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
Michael Keaton is set to star in and direct the noir thriller, Knox Goes Away, which was written by Gregory Poirier. The film follows a contract killer who, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
State Street Pictures has optioned Assassin & Son, a graphic novel created and written by the late Shad Gaspard and Marc Copani, for development as a film. The story centers on Donovan Braddock, a one-man killing unit who works with a team of covert assassins known as "The Horsemen." When Braddock finds love, and makes a family of his own, he attempts to leave that life of violence behind. But he discovers that his old life still torments him when his wife is murdered in front of him and his young son. Now, with nothing to live for, this tragic event sends father and son on an epic journey of revenge and consequence.
Actress, model and singer, Bella Thorne (Midnight Sun), has been set to star in the thriller, Saint Clare, co-scripted by Guinevere Turner (American Psycho) and Mitzi Peirone, who will also serve as director. The project follows Clare Bleecker (Thorne), a quiet catholic college student with a divine vocation for killing. The story is based on the novel, Clare At 16, by Don Roff, with its sequel due out in 2023.
Jack Huston (House of Gucci) has signed on to star alongside Isabelle Fuhrman and Don Johnson in Andy Tennant’s thriller, Unit 234, which is currently in production in the Cayman Islands. In the film penned by Derek Steiner, a lone employee at a remote storage facility (Fuhrman) discovers an unconscious man locked inside Unit 234, chained to a gurney and missing a kidney. She must then fight to survive a ruthless gang, dead set on retrieving their precious cargo…at any cost.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Titus Welliver returns as Michael Connelly's ex-cop Harry Bosch to crack more cases on Amazon Freevee (formerly IMDb TV). Amazon's ad-supported streaming service announced the pickup of Season 2 of Bosch: Legacy, a spin-off of the series, Bosch, that ran for seven seasons on Prime Video. Bosch: Legacy follows Welliver’s title character—a retired LAPD homicide detective turned private investigator—as he fights to work cases without the authority his former job provided. Meanwhile, attorney Honey "Money" Chandler (Mimi Rogers) struggles to maintain her faith in the justice system after surviving an attempted murder, and Harry’s daughter, Maddie Bosch (Madison Lintz), discovers the challenges of being a rookie patrol cop on the streets of L.A.
Peacock will become the U.S. home of ITV’s thriller, Trigger Point. The high-pressure drama stars Vicky McClure and Adrian Lester as frontline officers who must risk their lives during a terrorist campaign in the heart of London and find out who is behind the bombings before fatalities escalate.
Jake McLaughlin (Quantico) and Iantha Richardson (American Soul) are set as leads opposite Ramón Rodríguez and Erika Christensen in ABC’s drama pilot, Will Trent. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling book series, Special Agent Will Trent (Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. McLaughlin will play Michael, a former Army vet and now a Detective with the APD. Richardson will play Faith, Will Trent's partner.
Scoot McNairy (Narcos: Mexico), Jack Reynor (Midsommar), and Emily Browning (American Gods) are set to lead the cast in the psychological thriller, Brightwater. The story follows a big-city architect who travels to an isolated Maine island with plans to build a sprawling luxury resort. But when his girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he embarks on a desperate search across the unforgiving landscape and into his own psyche. Currently in pre-production, the project is written and directed by Lance Edmands, whose debut feature, Bluebird, was invited to the Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Andrea Savage will play an ATF agent going up against Sylvester Stallone’s mob boss in Paramount+’s upcoming Taylor Sheridan series, Tulsa King. Savage’s character, Stacy Beale, is an ATF agent who transfers from the anti-terror team in New York to an Oklahoma bureau targeting local militia groups. Stallone stars as mob boss Dwight "The General" Manfredi, who must assemble a new crew after being exiled by his mob family following his release from a 25-year prison sentence.
Oderbruch (working title) has added four cast members including André Hennicke, Alix Heyblom, Winfried Glatzeder, Robert Glatzeder, and Jan Krauter. The eight-part series follows Detective Roland Voit (Felix Kramer) on a serial murder case after numerous victims shock the Oderbruch region of Germany. His former colleague and childhood sweetheart, Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch), joins the police investigation when her family comes under immediate suspicion. The project is from CBS Studios who has partnered with Syrreal Entertainment and ARD Degeto on the "elevated genre-drama" for the latter’s online platform, ARD Mediathek.
B-Reel Films, the Swedish banner behind Midsommar, is set to produce a thriller series based on Jonas Bonnier’s true crime novel, The Helicopter Heist, and has attached Ronnie Sandahl (Borg vs McEnroe) as writer. Rights to the novel were previously acquired by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories banner in 2016 where it was being developed as a feature, but the project fell through. The eight-part series is based on the true story of four young Swedes who orchestrated one of the most spectacular daylight heists of all time in 2009. They used a stolen Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter to land on the roof of a G4S cash service depot building in Stockholm and stole more than $4 million in cash.
CBS has renewed its hit drama, The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah, for two more seasons (3 and 4). The series features Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background, who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. The character was previously portrayed in the original 1980s TV series by Edward Woodward and in the 2014 film starring Denzel Washington.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast posted its 100th episode this week, which features the first chapter of Maximum Rossi, a Las Vegas Noir Mystery novel by Paul W. Papa, read by actor Sean Hopper.
The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, screenwriter, and producer Sascha Rothchild, who just released her debut novel, Blood Sugar.
Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Harini Nagendra about The Bangalore Detectives Club, her debut historical crime fiction novel that takes place in 1921 and follows a recently married headstrong young woman who witnesses the aftermath of a murder at a club where the cream of Indian society can socialize with members of the British Raj.
On Queer Writers of Crime, Justine focused on one of the Lambda Literary Award Mystery nominees, Murder Under Her Skin by Stephen Spotswood.
My Favorite Detective Stories spoke with Julie Hennrikus, who writes the Clock Shop Mystery series under the name Julianne Holmes and the Theater Cop series as J.A. Hennrikus. She also uses the pen name Julia Henry for the Garden Squad Series, with her fifth installment due out this fall.
Chris Rickaby and Barney Thompson, aka Ben Creed, chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about A Traitor's Heart, their new historical thriller set in post-WWII Leningrad and featuring detective Revol Rossel.
Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed author Stephen Burdick to discuss his novellas set in Florida.
To introduce the May/June 2022 issue, the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured Smita Harish Jain's reading of her latest story, "The Manglik Curse."
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club attended the recent Malice Domestic conference and snagged several authors for mini-interviews, including Ang Pompano, Raquel V. Reyes, Elaine Viets, S.C. Perkins, and Karen Neary Smithson.
Comments