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
Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to For the Love of Money, a crime drama directed by Leslie Small that stars Keri Hilson and Katt Williams. The distributor plans to release the film in 750 theaters nationwide on November 24, marking the company’s first theatrical release in more than a year owing to the pandemic. The story centers on a single mother (Hilson) who, when pushed to her limits out of the need to protect her daughter (Jazzy Jade), returns to a world she’s spent a lifetime running from. LisaRaye McCoy, Rotimi, Jason Mitchell, DC Young Fly, and Cedric Pendleton also star, with appearances by musical artists Keith Sweat, Latto, and Lyfe Jennings.
Avan Jogia and Ajani Russell have been set for the title roles in the crime feature, Johnny & Clyde, also starring Megan Fox and Tyson Ritter. Currently in production, the movie is a spin on the iconic Bonnie and Clyde story and follows two serial killers who are madly in love and on a shocking crime spree. They ultimately set their sights on robbing a prosperous casino run by crime boss, Alana (Fox), and her head of security, Guy (Ritter).
Kathryn Morris has signed on to the ensemble independent film, Hayseed. The dark comedy murder mystery comes from first-time writer-director Travis Burgess. Set in a small town in Michigan, the film follows the investigation of a church congregation after their reverend is found dead. Morris plays Joyce Metts, a former beauty queen now a waitress at the local diner and a jealous type, prone to gossip. She is protective of her daughter Willa, who is a high school senior ready to leave town on her athletic scholarship.
Clayne Crawford, Max Martini, and Hakeem Kai-Kazim have joined the cast of the crime feature, The Channel. The story is set in motion after a bank heist goes wrong, when a desperate criminal (Crawford), his out-of-control brother (Martini), and their motley crew of ex-marines must escape New Orleans and the determined FBI agent (Kai-Kazim) who pursues them. William Kaufman (The Hit List) will direct the film from a script he wrote, from a story by Paul Reichelt.
Lionsgate has acquired Paradise Highway, a thriller starring Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, and Frank Grillo, grabbing North America distribution rights and international sales. Written and directed by Anna Gutto, the story centers on Sally (Binoche), a truck driver who's forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother Dennis (Grillo) from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operative Gerick (Freeman) hot on her trail, Sally’s motivations and conscience are challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl (Hala Finley).
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The DI Hillary Greene book series from British author, Faith Martin, is to be turned into a drama by Southwell Neal Entertainment (Becky Southwell and Dylan Neal), which optioned the film and TV rights to the 18-book series. The stories follow the brilliant cold case detective’s exploits alongside former LAPD detective, John Sullivan, and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Southwell and Neal are also the writers and execs behind Hallmark’s Gourmet Detective series.
The crime novel, Cell 8, by Swedish authors Roslund & Hellström is being adapted by Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group). The gritty crime drama will feature a Nordic cast and premiere exclusively on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service in 2022. In Cell 8, a man presumed dead is arrested on a ferry between Sweden and Finland, throwing detectives Mariana Hermansson (Mimosa Willamo) and Ewert Grens (Leonard Terfelt) into a mysterious and increasingly dark series of events. The case soon reveals a personal connection not only to Hermansson herself, but to a Death Row prisoner in the U.S. and a grieving parent consumed by the quest for revenge.
David Heyman’s Heyday Television has optioned four novels from award-winning Spanish noir author, Dolores Redondo, including The North Face Of The Heart. The story follows a yet-to-be-cast Spanish detective, Amala Salazar, as she helps the FBI track an extraordinary serial killer in New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina. Salazar joins a high-profile team led by FBI agent Aloisius Dupree, whose own complicated past is entwined with the communities struggling to defend their homes as the flood waters rise.
The Sopranos series creator, David Chase, is in talks with WarnerMedia about another project set in his iconic mob-drama world to become a series on HBO Max. Chase previously said that going back to The Sopranos world would only be done in prequel form, whether it were another film or a series, set in the ’60s and ’70s before the events of the original eries. However the CEO of WarnerMedia Studios, Ann Sarnoff, said no decision has been made regarding whether or not Chase’s next "Sopranos" project would become a series or another prequel film like the newly released Many Saints of Newark.
Starz and Lionsgate’s upcoming three-night John Wick prequel event, titled The Continental, has found its young Winston Scott in actor Colin Woodell (The Flight Attendant). Mel Gibson is also set to star on the John Wick origin series, playing a character named "Cormac." The project, which is set 40 years before the events of the Keanu Reeves-led John Wick films, will be a three-night special exploring the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins—the centerpiece of the "John Wick" universe—through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the films) who is dragged into the Hellscape of 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Each episode will be feature-length installments and boast feature-film budgets.
Corbin Bernsen is set as a lead opposite Blair Underwood in L.A. Law, a new incarnation of the iconic Steven Bochco legal drama, which was officially picked up to pilot by ABC earlier this month. Underwood and Bernsen, reprising their roles as Jonathan Rollins and Arnie Becker, respectively, are believed to be the only original cast members who are series regulars in the sequel pilot. (More are expected to make guest-starring appearances on the potential series.) In the pilot, written by Marc Guggenheim and Ubah Mohamed and to be directed by Anthony Hemingway, the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman—now named Becker Rollins—reinvents itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high profile, boundary-pushing, and incendiary cases.
Diany Rodriguez (Law & Order: Organized Crime) has joined the upcoming ninth season of NBC’s long-running drama series, The Blacklist, in a recurring role. Rodriguez will play Weecha Xiu, who is more than capable of defending herself against anyone who might threaten her or her associates. The premiere of season 9 of The Blacklist, starring James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff and Amir Arison, recently returned with a jump forward two years. Following the death of Elizabeth Keen, Raymond Reddington (Spader) and the members of the FBI Task Force have disbanded—their lives now changed in unexpected ways and with Reddington’s whereabouts unknown. Finding themselves each at a crossroads, a common purpose compels them to renew their original mission: to take down dangerous, vicious and eccentric Blacklisters.
Lifetime has ordered three original thrillers, all set for a winter 2022 premiere. In the first, Single Black Female, Monica (Raven Goodwin), still reeling from the death of her beloved father and a difficult breakup, tries to move forward with her life as the new host for an afternoon talk show. But her new assistant, Simone (Amber Riley) harbors a dark secret, and as time goes on cracks in her façade begin to appear. The second program, Line Sisters, features LeToya Luckett, Kierra Sheard-Kelly, Ta’Rhonda Jones, and Drew Sidora as four sorority sisters who reunite at a Black Greek Weekend celebration 15 years after the mysterious death of the dean of pledges. But the past comes knocking on their door as strange things begin to happen, threatening to unearth the deadly secret that may tear them apart. The third thriller is Vanished: Searching for My Sister stars Tatyana Ali as twins Jada and Kayla. When Kayla goes missing and the police investigation is at a standstill, Jada takes matters into her own hands and gets pulled into a world of drugs and deceit in order to learn the shocking truth about what really happened to Kayla.
Breathe: Into The Shadows, the Amazon Prime thriller out of India, has been commissioned by the streamer for a second season. The first season of the crime thriller followed Dr. Avinash Sabharwal (Abhishek Bachchan), whose 6-year-old daughter, Siya, has been kidnapped by a masked man demanding Sabharwal kill someone in order to get his daughter back.
Jonathan Tucker is set as a lead opposite Michelle Monaghan in Echoes, Netflix’s psychological thriller limited series from 13 Reasons Why showrunner, Brian Yorkey. Created and written by Vanessa Gazy, Echoes is a mystery thriller about identical twins Leni and Gina (both portrayed by Monaghan), who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina have swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: They share two homes, two husbands, and a child, but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing. Tucker will play Dylan James, a troubled and mysterious local townie and childhood associate of Leni and Gina.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of a Halloween mystery, Murder in the Mystery Suite, by Ellery Adams, as read by actor Ariel Linn.
Writer Types welcomed bestselling author, Anthony Horowitz (A Line To Kill); Kimi Cunningham Grant (These Silent Woods); Ted Flanagan (Every Hidden Thing); and Raquel Reyes (Mango, Mambo and Murder).
Read or Dead tackled horror and suspense reads set in haunted houses just in time for Halloween.
Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Taylor Moore, a former CIA Intelligence Officer who worked in both analysis and operations. Down Range is Taylor’s debut novel, and the first of a series featuring DEA agent Garrett Kohl.
Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Matt Fitzsimmons about his newest release, Constance.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured a "Gothic Mystery Roundup."
On Crime Time FM, Felix Francis (son of the late author, Dick Francis) spoke with Paul Burke about his new psychological crime novel, Iced; taking on his father's thriller legacy; the home fiction factory; tea with Agatha Christie; and marbling.
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