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
Filming is underway in County Donegal, Ireland, on the thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, starring Liam Neeson as a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. The headliners also include Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) and Kerry Condon (Better Call Saul). The rest of the cast, recently announced, includes Colm Meaney (The Banker), Jack Gleeson (Game Of Thrones), Desmond Eastwood (Normal People), Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful), Conor MacNeill (The Fall), Seamus O’Hara (Game of Thrones), Valentine Olukoga (Unforgotten), and Mark O’Regan (Blood).
True Blood star Joe Manganiello has joined Oscar winner Samuel L. Jackson and Oscar nominee Uma Thurman in the upcoming dark comedic thriller, The Kill Room. Principal photography is set to begin this spring in New Jersey and New York on the movie, which will chart the story of a hitman (Manganiello), his boss (Jackson), and an art dealer (Thurman) whose money-laundering scheme accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight avant-garde sensation, forcing Thurman’s character to play the art world against the underworld. The project is written by Jonathan Jacobson and will be directed by Nicol Paone.
Garret Dillahunt (Ambulance) is the latest addition to the cast of the action-thriller, Red Right Hand, from brother directors Ian and Eshom Nelms (Fatman). He joins an ensemble that also includes previously announced actors Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell, and Scott Haze. Written by Jonathan Easley, the project follows Cash (Bloom), who is trying to live an honest and quiet life, taking care of his niece Savannah in the Appalachian hills of Odim County. When the sadistic Queenpin "Big Cat" (MacDowell), who runs the town, forces him back into her services, Cash learns he’s capable of anything—even killing—to protect the town and the only family he has left. As the journey gets harder, Cash is drawn into a nightmare that blurs the lines between good and evil. Dillahunt will portray "Wilder," an ex-addict turned preacher who acts as an advisor and protector to Cash and his family, and struggles to contain his violent nature.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Luther star Idris Elba will turn hostage negotiator in a tense thriller drama series for Apple TV+. The seven-part Hijack is the first production from Elba and his Green Door Pictures first-look deal with Apple TV+ struck in July 2020. Elba will play Sam Nelson, an accomplished business negotiator forced to use his guile to save the lives of passengers onboard a hijacked plane making its way to London. Criminal creator George Kay is writing the film, with Jim Field Smith directing.
CBS has set up a writers room for the drama, The Great Game, led by the project’s co-writers/executive producers John Hlavin (The Man Who Fell to Earth) and Matthew Newman (Chicago PD) with the goal of generating multiple scripts for a potential straight-to-series order. In The Great Game, inspired by an unpublished novel of the same name by Newman, a washed-up but charming British spy is reluctantly recruited out of retirement by a bright-eyed, tech-savvy, female CIA agent, giving him a shot at redemption as he re-learns the modern, ruthless game of international espionage.
PBS Distribution has taken North American rights to the upcoming ITV detective drama, Ridley, which stars Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar. Currently filming in northern England, the show follows retired police officer Ridley who resumes his partnership with former protégée DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh) to solve complex murder cases.
The Bridge screenwriter, Camilla Ahlgren, has created a European crime drama series about the head of a group solving cold cases in Sweden. Production was greenlighted on Fallen, which will star The Bridge lead actress Sofia Melin as Iris Broman, the new head of the Kalla Fall. Due to a tragedy, she moves from Stockholm to the southern town of Ystad to live with her half-sister Kattis (Hedda Stierstedt), where a cold case becomes topical again and turns everything upside down, intertwining the lives of several people.
Erika Christensen has been cast as the female lead opposite Ramón Rodríguez in ABC’s drama pilot, Will Trent, from 20th Television. Written by Liz Heldens and Dan Thomsen, the pilot is based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling book series. The story centers on Special Agent Will Trent (Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system, and is now determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was. Christensen will play Angie, a detective with the Atlanta Police Department who struggles with addiction and has yet to confront the dark traumas of her childhood.
BAFTA-nominated Leila Farzad and Broadchurch’s Andrew Buchan are to lead BBC One’s Better. Farzad will play DI Lou Slack, a quick-witted policewoman whose success lies on a foundation of deceit and corruption. Buchan plays Col McHugh, a charming businessman and property developer who heads a city-wide drug trafficking gang. The show, from Humans scribes Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, tells of the pair’s bond set in a world where they have created their own version of "right" and "wrong." Also joining the cast are Samuel Edward-Cook (Peaky Blinders), Zak Ford-Williams (Wolfe), Ceallach Spellman (Cold Feet), Carolin Stoltz (Liar), Anton Lesser (Killing Eve), and Olivia Nakintu (Vera).
A new FX drama is returning Jeff Bridges to action for a seven-episode season of the series, The Old Man, which begins on Thursday, June 17 on FX, with streaming available the next day on Hulu. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry, The Old Man centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. With Dan Chase flushed out of hiding, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Harold Harper (John Lithgow), is called on to hunt him down because of his complicated past with the rogue fugitive. Working alongside Harper is his protégé, Angela Adams (Alia Shawkat), and CIA Special Agent, Raymond Waters (E.J. Bonilla). When Chase proves to be more difficult to apprehend than the authorities expected, Julian Carson (Gbenga Akinnagbe), a highly trained special ops contractor, is sent to pursue him.
Apple TV+ released the first trailer for its upcoming bilingual drama series, Now & Then, starring Rosie Perez, Manolo Cardona, Marina de Tavira, José María Yazpik, Soledad Villamil, and Maribel Verdú, among others. Three of the eight episodes will be released on May 20 with the remaining episodes dropping weekly every Friday through June 24. Set in Miami, Now & Then follows a group of college best friends whose lives are forever changed after one of them ends up dead. Now, 20 years later, the remaining 5 are forced to reunite after a threat puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk. Perez portrays Flora, a detective obsessed with an unresolved case from 20 years ago, who will stop at nothing to discover the truth. Her partner Sullivan (Željko Ivanek) helps to keep Flora from getting into too much trouble.
AMC released the trailer for the upcoming Western noir, Dark Winds. The original series, based on the iconic Leaphorn & Chee books by Tony Hillerman, will premiere Sunday, June 12 on AMC and AMC+. Created and executive produced by Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan), the series is set in 1971 on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley and follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) of the Tribal Police as he is besieged by a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. The closer he digs to the truth, the more he exposes the wounds of his past. He is joined on this journey by his new deputy, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon). Together, the two men battle the forces of evil, each other, and their own personal demons on the path to salvation. Dark Winds also stars Jessica Matten, Noah Emmerich, Deanna Allison, and Rainn Wilson.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "A Confluence in Time," by Reavis Wortham, read by actor Ian Jones.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club headed to Malice Domestic to offer one last look at the nominees for the Agatha Awards that will be given out at the banquet on April 23rd.
On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Libby Fischer Hellman discussed her mystery novels as well as historical novels.
My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Michael Craven, author of three crime novels, including The Detective and the Pipe Girl, and a finalist for the Shamus Award for best P.I. novel of the year.
Read or Dead hosts Katie and Nusrah reminisced about their favorite debuts by mystery authors.
The latest Queer Writers of Crime episode welcomed author Laury A. Egan to the team to offer book recommendations. She started off with a thriller by Anne Holt who Val McDermid says, "...is the latest crime writer to reveal how truly dark it gets in Scandinavia."
On the latest Writers Detective Bureau, Detective Adam Richardson complained about his least favorite bureaucratic paperwork and then talked about fatal hit-and-run investigations and suspect extraditions.
The All About Agatha podcast interviewed Gillian Gill, author of Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries.
Crime Time FM featured Aussie crime fiction with authors Chris Hammer and Emma Viskic as they discussed the appeal of Outback Noir, aka Southern Cross Crime, aka Dingo Noir.
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