It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Paramount Pictures made a preemptive deal for Murder In The White House, a spec script by Jonathan Stokes that's described as being in the style of Knives Out. Set inside the White House, the President is murdered during a private dinner, and a female Secret Service agent has until morning to discover which guest is the killer before a peace agreement fails and leads to war.
London-based production outfit Ugly Duckling Films has secured film, TV, and audio rights to the upcoming Danish thriller novel, The Midas Syndrome, which is inspired by the real European money laundering scandal involving Danske Bank. The story centers on Mads Brodersen, who's finally landed his dream job at Nordisk Bank in Denmark, but when he's moved to the bank’s branch in Estonia, he learns his predecessor died under mysterious circumstances. He naively investigates the death only to discover that there is a far bigger cover-up at large, involving several countries and political forces.
Although last week I noted that most movie theatres in the U.S. were still open, while limiting capacity during showings, that has now changed. AMC will keep its theatres dark for six to 12 weeks, while Regal, Landmark, Alamo Drafthouse, Showcase, Harkins, Bow Tie, ArcLight, Cinemark, and Pacific Theaters are closed indefinitely. Some of the movie studios have announced that select movies currently in theaters will be available to be streamed at home. Meanwhile, China (which is reporting a decrease in virus cases), will re-release old blockbusters to help cinemas in that country reopen.
By now, you can pretty much assume that every festival or conference has been canceled or postponed. The latest to fall to coronavirus includes the granddaddy of them all, the Cannes Film Festival (postponed from May to the end of June); the Sydney Film Festival (canceled); and the Edinburgh Film Festival (postponed from June, new dates TBA).
There are more film premiere delays being reported, as well, including the post-Katrina New Orleans-set Cut Throat City, and many more, reported here, here, and here.
An indie murder mystery drama that was supposed to be released in theatres has instead dropped via Amazon Prime. Blow the Man Down takes place in the fictional seaside town of Easter Cove, Maine, but as NPR describes it, it's more Fargo than the Cabot Cove from Murder She Wrote.
A trailer dropped for the thriller, Arkansas (based on John Brandon's book of the same name), starring Liam Hemsworth and Clark Duke as two men who retaliate against their drug-dealer boss. Michael Kenneth Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Chandler Duke, and John Malkovich also star in Clark Duke's directorial debut.
A trailer was also released for The True History of the Kelly Gang, based on the novel by Peter Carey, and starring George MacKay, Essie Davis, and Russell Crowe.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Netflix has set a premiere date of April 16 for Season 3 of the Israeli thriller series, Fauda. The 12-episode series, presented bilingually in Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles, tells the story of an undercover unit in the Israeli Defense Force, focusing on top Israeli agent, Doron Kavillio (Lior Raz). In Season 3, Doron is deep undercover in the West Bank, posing as an Israeli Arab boxing instructor in a sports club belonging to a low-level Hamas member. Following numerous, deadly clashes with Hamas and a tragic incident that all but shatters the team’s morale, Doron and the team find themselves in unfamiliar territory: Gaza.
Quibi has released the official trailer for #Freerayshawn, one of its "Movies In Chapters" lineup. The project tells the story of a young black Iraq War veteran named Rayshawn (Stephen James) who is set up by New Orleans police on a drug deal and takes refuge inside his apartment with his girlfriend and child. With New Orleans PD and the SWAT team outside ready to storm his home, a social media frenzy begins. During this growing mayhem, a sympathetic cop named Steven Poincy (Laurence Fishburne) plays the role of negotiator, and, over the course of one brutally stressful day, tries to get Rayshawn to calmly surrender in order to avoid an escalation of unnecessary violence.
BAFTA has postponed its Television Craft Awards and Television Awards, making it the latest major TV event to succumb to the coronavirus crisis. The announcement of the nominations, scheduled for next Thursday, March 26, will also be postponed until closer to the ceremony, now slated for sometime later in the year.
If you want to see a running list of shows that have been canceled or postponed, TV Guide has you covered.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Bookreporter spoke with Harlan Coben about his new novel, The Boy from the Woods, his writing process, the success of his new Netflix show, and the mysteries we’re all struggling to deal with in our daily lives.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts, Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, explored some new releases and answered questions galore from listeners.
Dr. DP Lyle's Criminal Mischief podcast featured the third in its series on toxicology, taking a look at common drugs, poisons, and toxins.
In another forensics-themed podcast, Listening to the Dead, Lynda La Plante profiled forensic entomology.
Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, welcomed Sam Wiebe to discuss Vancouver's Downtown East Side, his PI novels, his Edgar-nominated short story, and TV adaptations.
Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled "Medicolegal Death Investigators and Swatting."
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Chad Dundas about his debut crime novel, The Blaze, in which two deadly acts of arson, over a decade apart, haunt an army veteran who lost much of his memory from a traumatic brain injury suffered in Iraq.
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