It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:
AWARDS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced the winners of this year's Oscar Awards last night in a trimmed-down ceremony. Crime drama winners include a Best Supporting Actor nod to Daniel Kaluuya for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah and Best Original Screenplay to Promising Young Woman, written by Emerald Fennel. If you'd like to learn more about some of the lesser-known nominated films with a crime connection including those in the international, documentary, and animated categories, check out this article from Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Universal Pictures bought the rights to the Brian Freeman novel, Infinite, with Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer set to adapt the screenplay. The story follows Dylan Moran, consumed by grief after losing his wife, who begins hallucinating sinister versions of himself lurking in the shadows. When he ends up accused of murder, Moran undergoes a hypnotherapy treatment built on the idea that with every choice he makes, he creates an infinite number of parallel universes. It’s then he discovers he’s not insane at all—there’s another version of himself, from another reality. A psychopath that not only ruined his life, but countless other Dylans. Can Dylan stop this doppelgänger before he strikes again? Or will he lose himself…to himself?
Jason Isaacs, Barkhad Abdi, and Adan Canto have signed on for Agent Game, the indie spy thriller being directed by Grant S. Johnson. The new additions join previously announced cast members, Dermot Mulroney, Katie Cassidy, Rhys Coiro, Annie Ilonzeh, and Mel Gibson. The story centers on CIA officer Harris (Mulroney), who is involved in missions to detain and relocate foreign nationals for interrogation. When Harris’s superior (Isaacs) is murdered, he finds himself the scapegoat for the killing of a detainee (Abdi) and must run from a team of operatives sent to bring him in (Canto, Cassidy, Coiro), led by a ruthless double agent (Ilonzeh). Gibson plays a rogue intelligence official running the off-the-books operation to hunt down and kill Harris.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Apple TV Plus has ordered to series the bilingual drama, Now and Then. The project, to be shot in both Spanish and English and set in Miami with an all-Hispanic cast, is executive produced by Gideon Raff (Homeland; The Spy), who is set to direct the first two episodes. Now and Then is described as a "multi-layered thriller that explores the differences between youthful aspirations and the reality of adulthood," when the lives of a group of college best friends are forever changed after a celebratory weekend ends up with one of them dead. Now, 20 years later, the remaining five are reluctantly reunited by a threat that puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk.
Amazon Studios announced it will co-produce the six-part BBC psychological thriller, Chloe, with a cast that features The Crown star, Erin Doherty. The project centers on the character of Becky, who becomes obsessed with the death of her estranged friend, Chloe. Becky assumes a new identity to infiltrate the enviable lives of Chloe’s closest friends as she attempts to establish what happened.
CBS has renewed NCIS: Los Angeles, starring LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell, for Season 13 and ordered a new spinoff, NCIS: Hawaii, to series. The news comes after the recent announcements that the original NCIS had been renewed for a 19th season (with series star Mark Harmon returning), but NCIS: New Orleans, will end its seven-season run.
John Cameron Mitchell has been tapped to play the title character opposite Kate McKinnon in Joe Exotic (working title), based on the Wondery podcast, which is set to air across NBCU’s Television and Streaming Entertainment portfolio (NBC, USA Network, and Peacock). The limited series centers on Carole Baskin (McKinnon), a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe "Exotic" Schreibvogel (Mitchell) is breeding and using his big cats for profit. She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy. The results prove dangerous.
Gemma Whelan (Game Of Thrones, Killing Eve) has been cast as the lead in ITV’s drama series, The Tower, the three-part adaptation of Kate London’s Metropolitan Police novel, Post Mortem, from Homeland writer Patrick Harbinson. Whelan will play Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins, who investigates after a veteran beat cop and teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in south-east London. Collins works to uncover the truth behind the grisly tower-block deaths and the related disappearances of a rookie police officer and a child.
LisaGay Hamilton has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in The Lincoln Lawyer, Netflix’s upcoming drama series based on Michael Connelly’s bestselling novels. The project revolves around Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist who runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles. Hamilton will play Judge Mary Holder, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court — the most powerful trial judge in the city and a no-nonsense jurist who doesn’t suffer fools. It was also announced last week that Jamie McShane (playing Detective Lee Lankford) and Reggie Lee (playing Angelo Soto, an intimidating, wealthy businessman) will be recurring characters on the series.
AMC and UK’s Alibi has added new leads to the crime drama series, Ragdoll, with Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Killing Eve) and Thalissa Teixeira (Too Close) joining previously announced Lucy Hale. Adapted for television by Freddy Syborn from the novel by Daniel Cole, the six-part Ragdoll is described as "a modern-day Faustian thriller" that centers on the murder of six people whose bodies have been dismembered and sewn into the shape of one grotesque body — nicknamed "The Ragdoll." Assigned to the shocking case are DS Nathan Rose (Lloyd-Hughes), recently reinstated to the London Met; his best friend and boss, DI Emily Baxter (Teixeira); and the unit’s new recruit, DC Lake Edmunds (Hale). The killer taunts the police by sending them a list of his next victims, with detective Rose’s name at the very end
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Author Kris Calvin joined Eric Beetner as guest co-host of this week's Writer Types podcast. Featured interviews include Alma Katsu (Red Widow) Peter Swanson (Every Vow You Break), and Wallace Stroby (Heaven's A Lie).
Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Nusrah Javed, celebrated the 100th episode of the podcast and talked about books that shaped them as mystery readers.
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed William Swanson, a Minneapolis journalist and true crime expert who has authored three true-crime books. Under his pen name of W.A. Winter, he writes crime fiction thrillers including his latest, The Secret Lives of Dentists, inspired by the 1955 case of a Minneapolis dentist tried for the murder of one of his young female patients.
Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Derek Farrell, author of five Danny Bird Mysteries all published by Fahrenheit Press, about "redefining the cozy noir mystery."
Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, chatted with Shawn Reilly Simmons about cool jobs she's had, short stories, and her Red Carpet Catering mystery series.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club profiled three Scottish mystery writers you might want to check out.
At Crime Time FM, Ace Atkins spoke with Barry Forshaw about his new Spenser novel, Someone to Watch Over Me.
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