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
Following the success of their Ocean’s Eleven movies, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are taking on an another heist film, The Instigators, with Doug Liman (who directed Damon in the Bourne Identity films) also on board to helm the project for Apple Original Films. Damon and Casey's brother, Ben Affleck, are producing through their newly announced banner, Artists Equity, along with Jeff Robinov and John Graham's Studio 8, and Kevin Walsh's The Walsh Company. The film, which was penned by Chuck MacLean and developed by Robinov, Graham, and Casey Affleck, follows two thieves who must go on the run with the help of one of their therapists after a robbery goes awry.
Netflix released a trailer for The Pale Blue Eye based on Louis Bayard's 2006 novel, which acts as an alternative origin story for Edgar Allan Poe. Adapted and directed by Scott Cooper, the film stars Christian Bale and hits select theaters December 23 before landing on the streamer beginning January 6. Set in the 1830s, Bale plays a local detective tasked with solving the grisly murder of a cadet at then-fledgling West Point. That’s where he meets Poe (Henry Melling), an eccentric cadet with a disdain for the rigors of the military and a penchant for poetry, and engages him to help pursue the case. The cast also includes Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Hadley Robinson, Timothy Spall, Joey Brooks, Brennan Cook, Gideon Glick, Fred Hechinger, Matt Helm, Jack Irving, Steven Maier, Charlie Tahan, and Robert Duvall.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
FX has given a pilot order to The Border, a drama based on the third book in Don Winslow’s bestselling Cartel Trilogy, from Daniel Zelman, (Damages, Bloodline), Shane Salerno (Salinger, Avatar sequels, and FX Productions). E.J. Bonilla is set to lead the cast, which also includes Frank Blake, Annie Shapero, Sebastián Buitrón, and Luis Bordonada. The Border is an epic saga that reveals the dark truths about America’s failed fifty-year war on drugs, exploring the myths of the drug war through the intertwining narratives of characters on both sides of the Mexican-American border.
Better Call Saul producer, Gordon Smith, is adapting The Destroyer book series (which was first published in 1971) for Sony Pictures Television. Originated by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, The Destroyer books are about a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams, a former Newark cop framed for a crime and sentenced to death. His death is faked by the government so he can be trained as an assassin for CURE, a secret organization set up to defend the country by working outside the law. The books were previously adapted as a 1985 feature film, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.
In his first major foray into TV, Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to star in and executive produce Presumed Innocent, Apple TV+’s upcoming limited series from David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams, and Warner Brothers TV. The series is inspired by the courtroom thriller novel of the same name by Scott Turow, which was published in 1987 and turned into a 1990 feature starring Harrison Ford. It tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. Gyllenhaal will play Rusty Sabich, the fervent prosecutor suspected of killing a close colleague when the evidence begins to point to him.
CBS is developing Citizen Jane, a drama from the co-creators of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Jay Beattie and CBS Studios. In Citizen Jane, written by Beattie, a law school dropout turned citizen sleuth—haunted by her sister’s unsolved murder—partners with a jaded homicide detective seeking redemption to solve cold cases and deliver justice across the country.
Taron Egerton and the creators behind Apple TV+’s Black Bird are re-teaming on the crime series, Firebug, inspired by events surrounding notorious California arsonist, John Leonard Orr. Former firefighter Orr was an arson investigator for the Glendale Fire Department in Southern California. Initially hired to understand and track down cases of arson, he became a convicted serial arsonist himself. He was found to be the cause of a spate of high-profile fires across California in the 1980s and ’90s that led to tens of millions of dollars' worth of damage and four deaths.
Colin Callender’s production company, Playground, has optioned the crime novel, The Wicked Girls, to develop as a limited TV series. Filmmaker Richard Shepard (Ugly Betty) is attached to write and direct, while also serving as an executive producer alongside Callender, Scott Huff, and David Stern. The book was written by Alex Marwood and tells the story of journalist Kirsty Lindsay, who reports on a series of attacks on female tourists in a seaside town.
Hulu’s limited series based on Rebecca Godfrey’s book, Under The Bridge, has added to its cast. Emmy winner Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) is set as a lead, along with Vritika Gupta, Javon "Wanna" Walton, and Aiyana Goodfellow. They join previously announced series stars Riley Keough, Izzy G, Chloe Guidry, and Ezra Faroque Khan. The book is based on the 1997 true story of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk (Gupta) who went to join friends at a party and never returned home. Seven teenage girls and a boy were accused of the savage murder, and the resulting investigation reveals startling truths about the unlikely killer.
Alona Tal, Johnny Ray Gill, and Eloise Mumford have joined the cast of Amazon’s Cross in series regular roles. They will star opposite Aldis Hodge, who plays the titular forensic psychologist character in the series, which is based on the best-selling Alex Cross book series by James Patterson. Tal will play Kayla Craig, a brilliant, determined, and abrasive FBI agent with a sharp sense of humor who aims to recruit Cross into the bureau; Gill will play Bobby Trey, a deadly and cunning ex-police officer; and Mumford will play Shannon Witmer, a frustrated dreamer with artistic aspirations.
Netflix released a trailer for the spy thriller, Treason, from Bridge of Spies' writer Matt Charman. The limited series explores the trials, tribulations, and treasonous actions of MI6 agent, Adam Lawrence (Charlie Cox), who finds himself taking over as Chief after his predecessor was poisoned. Treason also stars Olga Kurylenko as Kara, a Russian spy who Lawrence shares history with, and Oona Chaplin as Maddy, Lawrence's wife.
A teaser trailer was also released for Perry Mason Season 2, starring Matthew Rhys in a gritty new murder mystery conspiracy featuring the scion of a powerful oil family.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
It was a Dark and Stormy Book Club took at look at The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Annotated, the definitive edition from Mysterious Press of Robert Louis Stevenson’s immortal tale of depraved murder and unrelenting horror. The edition is introduced by Joe Hill, annotated by Edgar-winner Leslie S. Klinger, and illustrated with over 100 color images.
On Crime Time FM, Barry Forshaw chaired a panel of top critics and writers about their picks for the Best Crime Novels of 2022. The panelists included Laura Wilson (Guardian critic, novelist) , Maxim Jakubowski (editor, publisher, writer, bookseller), Jake Kerridge (crime fiction critic for the Telegraph), Ayo Onatade (critic at ShotsBlog), Victoria Selman (novelist and Crime Time presenter), and Paul Burke (reviewer and Crime Time host).
The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with Lord Peter Hains, politician and thriller writer, to discuss wildlife poaching, apartheid protests, and the different forms of meditation.
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