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
Academy Award-winner, Kate Winslet, will star in and produce Fake!, a movie about the OneCoin Ponzi scheme. The project will reteam Winslet with writer/director, Scott Z. Burns, who worked with the actress on Contagion, the 2011 pandemic thriller. Fake! is based on the upcoming book of the same name by Jen McAdam with Douglas Thompson and tells the true-life story of McAdam and her involvement with the OneCoin Ponzi scheme where she served as a whistleblower on the international cryptocurrency scam.
Alexis Louder (Watchmen) has joined the cast of the Joe Carnahan-directed action thriller, CopShop, which just resumed production in Georgia after being temporarily halted when crew members tested positive for COVID-19. Carnahan penned the most recent draft based on the original screenplay by Kurt McLeod. The plot centers on a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman (Gerard Butler), a smart rookie female cop (Louder), and a double-crossing con man (Frank Grillo) who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run.
The trailer was released for 355, the female-led spy thriller, which shows Jessica Chastain as a wild-card agent, who must join forces with other skilled agents when a top-secret weapon is obtained by a mercenary. Her team is rounded out by a marquee roster of talent including Lupita N’yongo, Penelope Cruz, and Diane Kruger.
A trailer was also released for the action-comedy Fatman, which stars Mel Gibson as a very atypical Santa, who works the heavy bag, drinks tequila, and knows his way around a gun. After declining interest in Christmas has Santa considering retirement, Chris Cringle partners with the U.S. military in order to save his business.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Author James Patterson has inked a first-look deal with Sharp Objects studio eOne and has set an adaptation of his upcoming novel, The Noise, as the first project. He has signed the deal via his production company James Patterson Entertainment (which has previous credits on series including the CBS dramas, Instinct and Zoo, and Netflix’s recent Jeffrey Epstein mini-series). The Noise, a thriller surrounding a deadly scientific mystery, is told through the eyes of two young sisters living in the Oregon wilderness and the brilliant doctor trying to save them as a destructive force threatens humanity as we know it.
Charter Communications’ Spectrum Originals and ITV are co-producing Angela Black, a Hitchcockian psychological thriller starring Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt. The six-part series features Froggatt as Angela Black, a woman with an apparently idyllic life, who is actually being tormented by her husband, Olivier (played by Game Of Thrones star Michiel Huisman). Angela is approached out of the blue by Ed (Dr. Who's Samuel Adewunmi), a private investigator, who divulges Olivier’s darkest secrets. When faced with some horrifying truths about her husband, a stunned Angela is left reeling. Can she really trust Ed? Can she leave behind her life as she knows it and finally free herself from Olivier?
The CW network is developing the mystery drama, Pandora’s Box and Ship, from Life Sentence creators Erin Cardillo and Richard Keith. The show follows the selfish and sarcastic Lou Tucker, a grifter whose latest scam is stealing from packages at the Box and Ship where she works to make ends meet. When she opens a package that contains Pandora’s actual Box, she inadvertently unleashes all of the mythological evils of the ancient world into our modern one. And, unfortunately for humanity, it’s going to be up to her and a bookish Professor of Greek Mythology, along with a group of unqualified misfits, to put them all back in.
Black Bear Televison has partnered with Crazy Heart writer-director, Scott Cooper, to develop the limited dramatic series, Angels & Demons. Making his television debut, Cooper will write and direct all the episodes. The drama is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg Times article by Thomas French, a powerful and personal true crime drama examining the tragic murder of three women whose bodies were found floating in the shallow tidewaters of Tampa Bay.
Susan Sarandon has been cast as the lead of HBO Max’s, Red Bird Lane, a psychological thriller pilot from John Wells. Other actors joining the project include Kiersey Clemons, Isidora Goreshter, Danny Huston, Ash Santos, Fiona Dourif, Dizzie Harris, and Tara Lynne Barr. Red Bird Lane follows eight strangers who arrive at an isolated house, all for different reasons, and quickly realize that something sinister and terrifying awaits them.
Will Sharpe, who starred in the Netflix/BBC drama, Giri/Haji, and directed the quirky British comedy, Flowers, is taking over directing duties from Alexander Payne for Landscapers. The drama, which is inspired by real events, tells the story of killers Susan and Christopher Edwards, who murdered Susan's parents, buried their bodies in the garden, and then spent 15 years looting their bank accounts to spend on Hollywood memorabilia.
Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) has been cast as the co-lead alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a still-untitled global spy adventure series, which is in the works at Skydance Television. Created by Nick Santora (Scorpion), the series has a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter (Barbaro) at the center of the story.
ABC has set a quartet of recurring guest stars (Brooke Smith, Jeffrey Joseph, Gage Marsh, and Gabriel Jacob-Cross) for the network’s upcoming David E. Kelley thriller series, Big Sky, which is based on the book series by C.J. Box. The new ABC series sees private detectives Cassie Dewell (played by Kylie Bunbury) and Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe) team with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) to search for two sisters mysteriously kidnapped by a truck driver in Montana. Upon learning that the kidnapping isn’t an isolated incident, the law officials must race against the clock to prevent any more abductions.
Three and a half years after her Blue Bloods exit, Amy Carlson is returning to CBS with a recurring role on the upcoming second season of FBI: Most Wanted. She is one of two major new recurring additions to the Wolf Entertainment series, along with Lost alum Terry O’Quinn. (Production for Season 2 of the FBI spinoff started earlier this week in New York City.) Carlson plays Jackie Ward, a veteran bounty hunter who has crossed paths with Jess before and is a thorn in the team’s side. O’Quinn plays Byron Lacroix, who has a troubled past with Jess.
Demore Barnes has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming 22nd season of NBC’s Law & Order: SVU. Barnes will continue in the role of Deputy Chief Christian Garland, a forthright, analytical and charismatic leader, eager to apply more contemporary principles to the NYPD while navigating its political minefields along with Capt. Benson (Mariska Hargitay). He was introduced early last season and appeared in more than a third of the episodes. Law & Order: SVU started production on Season 22 Sept. 14 in New York.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone (Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste) were joined by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of the award winning novel, Blood and Sugar, to talk about her previous career in politics, writing historical crime, how to appeal to contemporary readers, and more.
Debbi Mack interviewed crime and suspense writer, Wendy Hewlett, on the Crime Cafe podcast.
The new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast featured the mystery short story, "Killer At the Door," by Vickie Britton and Loretta Jackson, as read by local actor Suzanne Grazyna.
Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, had some good news to share and got into the fall spirit with some dark, creepy campus novels.
Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Brian Freeman, author of psychological thrillers, including the Jonathan Stride and Frost Easton series.
Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, welcomed Stephanie Kane to talk about her latest book, Automat.
The Gay Mystery Podcast's featured guest was Lev Raphael, author of Dancing on Tisha B'Av, which won a Lambda Award.
The Tartan Noir Show welcomed Michael J. Malone to talk about his latest novel, A Song of Isolation, and about his move from prize-winning poetry to crime fiction.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Mark Billingham, whose series of novels featuring D.I. Tom Thorne has twice won him the Crime Novel Of The Year Award, as well as the Sherlock Award for Best British Detective, and also been nominated for seven CWA Daggers.
THEATRE
A star-studded lineup will take part in a benefit series of new, livestreamed stage-reading productions of works by such major playwrights as Gore Vidal, David Mamet, Kenneth Lonergan, and Donald Margulies. The weekly Spotlight On Plays will be part of a web series at the recently launched Broadway’s Best Shows website, with proceeds from ticket sales donated to The Actor’s Fund. Productions are all-new and performed remotely, with directors including Mamet, Phylicia Rashad, and Daniel Sullivan given leeway in how to present their shows. They include David Mamet’s social-crime drama, Race, on October 29, starring David Alan Grier, Ed O’Neill, Alicia Stith, and Richard Thomas, as directed by Phylicia Rashad.
Comments