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
Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in an adaptation of David Grann’s book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, from director Martin Scorsese. The project follows the pair’s collaboration on Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is likewise based on a non-fiction book by Grann. Grann’s The Wager tells the true story of a British naval ship called the Wager that wrecked in 1742 and washed up on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia, marooning 30 survivors for months before they managed to make it back to safety. But the story takes a darker turn a few months later, when a different set of just three survivors arrive in Chile and tell an alternate story that the men were not hero survivors but mutineers, and the crew descended into anarchy while stranded on the island.
Judy Greer, Paul Sparks, Alison Pill, Tracy Letts, Annie Parisse, Kate Arrington, and Alexander Skarsgård are set to star in the adaptation of Eric Larue, with Michael Shannon making his directorial debut on the film. Written by Brett Neveu, the film is based on Neveu’s play of the same name and follows the mother of a 17-year-old boy, who shot and killed three of his classmates. As the mother braces for a meeting with the mothers of the other boys and a long-delayed visit to her son in prison, the story evolves into less of a tale about violence and more about the lengths people go to survive (or to ignore) trauma. Playwright and screenwriter Neveu has also been Shannon’s frequent collaborator on productions staged by A Red Orchid Theatre where the play premiered in 2002. In 2005, the play was selected for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s "Postcards from America" series.
The first teaser for Christopher Nolan’s next film, Oppenheimer, shows Cillian Murphy as the father of the atomic bomb, or as the trailer puts it, "the man who moved the Earth." The film aims to go beyond the standard biopic of a scientist, even one as explosive as Oppenheimer, to cast itself as an "epic thriller." The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
An adaptation of Kirk Wallace Johnson’s bestselling book, The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, is in the works for the small screen, via Jenna Bush Hager and Universal International Studios. The Feather Thief is a gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime and one man’s relentless pursuit of justice. One summer evening in 2009, twenty-year-old musical prodigy, Edwin Rist, broke into the British Natural History Museum, home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world. Once inside, he stole as many rare bird specimens as he was able to carry before escaping into the darkness. In search of answers about the crime, Johnson embarked upon a worldwide investigation that led him into the fiercely secretive underground community obsessed with the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. The Feather Thief was an Amazon Best Book of 2018 and short-listed for The Gold Dagger Award, Edgar Award, Carnegie Medal, and was translated into a dozen languages.
HBO is developing My Dentist’s Murder Trial, a limited series starring and executive produced by David Harbour (Stranger Things) and Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian). Written by Steve Conrad (Patriot), who is set to direct the pilot episode, My Dentist’s Murder Trial is inspired by James Lasdun’s 2017 New Yorker article, "My Dentist’s Murder Trial: Adultery, false identities, and a lethal sedation." The true crime story chronicled in the article centers on Dr. Gilberto Nunez, who was indicted for killing his friend, Thomas Kolman, in 2015 by getting him to ingest a substance that caused his death. There were also two forgery counts, including Nunez posing as a C.I.A. agent. Nunez, who had had an affair with Kolman’s wife Linda, stood trial in 2018 where he was found not guilty of murder but guilty on fraud charges, which led to a prison sentence. Pascal will play Dr. Nunez. HBO would not say whether Harbour will play the victim, Thomas Kolman, or the article’s author.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
The Sunday Sessions podcast from New Zealand Crime spoke with writer Karin Slaughter about her latest thriller, Girl, Forgotten. Karin is a best-selling author of 22 books, whose 2018 hit, Pieces of Her, was made into a series for Netflix.
NPR's Weekend Edition chatted with thriller author, Megan Miranda, about her latest novel, The Last To Vanish, and her obsession with the duality of nature—beautiful and serene, and also, with just a slight change of perspective, terrifying.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviewed Anthony Horowitz, who has penned over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, as well as two new Sherlock Holmes novels, a James Bond novel, and episodes of the popular TV series, Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War.
Crime Time FM welcomed Barry Forshaw to talk about Simenon: The Man, the Books, the Films, a 21st Century re-examination of Simenon's iconic literary detective, Inspector Maigret, and Simenon's place in French literature.
My Favorite Detective Stories chatted with Sherry Harris, the Agatha Award-nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries.
On the latest Queer Writers of Crime, Ann Aptaker, David Domine, and Brad Shreve offered up novel suggestions they believe are must reads.
Read or Dead hosts Katie and Nusrah talked about books you should take on your vacation and ones you should skip.
THEATRE
To Kill A Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin’s hit stage adaptation of the Harper Lee novel currently on a lengthy Covid-prompted hiatus, will not return to Broadway after all, and both Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher are blaming the original lead producer, Scott Rudin. Although Rudin—who has dodged allegations of bullying and physical abuse of his staff—was believed to have discontinued taking an active role in the play’s production, he continues to control rights to the stage adaptation. Mockingbird opened on Broadway in 2018 and quickly became one of theater’s hottest tickets, starring in turn Jeff Daniels, Richard Thomas, and Greg Kinnear as Atticus Finch.
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