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
Sony Pictures Classics has made another acquisition out of the Toronto International Film Festival with Giuseppe Capotondi’s The Burnt Orange Heresy. The thriller, based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford, stars Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger, and Donald Sutherland and follows an art dealer hired to steal a painting from one of the biggest painters of all time.
Universal has set August 14, 2020 as the release date for the Bob Odenkirk feature, Nobody, which is described as "John Wick meets Falling Down." Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, the guy you don’t notice, a suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor. But when two thieves break into his home one night, the incident ignites Hutch’s unknown long-simmering rage, propelling him on a brutal path that will uncover dark secrets he fought to leave behind.
Parks and Recreation alum, Natalie Morales, has joined the cast of Warner Bros.’ The Little Things opposite Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Rami Malek. The pic follows Deke (Washington), a burned-out Kern County, CA. deputy sheriff who teams with Baxter (Malek), a crack LASD detective, to nab a serial killer. Deke’s nose for the “little things” proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. Jared Leto is in talks to join in the role as the serial killer in the project from writer-director John Lee Hancock. Morales will play a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department detective working for Baxter.
NEON has released the first trailer for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning drama, Clemency, written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, who made history as the first black female to snag the marquee award at the festival. The film stars Alfre Woodard as prison warden Bernadine Williams, who, over the years, has been drifting away from her husband while dutifully carrying out executions in a maximum security prison. When she strikes up a unique bond with death-row inmate Anthony Woods (Hodge), Bernadine is forced to confront the complex—and often contradictory relationship between good intentions, unrequited desires, and what it means to be sanctioned to kill.
The first trailer dropped for The Rhythm Section, the revenge thriller starring Blake Lively, Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The Emmy Awards were handed out last night, and a few crime dramas notched some wins: Best Actress in a Dramatic Series was won by Jodie Comer as Vilanelle in Killing Eve; Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie went to Jharrel Jerome for When They See Us; Outstanding Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Movie went to Patricia Arquette for The Act, based on the real life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard the murder of her mother. Jason Bateman won for Best Director of a Drama Series for Ozark, and Julia Garner won for her Supporting Actress role as Ruth Langmore in Ozark.
Kiefer Sutherland and Logan star Boyd Holbrook are joining streaming service Quibi’s adaptation of The Fugitive. The series puts a new twist on the 1993 film of the same name that starred Harrison Ford. Sutherland will star as a grizzled, well-respected Los Angeles cop leading an investigation into Mike Ferro (Holbrook), a blue-collar worker who is incorrectly, and very publicly, blamed for a bomb that destroys a subway train.
The Leftovers alum Amy Brenneman has been cast in the Jeff Bridges/John Lithgow spy drama pilot at FX, The Old Man. Adapted from the Thomas Perry novel, the project stars Bridges as Dan Chase, a former CIA operative who absconded from the agency decades ago and has been living off the grid since. FX describes the series as “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.” Brenneman will star as Zoe, a woman picking up the pieces after a bruising divorce who rents a room to Chase not knowing he’s on the run.
Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment have optioned Arthur T. Burton’s book, Black, Red & Deadly, for a TV series that they’ll develop about 19th century Arkansas slave-turned U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves. Reeves was a notable lawman whose legend has largely been ignored by history. Reeves captured more criminals than Pat Garrett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Wyatt Earp, using flamboyant detective skills that were ahead of their time.
Ashlie Atkinson (BlacKkKlansman) is set as a series regular opposite Rami Malek and Christian Slater on the upcoming fourth and final season of USA Network’s Mr. Robot. The series stars Oscar winner Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cyber-security engineer who becomes involved in the underground hacker group, fsociety, after being recruited by its leader (Slater). Atkinson will play Janice, a chatty taxidermist with a peculiar sense of humor. The series also co-stars Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, Martin Wallström, Grace Gummer, Michael Cristofer, and BD Wong.
Beta Film is partnering with Croatian production company Drugi Plan on the six-part drama series, Amnesia, about refugee and drug trafficking at the south eastern European border. The project will star Branka Katić (Captain America – The Winter Soldier), Tihana Lazović (The High Sun) and Aleksandar Cvjetković (Netflix’s The Paper). The drama is slated to shoot next March in the Plitvice Lakes National Park, the actual route used by many refugees who are fleeing Syria and other war-torn regions.
Justified star Timothy Olyphant is returning to FX with a key role in the upcoming fourth installment of the network’s anthology series, Fargo, headlined by Chris Rock. Season 4 is set in 1950 in Kansas City, Missouri amidst the uneasy truce between two crime syndicates.
The 9-1-1 spinoff, 9-1-1: Lone Star, has added Ronen Rubinstein (Dead of Summer) and Sierra McClain (Mindhunter, Empire) to the cast. The series follows Owen (Rob Lowe), a sophisticated New York firefighter who, along with his son (Rubinstein), 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. McClain will play Grace Ryder, an Austin-based 9-1-1 call center operator and wife of firefighter Judd Ryder (Jim Parrack).
J.K. Rowling’s crime drama, Strike, will return to U.S. cable network Cinemax and has added several actors for its next season. Live By Night’s Robert Glenister and Peaky Blinders’ Natasha O’Keeffe have joined the series, which is based on Rowling’s best-selling Cormoran Strike crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Psych fans will have to wait a little longer for the second movie sequel. Originally slated to premiere in 2019, the film will not debut until at least spring 2020. That is because the movie is moving from USA Network, home of the original Psych series and Psych: The Movie, to Peacock, NBCU’s upcoming streaming service.
Escape, an established multicast network owned by E.W. Scripps’ Katz Networks, will rebrand itself as Court TV Mystery on September 30. According to the official announcement of the move, the rebrand will “continue the mission of Escape,” which targets women 25 to 54 with true-crime-focused programming.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
NPR's Morning Edition chatted with Attica Locke, author of Heaven, My Home, which continues the series featuring black Texas ranger, Darren Mathews, who returns from Locke's previous novel, Bluebird, Bluebird.
The latest Speaking of Mysteries podcasts featured Sherri Leigh James, talking about her mystery series with interior decorate, Cissy Huntington, and also author James R. Benn, discussing the 14th installment in his series of World War Two mysteries.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Bookclub spoke with S. A. Lelchuk about Save Me From Dangerous Men, the first in a new series featuring bookseller and private investigator Nikki Griffin, which has been optioned for film and television with foreign rights sold in multiple countries.
THEATRE
Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell will return to Broadway in a revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, a play about three low-level crooks conjuring up a get-rich-quick scheme. The production will begin previews in March 2020 with an official opening on Tuesday, April 14. Fishburne will play the character Donny, while Rockwell will play Teach. The duo’s casting leaves the play’s third character, Bobby, as yet unfilled or unannounced.
The Cambridge Arts Theater and the Theatre Royal Plymouth, both in the UK, are the latest stops for the touring production of The Girl on The Train, based on the novel by Paula Hawkins, about a woman who discovers a woman she's been watching through the window on her train commute has disappeared. The show continues through September 28 for Cambridge and through October 5 for Plymouth.
The Limetree Theatre in Ireland is staging a production of Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced, September 30 through October 2. The classic story features Miss Marple who has to discover who committed a murder - at a party where it was announced in advance.
The Top 10 "Most-Produced Plays of the 2019-20 Season in the U.S." include a couple of crime dramas, including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens, based on the book by Mark Haddon, which tied for the top spot, and also Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig from the book by Agatha Christie.
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