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
Florence Pugh, Shia LaBeouf, and Chris Pine will star in the psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, set in an isolated, utopian community in the 1950s California desert. The project is being spearheaded by Olivia Wilde, who will produce and direct the feature for New Line Cinema, as well as star in a key supporting role. Katie Silberman, who co-wrote Booksmart and penned the Netflix rom-com, Set it Up, will rewrite the original script draft by Shane and Carey Van Dyke.
The next two Mission: Impossible installments have been pushed back on the release schedule. Originally, the plan was for Mission: Impossible 7 to be released in July of 2021, with Mission: Impossible 8 following in August of 2022. However, Paramount Pictures has announced that the seventh installment of the franchise will now come out on November 19, 2021, with entry #8 arriving on November 4, 2022.
RLJE Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, has acquired the North American rights to The Owners, a thriller starring Game of Thrones's Maisie Williams. The debut film of writer and director, Julius Berg, stars Williams as part of a group of friends who think they found the perfect, easy score – an empty house with a safe full of cash. But when the elderly couple that lives there comes home early, the tables are suddenly turned. As a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, the would-be thieves are left to fight to save themselves from a nightmare they could never have imagined.
LA-based producer Clear Horizon is lining up a historical drama about the Symbionese Liberation Army and its kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst. Mizmoon will tell the story of Patricia "Mizmoon" Soltisyk, the radicalized college co-ed who co-founded the terrorist group with her lesbian lover and an escaped convict with an obsession for guns and explosives. The group famously carried out bank robberies and murders in the 1970s and kidnapped heiress Hearst, the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Back in 2018, it was announced that a new film adaptation of The Saint was in the works with Chris Pratt in talks to star. Now it seems that another Chris, Chris Pine, is being eyed to take on the titular role. The Saint refers to Simon Templar, the literary character created by Leslie Charteris in 1928, a Robin Hood-like thief who holds many aliases and leaves a stick figure calling card at the sites of his crimes. Simon has been played by numerous actors over the decades, including Roger Moore in a 1960s TV series and Val Kilmer in a 1997 movie.
Netflix has acquired global rights to director Harry Bradbeer’s Enola Holmes from Legendary Entertainment. The film, based on author Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes mystery series, will star Millie Bobby Brown, Sam Claflin, Adeel Akhtar, Fiona Shaw, Louis Partridge, Burn Gorma, Susan Wokoma, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter. BAFTA and Tony Award winner Jack Thorne (The Aeronauts) wrote the screenplay that tells the story of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes’s rebellious teen sister Enola who lands in the middle of a conspiracy that could change political history.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
IMDb TV, Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service, has ordered a reboot of Leverage, the cult 2008 crime drama series. The sequel is a described as a "fresh update of the original concept, about reformed crooks using their unique skills to right corporate and governmental injustices inflicted on common citizens." The series will introduce new characters, including one played by five-time Emmy nominee Noah Wylie, who also will direct two of the thirteen episodes. Original cast members will also return, including Beth Riesgraf, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, and Aldis Hodge. One original actor who will not be returning is Timothy Hutton, who recently faced sexual assault allegations (which the actor has denied).
AMC has put in development The Burying Place, a thriller drama series based on Brian Freeman’s novel, from writer Kelly Masterson (Killing Kennedy), director David Semel (Goliath), and producer Aaron Kaplan. The Burying Place is set in the haunting North Country of Minnesota, where a baby vanishes from her lakeside home the same night a rookie policewoman stumbles onto a serial killer. Against a ticking clock, Detective Jonathan Stride, haunted by demons of his own, leads fellow Detectives Serena Dial and Maggie Bei as they struggle to unravel the seemingly unrelated mysteries in a suspenseful game of cat and mouse.
HBO Max, the cable network's digital platform, is developing an adaptation of The Hellfire Club, the first novel by CNN’s Jake Tapper, with The Revenant co-writer Mark L. Smith. The book tells the story of Charlie Marder, a young freshman congressman who arrives in 1950s Washington D.C. after the mysterious death of his predecessor. Finding himself thrust into the dangerous waters of politics at the height of Joe McCarthy’s "Red Scare," he and his zoologist wife, Margaret, get drawn into an underworld of backroom deals, secret societies, and a plot that could change the course of history.
U.S. streamer BritBox has set a fall launch for the British crime drama Honour. The two-parter stars Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) in the real-life story of Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode’s passionate search to discover the fate of missing 20-year old Banaz, the young Londoner murdered by her own family for falling in love with the wrong man.
The Canadian legal drama series, Diggstown, has been added to BET+’s original programming lineup. The six-part series stars Vinessa Antoine as Marcie Diggs, a lawyer who leaves her high-powered corporate job to work for a legal aid clinic in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, after her aunt commits suicide. The team of lawyers that Marcie works with are a curious band of do-gooders, cynics, and scrappers – messy souls struggling to keep personal disappointment and demons out of their practice. The cast also includes Natasha Henstridge, C. David Johnson, Stacey Farber, Brandon Oakes, Shailene Garnett, Tim Rozon and Dwain Murphy.
The Irishman and Boardwalk Empire star, Stephen Graham, has landed a role in another gangster drama, joining the cast of Peaky Blinders. Set in Birmingham, England, the series follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional family is loosely based on a real 19th century urban youth gang of the same name, who were active in the city from the 1890s to the early twentieth century.
Cinemax released a trailer for the South African crime drama, Trackers. An adaptation of Deon Meyer’s novel of the same name, the series stars Ed Stoppard, Sandi Schultz, Brendon Daniels, Trix Vivier, Thapelo Mokoena, and Sisanda Henna. Trackers interweaves three story strands into a sophisticated action-packed thriller set in Cape Town involving organized crime, smuggled diamonds, state security, black rhinos, the CIA, and an international terrorist plot.
Netflix has revealed the official trailer for a Spanish mystery thriller called The Silence of the Marsh, which is already available to watch on the streaming service this week. While researching corruption for his new book, a successful crime novelist blurs the line between fiction and reality, uncovering the corrupt ties between politicians and the local mafia in Valencia, Spain. This project stars Pedro Alonso, Nacho Fresneda, Carmina Barrios, José Ángel Egido, Àlex Monner, Raúl Prieto, and Maite Sandoval.
HBO released the first look at the thriller, The Head. The six-part series follows events at an international research station in Antarctica, after the long dark winter months, when the commander returns to find most of the crew of scientists murdered.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Writer Types host Eric Beetner spoke with authors Amy Engel (The Familiar Dark), Michael Ledwidge (Stop At Nothing) and ML Huie (Spitfire).
Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham decided to tackle some of the oldest mystery and true crime books on their TBR list while they are self-quarantining.
Marcia Clark, who has a new novel titled Final Judgment, featuring Clark's protagonist Samantha Brinkman, was the featured guest on Speaking of Mysteries and Meet the Thriller Author.
Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with author James L'Etoile about his novels and his long career in corrections.
Mugshots: My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Dr. Katherine Ramsland, who teaches Forensic Psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania and has written on the subjects of serial killers, crime scene investigations, forensic science, mass murder, and sex offenders.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Ang Pompano and Shawn Reilly Simmons interviewing Agatha Award nominees.
Beyond the Cover spoke with Mark Greaney about his latest Grey Man novel, One Minute Out.
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