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
J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot banner have teamed up with Warner Bros. for the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s 2021 novel, Billy Summers. A year ago, Bad Robot was developing the project as a limited television series, but the focus has changed to the big screen. The story centers on a 44-year-old hitman, the eponymous Billy Summers, who is considering retirement when he accepts one last job from a regular client. Taking up a cover story that he is a novelist, Summers ensconces himself in a small town as he preps for the hit, and in his spare time actually begins to write a novel, which turns into his life story, from his little sister being killed by their mother’s boyfriend to him becoming a decorated sniper. The hit goes awry when the regular client doesn’t pay and Summers escapes a trap. His life gets even more complicated when he finds out there’s a bounty on his head, and he saves a rape victim named Alice. Summers and Alice then end up on a cross-country journey to rectify the hitman’s many wrongs.
Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men franchise) have been set to lead the true-crime movie, The Order, which acclaimed Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Macbeth) will direct. Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated writer Zach Baylin (King Richard) wrote the screenplay based on The Silent Brotherhood, the book by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt. The tale chronicles the escalating crimes of the titular white supremacist domestic terror group, who in 1983 was responsible for a series of increasingly violent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations, and armored car heists that frightened communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. As baffled law enforcement agents scrambled for answers, a lone FBI agent (Law), stationed in the sleepy, picturesque town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, came to believe the crimes were not the work of traditional, financially motivated criminals but a group of dangerous domestic terrorists, inspired by a radical, charismatic leader (Hoult), plotting a devastating war against the federal government of the United States.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Four new projects have been ordered from CBS Studios, including three crime dramas, a Matlock reboot starring Kathy Bates; a project based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries; and a Carrie Preston-led spinoff of The Good Wife. The latter will follow Elsbeth Tascioni (Preston), an astute but unconventional attorney who uses her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD. The Matlock reboot is centered on Madeline Matlock, a brilliant septuagenarian who rejoins the work force at a prestigious law firm, where she uses her unassuming demeanor and wily tactics to win cases and expose corruption from within. The new series is said to have a tie to the original Matlock that starred Andy Griffith as criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock, a renowned, folksy and popular, though cantankerous, attorney. The last project, Watson, focuses on Holmes’s friend Dr. John Watson. After Holmes’ death, Watson continues his medical career as the head of a clinic committed to treating rare genetic disorders. However, he uncovers a startling secret that puts him in the crosshairs of Moriarty once again.
Entertainment One (eOne) has acquired the rights to Janice Hallett’s bestselling novel, The Twyford Code, to be spearheaded by BAFTA award winning film and television writer, director, and producer, Paul Andrew Williams. The Sunday Times bestseller is told via automatic transcriptions of recordings made by Steven Smith, a former prisoner determined to discover what happened to his English teacher, Miss Iles, who vanished on a school trip in 1983 after becoming convinced there were hidden codes in the work of a disgraced children’s author. The Sunday Times called it "A modern Agatha Christie," where Hallett "has constructed a fiendishly clever, maddeningly original crime novel for lovers of word games, puzzles, and stories of redemption."
Annette Bening has signed on to star in the upcoming Peacock limited series, Apples Never Fall, based on the Liane Moriarty domestic thriller novel of the same name. Per the official logline, the series "centers on the Delaneys, who from the outside appear to be an enviably contented family. Former tennis coaches Joy (Bening) and Stan are parents to four adult children. After decades of marriage, they have finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. But after Joy disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ marriage and their family history with fresh eyes." Apples Never Fall is the latest of Moriarty’s books to be adapted for the screen, which have included the HBO adaptation of Big Little Lies, which won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards, and Nine Perfect Strangers, adapted into a series for Hulu.
Amazon Studios is finalizing deals for Criminal, a TV adaptation of Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips’ bestselling crime comic book series. Details are scarce for the project, but it's described as an interlocking universe of crime stories that tell the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past. As Brubaker explained in a 2019 interview. "One of the big events in many of these characters’ pasts, which has been referenced since the very first Criminal story, was the death of Teeg Lawless. Before we even met Teeg, we knew that he had died when his son was a teenager, but other than the identity of his killer, we have never told the rest of that story. It’s just been a ghost haunting the series, as Teeg Lawless has become one of the most popular characters in the comic.”
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Michael Hearns (the Cade Taylor series), who also spent 27 years working as a South Florida police officer and detective and has worked as a technical advisor in film and television.
In honor of Black History Month, It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured a two-parter (part one here and part two here) taking at look at four books by Black authors S. A. Cosby, Abby Collette, Valerie (V. M.) Burns, and Faye Snowdon.
The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with crime writing legend Peter May about his new novel in which crime fiction meets climate change. They also discussed Friday the 13th, superstitions, and how numerology often trumps rational decision-making.
On Crime Time FM, Louise Candlish chatted with Paul Burke about her new thriller drama, The Only Suspect, unlovable characters, twists and reveals, instant fame after fifteen years of hard craft, and seeing your work on TV.
The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's podcast featured the work of Twist Phelan, winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence and an International Thriller Award, reading from two of her shorter-length stories: "Used to Be" and "It's A Small World (After All)."
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