It's Monday, and you know what that means—it's the start of a new week and time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news and podcasts:
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Sean Penn’s recently launched production company, Projected Picture Works, has signed on to produce the political thriller, Killers & Diplomats, partnering with Mill House Motion Pictures. The film is from writers Michael Nourse and John Tyler McClain and is based on an article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Raymond Bonner. Based on a true story, it picks up after four American missionary women are raped and murdered in 1980 El Salvador, following a young U.S. diplomat who cracks the case by cultivating an improbable source—risking everything to gather the key evidence.
Oren Uziel, the co-screenwriter of Paramount’s spring hit, The Lost City, is reworking 20th Century Studios’ Clue movie reboot starring Ryan Reynolds. James Bobin is attached to direct the live-action pic, which is based on Hasbro’s popular whodunnit game that was first made into a 1985 cult classic film starring Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and Lesley Ann Warren. With the screenplay being rewritten, it will be a while before viewers find out who will join Reynolds amongst the colorful cast of characters in this reboot. Clue, or Cluedo as it's known outside North America, was created in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt, with numerous games and books released as part of the Cluedo franchise, including a series of 18 children's books published in the 1990s.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the follow-up to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, will be released globally on Netflix December 23 and in select theaters on a date to be announced. Netflix released two first-look images this past week. In the new film, Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, reprising the role) travels to Greece "to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of colorful suspects," according to the logline. In addition to Craig, Glass Onion stars Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Elin Hilderbrand's New York Times bestselling novel, The Perfect Couple, is being developed into a limited series at Netflix by 21 Laps (Stranger Things, Shadow and Bone) as part of their overall deal with the streamer. Jenna Lamia (Good Girls, Resident Alien) will serve as showrunner and executive producer. The murder mystery series follows Celeste Otis who, on the Fourth of July, is about to marry the perfect man, who just so happens to be from the wealthiest family on Nantucket. But when a body is discovered floating in the harbor on the morning of what was to be the wedding of the year, everyone at the party is suddenly a suspect.
Ewan McGregor has been cast as the lead in Paramount+’s upcoming UK drama series, A Gentleman in Moscow, replacing Kenneth Branagh. McGregor will play Count Alexander Rostov who finds that his gilded past places him on the wrong side of history in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The project is an adaptation of the international best-selling novel by Amor Towles.
Envision Entertainment has optioned the Inspector Mislan crime thriller series written by Rozlan Mohd Noor. Set in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, the books follow the exploits of a tough street cop. Envison Entertainment’s chief content officer, said: "The Inspector Mislan character is perfect for television; he is a gritty, seemingly incorruptible Malay Muslim street cop who brooks no opposition, from the criminal mafia or his superiors. Thanks to the uniquely creative writing of Rozlan Mohd Noor, I am delighted we have the opportunity to bring Inspector Mislan to the television audience."
Britain's Channel 4 has picked up a new six-part drama currently titled The Gathering from the acclaimed writer and director, Helen Walsh. Set on Merseyside, the drama focuses on a group of teens from disparate backgrounds, each of whom could have committed a crime, along with their parents—who give equal cause for suspicion. As a novelist, Helen Walsh won the Betty Trask award for Brass and the Somerset Maugham award for Once Upon a Time In England. In 2016, she picked up the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit award for her directorial debut, The Violators, for which she also wrote the screenplay.
Roslyn Ruff (Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector) has been tapped as a lead opposite Neve Campbell in Avalon, ABC’s drama series based on Michael Connelly’s short story, from David E. Kelley, A+E Studios and 20th Television. Avalon, which received a straight-to-series order from ABC, takes place in the city of Avalon on Catalina Island, where L.A. Sheriff’s Department Detective Nicole "Nic" Searcy (Campbell) heads up a small office. Catalina has a local population that serves more than one million tourists a year, and each day when the ferries arrive, hundreds of potential new stories enter the island. Ruff will play Lena, a police administrative dispatcher, "gatekeeper and grand guardian of perspective." In addition to Campbell, she joins fellow regular and the series’ male lead, Steven Pasquale.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Colson Whitehead stopped by NPR's Fresh Air to talk about Harlem, hooligans, and race and class in the '60s. His novel Harlem Shuffle is about a furniture store owner in Harlem whose sideline is fencing stolen goods.
MPR's Ask a Bookseller podcast featured Sarah Brown of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth recommending that fans of literary fiction, mystery, and noir seek out the work of Dorothy Hughes, whose crime novels were mostly published in the 1940s and early 50s.
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Slightly Murderous Intent by Lida Sideris read by actor Casey Ballard.
Todd Mason pointed me toward a podcast I hadn't had on my radar before, Hollywood AWAC. In this pre-pandemic episode, host Bill Thill sat down with writer Joe R. Lansdale (of Hap and Leonard fame) and his daughter, Kasey Lansdale, to discuss writing their book, Terror Is Our Business, and to chat about the creative process and what it takes to build a life less ordinary while pursuing creative endeavors.
WSAZ News in Huntington, WV, welcomed thriller author, Karin Slaughter, to preview her latest novel, Girl, Forgotten.
On the BBC's Science Focus podcast, Professor David Gibson sat down to explain how forensic botany—the study of plants to help investigate crimes—has helped to solve real cases.
The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, Lee Matthew Goldberg
On It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club, the gang took a breather and talked about a few articles they found that are interesting, such as "What Can Cooking School Teach a Mystery Writer?"
On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah discussed domestic suspense and its continuing appeal.
Neil Plakcy joined Queer Writers of Crime host, Brad Shreve, to discuss Neil's latest book, Being John Church. He typically writes novels with gay protagonists, but he also has his Golden Retriever Series, and in Being John Church, he brings both together with a gay protagonist and a golden retriever.
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Catherine Coulter, author of a bestselling FBI Suspense Thriller Series, to chat about Reckoning, the 26th installment in that series that was just released last week.
UK author, Deborah Lucy, stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to discuss her series featuring DI Temple.
All About Agatha spoke with Lucy Worsley, a historian, TV presenter, and author of Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman.
On Crime Time FM, Victoria Selman chatted with Dominic Nolan about novel endings; the importance of the twist in a crime novel; why first sentences stand out more than last—or do they?; and what makes a satisfying ending.
THEATRE
A revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, is headed to Broadway next spring, with the team behind Hamilton—producer Jeffrey Seller and director Thomas Kail—attached to the project. Groban would play the murderous Sweeney Todd title character, with Ashford as his pie-baking assistant, Mrs. Lovett. The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance (alternatively titled The Sailor's Gift) was a fictional story first published as a penny dreadful serial from 1846–47. The main antagonist of the story is Sweeney Todd, "the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and although the serial served as the character's first literary appearance, many other literary and theatrical adaptations soon followed.
I think HOLLYWOOD AWAC didn't manage to circulate the episode too heavily in the CF or horror/fantasy or country music communities! I stumbled across it back in the posts of Kasey Lansdale's Fb feed...I like essentially everything they do, so I found it worthwhile (but most of it is tied up with CF).
Posted by: Todd Mason | September 01, 2022 at 10:49 AM
That's odd, for sure. But I'm certainly glad you stumbled upon it! I know I'm probably missing all kinds of good podcasts and interviews out there, and sometimes it feels like a game of "whack-a-mole" trying to find them!
Posted by: BV Lawson | September 01, 2022 at 11:03 AM