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
Sony Pictures has acquired Armored, a film adaptation of the new audio book written by Mark Greaney (co-author of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels), with Michael Bay producing. The novel focuses on a high-risk security contractor suffering from old physical and mental wounds who reluctantly takes a job working on a heavily armed convoy shuttling UN delegates through Mexico’s "cartel country." But the mission turns into a desperate struggle for survival as corrupt police, rival gangs, and an enemy within all try to destroy the tiny motorcade before the peace talks bear fruit.
Paramount Pictures has boarded Flight, a film based on a spec script by Miles Chapman, the screenwriter behind the Sylvester Stallone-led Escape Plan movies. Piloted by producer Weed Road Pictures (Star Trek: Picard) and director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down), the story is described as "a contained thriller set on an international flight."
Nick Jonas (Jumanji) and Laurence Fishburne (Matrix) have signed on to star in the Pierre Morel-directed action-thriller, The Blacksmith. Actor-singer Jonas will play Wes Loomis, a "Blacksmith," the intelligence community’s go-to weapons expert. When his clandestine lab is destroyed and his colleagues are murdered, he must go on the run with only his unique set of technological skills and the help of a brilliant, young CIA analyst to keep him alive. The duo seek out Mather (Fishburne), a retired blacksmith and Wes’s mentor, to help guide them.
Esai Morales will replace Nicholas Hoult as the villain in Mission: Impossible 7, which is due to start production in late summer or early fall. When the coronavirus shut down the original production schedules on the film, it conflicted with another commitment for Hoult, and thus Morales had to be brought on board instead. The project, which sees Tom Cruise reprising his Ethan Hunt spy character, was set to be released in July 2021 but has since been rescheduled for November of next year.
After the wild success of Netflix's Tiger King documentary series, based on the exploits of convicted felon, Joe Exotic, several follow-on scripted projects about the same story and characters are being eyed by various TV and film producers. Although most of these are in the early stages, one such production is eyeing Sharknado star Tara Reid to play Carole Baskin, the big cat conservationist with whom Exotic had a bitter feud.
The mysterious Tenet film from Christopher Nolan has a new trailer that may reveal more about the project. The sci-fi crime drama stars John David Washington as the protagonist who is leading a group to track down Kenneth Branagh’s character, a Russian national who’s able to communicate with the future and appears to be a formidable opponent
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Deadline is reporting that Left Bank Pictures (The Crown) is closing a deal to adapt Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache crime novels for a series. However, the author herself on Facebook had this to say about the report: "To be honest, that was premature. The discussions are ongoing and as I've learned, all sorts of things can go wrong." According to Deadline, the project's title is Three Pines, which would be a reference to the fictional French Canadian village in which Chief Inspector Gamache operates. The lead character is a French-speaking detective, but I'm assuming the production would look to hire a bilingual actor since Gamache also has English fluency (thanks to his Cambridge education). Chief Inspector Gamache has been reimagined for the screen previously: Canada’s CBC adapted Still Life for the 2013 television movie Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery, with Nathaniel Parker playing the fictional detective.
CBS announced its fall TV lineup, which includes most of its regular crime drama offerings as well as the new crime shows, The Equalizer and Clarice (in a mid-season slot TBA). CBS is planning to bring back the shows despite the ongoing production shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. However, CBS Entertainment president, Kelly Kahl, did not rule out the possibility that CBS could make changes should the network’s shows fail to restart production in time for fall launches. Fox and The CW are changing up their lineups with acquired series and other stopgaps in the event full-scale production is unable to resume any time soon.
ABC also announced a slew of renewals including The Rookie (starring Nathan Fillion as the titular rookie cop) and Stumptown (starring Cobie Smulders as a military intelligence veteran turned private eye). The network also picked up the new detective drama, Big Sky, from the prolific David E. Kelley, and a drama based on Erin Brockovich, Rebel, may also go forward at a later day. One show that was canceled is Emergence. The supernatural police drama starred Allison Tollman as a police chief who takes in a young child that she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened.
Fox picked up the serial killer thriller, Prodigal Son, for a second season. The project, which stars Michael Sheen and Tom Payne, is likely to be scheduled for a midseason slot as a result of the COVID-19 production shutdown. Prodigal Son follows Tom Payne’s Malcolm Bright, son of "The Surgeon" (played by Sheen), who as a child was responsible for enabling the police to arrest his serial-killer father. Now a profiler, formerly with the FBI and currently consulting for the New York Police Department, Bright is forced to confront his father after a copycat serial killer uses his methods of killing.
TNT has set the premiere date (July 26) and released a trailer for its follow-up to The Alienist, which will officially be titled The Alienist: Angel of Darkness. The initial series and the follow-on are based on Caleb Carr's series about a turn-of-the-century criminal psychologist (known as “alienists” in those days). The entire lead cast from the first project will return, including Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning.
Harry Potter producer, David Barron, is adapting Manda Scott's thriller novel, Treachery of Spies, for the small screen. The historical thriller starts with a murder in WWII France and unfurls its mysteries into the present day with a brilliant but haunted female detective as the lead. A Treachery of Spies is the second of Scott’s espionage thrillers to feature Detective Inspector Inès Picaut and the first to be adapted.
Olivia Holt (of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger) is returning to Freeform as a lead in Cruel Summer, the network’s upcoming thriller drama series, taking over a role originally played in the pilot by Mika Abdalla. Cruel Summer (previously titled Last Summer) is described as an unconventional thriller that takes place over three summers in the '90s in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate (Holt), is abducted.
While you're waiting for your favorite crime dramas to return, TV Guide has spoilers, premiere dates, photos, trailers, and casting news for season 18 of NCIS and season 7 of NCIS: New Orleans.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore's Barbara Peters has regular conversations with authors, linked on the store's website. Among the latest are the sisters Liz and Valerie Constantine who write as Liv Constantine; Kate White; Ian Rankin; Hank Phillipi Ryan; Angie Kim; Scott Turow; and C.J. Box.
Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, chatted with Jeffery Deaver, bestselling author of thirty-five novels, including the Lincoln Rhyme series.
Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, spoke with authors Kimberly McCreight (A Good Marriage); Tom Pitts (Cold Water); and Mary Keliikoa (Derailed).
The hosts of the Read or Dead podcast, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, talked about Jane Harper’s new novel; the French serial killer expert who apparently isn’t an expert; and books featuring religious elements that are not by Dan Brown.
Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover welcomed back physician and author, Dr. D.P. Lyle, about his writing and his latest book, Rigged.
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Andrews & Wilson, the bestselling co-author team of several covert ops and action-adventure thriller books in the Tier One series and other books. Brian Andrews is a US Navy veteran and former submarine officer, and fellow Navy vet Jeffrey Wilson has worked as an actor, firefighter, paramedic, jet pilot, and diving instructor, as well as a vascular and trauma surgeon.
Robin Burcell stopped by Wrong Place, Write Crime to discuss being the first female cop in her department; her experiences as a hostage negotiator and a forensic artist; her early novels; her collaboration with Clive Cussler; and what's next for her.
Writers Detective Bureau talked about who investigates the murder when the victim is a police officer of your own agency; how to best secure realistic props for filming; and tips for creating realistic testimony dialogue.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Sara Paretsky, best known for her groundbreaking series with female private eye, V.I. Warshawski.
The Tartan Noir Show sat down with Abir Mukherjee, recently nominated for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year for his third Sam Wyndham novel, Smoke and Ashes, set in the Raj era of India.
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