernobyl’s Emily Watson will star in the psychological thriller, Too Close, for British broadcaster ITV. Written by actress and author, Clara Salaman, the three-part drama is based on the novel of the same title under the pseudonym Natalie Daniels. Watson plays a forensic psychiatrist assigned to work with a woman accused of a heinous crime but who claims she can’t remember a thing.
Mitch Silpa, perhaps best known for his comedic work in Bridesmaids, is taking on a dramatic role in CBS’s new legal drama series, All Rise. The series follows the lives of judges, prosecutors, and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, and cops to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal system. Silpa will play DDA Clayton Baker, a shrewd Deputy District Attorney who is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead.
Amanda Peet (The Romanoffs) and Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) are set to headline the second season of USA Network's anthology series, Dirty John. Like the first installment, which aired on Bravo and starred Connie Britton and Eric Bana, the second will be based on a true crime story featuring an epic tale of love gone wrong. Season 2, titled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, focuses on convicted murderer Betty Broderick (Peet) and her ex-husband (Slater) that spans the 1960s to the ’80s and chronicles the breakdown of their marriage that Oprah deemed one of "America’s messiest divorces" even before it ended in double homicide.
Liv Tyler is set to star opposite Rob Lowe in Fox’s spinoff series 9-1-1: Lone Star. Set in Austin, it follows Owen (Lowe), a sophisticated New York firefighter who, along with his son, relocates to the Texas capital and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life. Tyler will play Chief Paramedic Michelle Blake, the only one who can match wits with Owen in the station, where she often will put him in his place.
Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, Hope Davis, is set as a series regular opposite Michael Stuhlbarg in Your Honor, Showtime’s limited-run project starring Bryan Cranston and based on the popular Israeli drama, Kvodo. Lilli Kay (Chambers) has also come aboard the project and will recur in multiple episodes. The 10-episode legal thriller hails from Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice) and The Good Wife's Robert and Michelle King and features Davis as Gina, who might be even more dangerous than her husband, the feared crime boss Tommy (Stuhlbarg). Kay plays their daughter, Fia, whose relationship with her new boyfriend might threaten her family.
Emmy winner Uzo Aduba has signed on for a lead role, and Corey Hendrix and newcomer Matthew Elam have also been cast as regulars, opposite Chris Rock on the upcoming fourth season of FX’s Fargo. Set in Kansas City in 1950, the city serves as the crossroads and collision point of two migrations, Italian emigrants versus African Americans fleeing the south to escape Jim Crow, both fighting for a piece of the American dream as two controlling crime syndicates.
Dermot Mulroney, Anthony Welsh, Severine Howell-Meri, Cherelle Skeete, and newcomer Gianna Kiehl have all joined the season 2 cast of Amazon’s Hanna. They join Esmé Creed-Miles, who returns for the second season in the title role, along with Mireille Enos, who reprises her role as CIA operative Marissa Wiegler. Written by David Farr (The Night Manager), Hanna is equal parts high-concept thriller and coming-of-age drama, which follows the journey of an extraordinary teenage girl determined to escape from the grasp of the shadowy Utrax organization and its ruthless agenda.
Starz has set the premiere date for the European crime drama, Dublin Murders, for Sunday, November 10, and unveiled the first trailer. Based on the novel by Tana French, the psychological drama follows Rob Reilly (Killian Scott), a smart-suited detective whose English accent marks him as an outsider when he's tasked with investigating the murder of a young girl on the outskirts of Dublin. He's aided by his partner, Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene), who has his back when's pulled into another case of missing children and forced to confront his own darkness.
Apple TV is cranking up its new service and programming, and you can find a handy guide of current and upcoming shows here, which include Defending Jacob, based on William Landay’s best-selling legal thriller; an untitled series starring Brie Larson as a CIA agent in a new drama that’s said to be based on the real-life experiences of CIA undercover operative Amaryllis Fox; and another untitled series, this one a mystery, that follows a girl who moves to a small town where she gets involved in uncovering a cold case the community has tried to bury.
If you want a chronological listing of new and returning shows to be on the lookout for, the New York Times has you covered (free subscription required).
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
On the latest edition of Kansas Public Radio's Conversations, T. Jefferson Parker talks about his latest novel, The Last Good Guy, the third to feature private investigator Roland Ford.
This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Tony Knighton, a lieutenant with the Philadelphia Fire Department, whose new crime novel is titled Three Hours Past Midnight.
Read or Dead's Rincey Abraham was joined by guest co-host Liberty Hardy to talk about the trailer for the Tana French TV adaptation; Emily St. John Mandel's new mystery book; and World War I mysteries.
The latest Criminal Mischief podcast, hosted by Dr. D.P. Lyle, focused on how investigators narrow their suspect list and completely exonerate some suspects by using the population distribution information for the four ABO blood types.
A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up with the first chapter of Spirit Wind by Marilyn Meredith, read by actor Julia Reimer.
The Mystery People podcast honored the 20th anniversary of Stark House Press with a discussion on hard boiled crime fiction, featuring a great collection of historians, editors, and authors including Jeff Vorzimmer, Rick Ollerman, Tim Bryant, Josh Stallings, and Joe R. Lansdale.
Adam Hall received the Spybrary treatment on episode 85, with guest host Jeff Quest starting off a two-parter on Hall's Quiller spy books.
This week, the Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, discussed "Career-Long Fitness, Amateur Sleuths, and the Future of Policing."
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club focused on the factual side of mysteries with an interview of Rich Cohen and his latest historical true crime, The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation.
The Crime Time podcast reviewed books by Gilly MacMillan & C.J. Tudor and took at look at Stephen King’s 80’s masterpiece, Christine.
THEATRE
Buffalo Theatre Center near Chicago is presenting Holmes and Watson through October 13. Three years following the mysterious "death" of Sherlock Holmes at Richenbach, there have been many who’ve claimed to be Holmes, all de-bunked as imposters by the faithful partner of the sleuth, Watson. But now three separate men insist that they are the infamous detective, having survived that encounter at the Falls. Full of twists and turns, this is "a riveting and clever adventure" from award-winning playwright Jeffrey Hatcher.
Chicago's Lifeline Theatre is staging a production of Whose Body, based on the book by Dorothy L. Sayers, with a run through October 27. When a dead body turns up in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez glasses, amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey assigns himself to the case. However, when the mystery becomes labyrinthine, he enlists the help of close friend Inspector Parker to follow his only lead, a teaching hospital near the scene of the crime. Could it be a harmless prank by a medical student or something more sinister?
Coming soon to the Theatre Royal Plymouth, UK, is the Agatha Christie play, A Murder is Announced. Starting September 23 with a run through the 28th, the story follows residents of Chipping Cleghorn who are astonished to read an advert in the local newspaper that a murder will take place this coming Friday at Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock. Unable to resist, the group gather at the house at the appointed time, when the lights go out and a gun is fired. Enter Miss Marple, who must unravel a complex series of relationships and events to solve the mystery of the killer.
Agatha Christie’s mystery play, The Mousetrap, the longest continuously running play in the world, is coming to the Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso. The play, about a group of strangers stranded in a boarding house during a snowstorm who must figure out which one of them is a murderer, will have performance dates of Sept. 27-29, Oct. 4-6, and Oct. 11-13.
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