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
Lionsgate has acquired North American rights to Collin Schiffli’s thriller, Die in a Gunfight, with plans to release it as a multi-platform title this summer. The film is described as a modern-day take on "Romeo and Juliet" and centers on two rival families, the Rathcarts and Gibbons. Ben (Diego Boneta), a rebellious young man, falls in love with Mary (Alexandra Daddario), the daughter of his father's enemy, starting a battle full of love, lust, revenge, and betrayal.
Bruce Willis is set to star in the revenge thriller, Soul Assassin. The story begins with a woman’s husband being killed in action as part of an experimental new military program. A former black-ops soldier (Willis) then takes his place to find his killer. Jesse Atlas will direct the script, co-written with Aaron Wolfe based on their short, Let Them Die Like Lovers, which was nominated for Best Narrative Short at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country), is boarding the Netflix movie, Lou, as star and executive producer. Smollett joins Oscar winner, Allison Janney, who is also starring (and executive producing) the Anna Foerster-directed film. Written by Maggie Cohn, the story is set in motion when a young girl is kidnapped. Her mother, with no other option, teams up with the mysterious older woman next door to pursue the kidnapper – a journey into the wilderness that will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from their pasts.
This Is Us star, Justin Hartley, is joining Y’lan Noel, Cleopatra Coleman, Lex Scott Davis, and Shamier Anderson in A Lot Of Nothing. The project is described as a "dark comedy-thriller" where things spiral out of control when a married couple is compelled to take dangerous actions after discovering their next-door neighbor (Hartley) is the police officer who just murdered an unarmed motorist.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Noah Centineo has signed on to star in and executive produce a new unnamed spy thriller series for the streaming giant Netflix. Centineo will play a fledgling lawyer at the CIA who becomes enmeshed in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the nature of her long-term relationship with the agency—unless they exonerate her of a serious crime.
Nordic Entertainment Group has ordered the psychological crime drama, Sisterhood. The six-episode series looks into who was really responsible for a young girl’s disappearance in Iceland 25 years ago. Ambitious police detective Vera (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), dissatisfied with the original investigation, zeroes in on an unlikely trio of successful and respectable women.
Danish actress, Clara Rugaard, is to lead the cast for Sky’s The Rising, a supernatural crime thriller that was originally inspired by Belgian drama, Hotel Beau Séjour. The eight-part series has Rugaard starring as Neve Kelly, a woman who discovers she is dead. She’s scared and confused by this new existence at first, but when she realizes she has been murdered, she’s furious. She’s determined to find her killer and get justice, believing that it was someone she knew.
Josh Hartnett is to lead Sky’s four-part adaptation of the Robert Harris financial thriller, The Fear Index, directed by David Caffrey (The Alienist). Hartnett will play Dr. Alex Hoffmann, an American ex-pat physicist, who creates an AI-driven system that exploits fear in the financial markets and operates at lightning speed to make big returns. But on the day of launch, Alex’s sanity is shaken after he is viciously attacked at his home by a man who knows all of his security codes. After more unexplained occurrences, Alex becomes convinced he’s being framed. Other cast includes Leila Farzad, Arsher Ali, and Grégory Montel.
Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars, Harry Potter) will portray John Dean in HBO's upcoming five-part series about the Watergate scandal, The White House Plumbers. At the time of Richard Nixon's reign, Dean was a young and zealous member of the White House Counsel who worked to orchestrate the illegal cover-up that ultimately ended Nixon's presidency. Gleeson joins previously announced cast members Justin Theroux (who will play G. Gordon Liddy) and Woody Harrelson (playing E. Howard Hunt). The project chronicles former President Nixon's downfall, highlighting how the so-called masterminds responsible for protecting Nixon's presidency — Giddy and Hunt — unwittingly sabotaged it. The show is based on public records and Integrity, a novel by Egil "Bud" Krogh and Matthew Krogh.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
In a jam-packed episode of Writer Types, host Eric Beetner spoke with authors Chris Whitaker (We Begin At The End), Amy Suiter Clarke (Girl, 11), and Nicci French (The Other Side Of The Door).
Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Robyn Gigl, an attorney, author, and activist who has been honored by the ACLU-NJ and the NJ Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. Her debut legal thriller is By Way of Sorrow.
Alyssa Cole, author of the new thriller, When No One Is Watching, was interviewed by Robert Justice for the Crime Writers of Color podcast.
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "Not a Penny More," written by Jon Land and read by actor Larry Mattox.
The Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast showcased novelist and short-story author, Jeff Soloway, reading his EQMM debut story from the January/February 2021 issue, "The Interpreter and the Killer," which features a central character in a job we don't see often in mystery fiction.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone featured "In Conversation: Don Winslow and Anthony Horowitz with Phil Williams" from last summer's Locked-Up Festival.
Christine Feehan was the featured guest on Suspense Radio, discussing her latest book, Lightning Game, and much more.
My Favorite Detective Stories host, John Hoda, welcomed Sheldon Siegel, best-selling author of the critically acclaimed legal thriller series featuring San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez.
Meet the Thriller Author chatted with UK author, Clare Whitfield, who's been a dancer, copywriter, amateur fire breather, buyer, and mediocre weightlifter. Her debut crime thriller is People of Abandoned Character.
Carmen Jaramillo stopped by Wrong Place, Write Crime to discuss "Open Up Your Heart," her novella in A Grifter's Song series, and more.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club sat down with award-winning investigative journalist, Caitlin Rother, to discuss her new true-crime book, Death on Ocean Boulevard.
Barry Forshaw hosted a new feature on the Crime Time FM podcast, where he gives insights into the world of crime drama based on the commentaries and sleeve notes he writes for new releases and reissues of books and movies.
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