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
Blumhouse Productions won the screen rights to a December 13, 2020, New York Times story that chronicled one desperate mother’s revenge spree in Mexico, where she avenged her daughter’s murder by taking on the drug cartels and tracking down the perpetrators by herself. She saw ten of them apprehended by police before she was shot and killed in front of her home on Mother’s Day, 2017. The story, titled "She Stalked Her Daughter’s Killers Across Mexico, One by One," ignited a heated bidding war immediately after it was published, with over 16 production companies and studios interested in taking on the project.
A trailer was released for The Little Things, starring Denzel Washington as Kern County, CA, Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon who is sent to Los Angeles for what should have been a quick evidence-gathering assignment. Instead, he becomes embroiled in the search for a killer who is terrorizing the city. Leading the hunt is L.A. Sheriff Department Sergeant Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), who's impressed with Deke’s cop instincts and unofficially engages his help. But as they track the suspected killer (Jared Leto), Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke’s past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The Shield creator, Shawn Ryan, is adapting Matthew Quirk's 2020 novel, The Night Agent for television. Published in October to strong reviews, The Night Agent has drawn comparisons to the early novels of John Grisham and David Baldacci. It centers on FBI Agent Peter Sutherland who is thrown into a vast conspiracy and must stop a Russian mole at the highest levels of the US government. To save the nation, Peter plunges into a desperate hunt for the traitor and must take the law into his own hands, question everything, and trust no one.
Netflix has preemptively acquired a feature thriller pitch from screenwriter Sean O’Keefe. The project is billed as being in the spirit of Ron Howard’s 1996 action kidnap thriller hit, Ransom, but with a female bent. The new project is a reteaming of Netflix and O’Keefe, who partnered for the Mark Wahlberg action-comedy, Spenser Confidential (based on the characters from Robert B. Parker's books), which was the third most-watched movie on the streamer (after Sam Hargrave’s Extraction and Susanne Bier’s Bird Box starring Sandra Bullock).
Christiane Seidel (The Queen's Gambit) has joined the cast of Boon, the sequel to the indie crime drama, Red Stone, from Yellowstone's Neal McDonough, who will serve as the project's producer, co-writer, and will take on one of the lead roles. Boon picks up with henchman Nick Boon (McDonough), who is trying to get on with his life. At the same time, the widowed Catherine (Seidel), is busy trying to protect herself and her son from a local criminal organization that's using her land for some unusual activities. When Boon and Catherine’s lives cross paths, they find themselves leaning on each other to protect everything they stand for.
The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle and Netflix have agreed to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the author’s estate, which alleged that the Enola Holmes film infringed copyright by depicting a warmer and more emotional version of Sherlock Holmes. The lawsuit, brought against Netflix, the film’s producers Legendary Pictures, the Enola Holmes author, Nancy Springer, and others associated with the adaptation, argued that Conan Doyle created "significant new character traits for Holmes and Watson" (including a more emotional Holmes) in the 10 stories still under copyright in the US, which were written between 1923 and 1927." The agreement opens the way for a sequel, although details haven't been firmed up just yet.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Simon Mayo's Books Of The Year podcast had a chat with Ian Rankin, who talked about his favorite books and authors.
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Robert B. McCaw, a former army lieutenant and an attorney who has a home on the Big Island of Hawai’i and studies the state's history, culture, and peoples. His latest novel, Death of a Messenger, the third book in his Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery series, will be published on January 5, 2021.
Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Connie DiMarco about her Zodiac Mysteries series.
My Favorite Detective Stories host, John Hoda, spoke with Steve Berry, the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of nineteen novels.
The latest Crime Writers of Color podcast featured Tori Eldridge, author of the Lily Wong thriller-mystery series, as interviewed by Robert Justice.
The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled the topics of "Lost Person Behavior, a Rogue Investigation, and the Difference between Probation and Parole."
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