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
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel has received a title and a release window. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will hit Netflix "this holiday season," according to Johnson, who made the announcement in a Twitter thread. The director went on to express his excitement to continue his Daniel Craig-fronted franchise in the vein of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels, praising her knack for "stretching the genre conceptually." Johnson seemed to indicate that "Glass Onion" will be tonally different from Knives Out, with Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc at the center of a very different mystery.
Nicole Kidman is reteaming with Amazon Studios for the Mimi Cave-directed thriller, Holland, Michigan. The feature, based on Andrew Sodroski’s (Manhunt) script, topped the 2013 Black List and involves secrets that lurk beneath a Midwestern town, with "a Hitchcock bent." Kidman will star and produce with Per Saari under her Blossom Films.
Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton is boarding Studiocanal and Picture Company’s "high-concept thriller," Role Play, also starring Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo. To be directed by Thomas Vincent on a script from Seth Owen and Andrew Baldwin, the project revolves around a married couple (Cuoco and Oyelowo) whose life turns upside down when secrets come out about each other’s pasts. Not much is known about Thornton’s role, but sources say he will play a key figure in the film—a mysterious stranger who encounters the couple.
Dakota Fanning will star alongside Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 3, the next film in the action franchise from director Antoine Fuqua. The casting reunites Fanning with Washington after the two starred together in the box office hit, Man on Fire, from 2004 when Fanning was ten years old. Sony has already set a release date of September 1, 2023 for The Equalizer 3, although the plot for the new film is being kept under wraps. Richard Wenk, who penned both of the previous films, wrote the screenplay.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Showtime is developing The Whites, a limited crime drama series starring and executive produced by Ethan Hawke. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright and prolific screenwriter Jez Butterworth (Ford v. Ferrari; Spectre), the series is adapted from Richard Price’s novel of the same name. The description of The Whites reads, "Every detective is haunted by their White Whale, the perpetrator who got away because the justice system failed. Billy Graves (Hawke), once a rising star in his department and former member of a group of well-respected cops called the 'Wild Geese,' walks away from NYPD Homicide and joins the Nightwatch division, where his cases end when he clocks out— but his past comes calling when a seemingly straightforward murder case involving a White Whale unfolds, threatening his career, friendships, and family."
Courtney Lauren Penn and Thomas Jane's Renegade Entertainment have acquired Candice Fox's novel, Gathering Dark, for development as a series. Published in March of 2020, Gathering Dark centers on four women—a convicted killer, a gifted thief, a vicious gang lord, and a disillusioned cop—who together are a missing girl’s only hope.
Apple TV+ has handed an eight-episode series order to Criminal Record, a one-hour London thriller starring Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo as detectives in a tug of war over a historic murder conviction. An anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives into a confrontation over an old murder case, one a young woman in the early stages of her career; the other a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy. The series touches on issues of race, institutional failure, and the quest to find common ground in a polarized Britain. Capaldi (Doctor Who) portrays Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty, and Jumbo (The Good Wife) plays Detective Sergeant June Lenker.
Ian Duff is set as a lead opposite Michaela McManus and Parker Young in Criminal Nature, ABC’s drama pilot from Rashad Raisani, 20th Television, and A+E Studios. Written by Raisani, Criminal Nature (fka untitled National Parks project) is described as a "propulsive, soapy procedural" set in the stunning world of America’s great outdoors. The story revolves around the agents who work for the ISB (Investigative Services Branch)—an elite law enforcement unit responsible for solving all serious crimes that occur in our country’s 81,000 square miles of protected land. Duff will play Keldon, an ISB agent and Audrey’s (McManus) partner and fiancé. Keldon and Audrey team up to catch the killer — but their partnership is thrown for a loop when Clay, Audrey’s ex, joins their investigation.
Mehcad Brooks is joining Law & Order in season 22 of the NBC drama. He will help fill the void left by Anthony Anderson, who opted not to return after reprising his role in season 21 as Detective Kevin Bernard from the series’ original run. No character name or description is available yet for Brooks. Based on linear and digital viewing, the revival premiere of Law & Order that aired on Feb. 24, 2022 has totaled nearly 13 million total viewers. Like the original, it examines "The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders."
Netflix has renewed The Lincoln Lawyer for Season 2 with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, and Angus Simpson set to reprise their roles. The 10-episode second season will be based on the fourth book in The Lincoln Lawyer series by Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness. The renewal comes as no surprise following the show’s success on the streaming service, with Season 1 in the Netflix Global Top 10 in 90 countries. The Lincoln Lawyer follows the redemption of Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), a Los Angeles attorney, who with hard work and hustle, regains much of what he lost due to addiction. His success is also thanks to his devoted supporters: his ex-wives Maggie (Campbell) and Lorna (Newton), his driver and unofficial sponsor Izzy (Raycole), and the best investigator in town—and Lorna’s newly minted fiancé—Cisco (Simpson).
Garret Dillahunt, Jeanine Serralles, Kaya Rosenthal, Michael Drayer, Taja V. Simpson, and newcomer Ellie Barone have signed on for recurring roles in the third season of Starz’s crime drama, Hightown. Created by Rebecca Cutter (Gotham), Hightown is set in the beautiful but bleak world of Cape Cod and follows police officer, Jackie Quiñone (Monica Raymund), as her journey to sobriety is overshadowed by a murder investigation dragging her into its fold.
Britt Robertson has been tapped as a series regular on ABC’s new series, The Rookie: Feds. Co-created by Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, The Rookie: Feds stars Niecy Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The spinoff was introduced in a two-part arc on Season 4 of The Rookie, where Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the LA division of the FBI enlist the help of Simone Clark when one of her former students is a suspect in a terror attack. The cast also includes Frankie Faison, who plays Christopher "Cutty" Clark, and Felix Solis, who guest-starred as Special Agent Matthew Garza in the two Rookie: Feds backdoor-pilot episodes.
In the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Paramount+ series, Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone channels Henry Hill in Goodfellas and Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as Dwight "The General" Manfredi, an aging mafioso. Fresh out of prison after a 25-year sentence, Manfredi is sent by his criminal bosses to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he carves out an empire of his own in the buckle of the Bible belt.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Night Shadows) & Will Dean (Bad Apples) were featured on Crime Time FM, discussing Nordic Noir, its appeal and landscape as a character, and the psychological element of Scandinavian fiction.
Author Jeffery Hess stopped by Wrong Place, Write Crime to talk about his Beachhead Trilogy, short stories, and his latest book.
On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah talked about their anticipated mystery and suspense reads for the second half of 2022.
My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed editor, reviewer, and speech writer, Max Folsom, to talk about her journey to writing mystery novels.
On Queer Writers of Crime, Justene shared with Brad a novel by Maya MacGregor she believes is a contender for upcoming awards: a contemporary queer novel full of diversity, a suspicious death, and a spirit who helps solve the crime.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club showcased Art Kilmer and the two podcasts he hosts, The Bookshelf Odyssey and A Cozy Christmas.
Talkingbooksandstuff chatted with Canadian author Rick Mofina, a former journalist who's written more than 20 crime fiction thrillers and is a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a four-time Thriller Award finalist, and a two-time Shamus Award finalist.
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