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
Apple Original Films and Matthew Vaughn’s MARV has set the release schedule for Vaughn’s spy thriller, Argylle, based on the yet-to-be-released novel of the same name by first-time author Elly Conway (for more on the mystery behind that, click here). The film will be released in theaters worldwide, in partnership with Universal Pictures, on February 2, 2024, before streaming globally on Apple TV+. Henry Cavill stars as Argylle, the titular troubled agent who takes on one of the most powerful men in the world. Suffering from amnesia, he is tricked into believing he is a best-selling spy novelist. However, once his memories and lethal spycraft skills come back to him, he goes down a path of revenge against the shadowy organization he used to work for, known only as The Division. The cast also features Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Vaughn, Argylle is scripted by Jason Fuchs.
A trailer was released for Mob Land, the upcoming crime drama starring John Travolta. Directed by Nicholas Maggio, the crime thriller is set deep in the heart of Dixie in a small town struggling with the ravages of addiction, where a local sheriff (Travolta) tries to maintain the peace when a desperate family man, Trey, and his reckless brother-in-law, Shelby (Kevin Dillon and Shiloh Fernandez), rob a pill mill. Trey and Shelby’s actions won’t go unnoticed by the mafia boss as they find themselves - and their families - caught in the crosshairs of vengeance and greed.
Netflix has unveiled Tudum, a global fan event set to provide fans with exclusives and first looks at some of their favorite original titles, with this one being the long awaited Gal Gadot action vehicle, Heart Of Stone. Along with Gadot, the film stars Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt (in her first English language feature), and Sophie Okonedo. Netflix is tight-lipped about the full synopsis but it's reportedly about an intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency who races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable and dangerous weapon. Described by Gadot and Dornan as "epic in scope," Heart of Stone is an international espionage thriller that incorporates a female perspective into action franchises, comparable to Mission: Impossible and James Bond films.
A trailer was also released for Extraction II, based on the 2014 graphic novel Ciudad by Andre Park, with Chris Hemsworth returning as fearless black market mercenary, Tyler Rake. After barely surviving his grievous wounds from his mission in Bangladesh in the first outing, Rake reassembles his team to save the imprisoned family of a ruthless gangster.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Netflix and Aggregate prevailed in a bidding war to secure the rights to writer David Gauvey Herbert’s 2021 Esquire magazine article, "Daddy Ball." The article starts the way most dad-on-dad youth-sports rivalries do but two fathers, both with complicated pasts, took it all too far. There were claims of stalking, corrupt cops, and mob connections. Determined not to follow in his detached father’s footsteps, Bobby Sanfilippo found himself doing quite the opposite with his son. He became entangled in an epic travel baseball dad-on-dad rivalry with a man named John Reardon that led tabloids to call him one of the worst dads in youth-sports history. It starts in the world of Little League baseball and expands into a Beef-like war between two smalltime criminal fathers. Both Sanfilippo and Reardon have rap sheets of their own, but what went down in the summer of 2012 at Baseball Heaven will define them and their families forever.
NCIS: Sydney has found its agents. The decades-old franchise’s debut international version for Paramount+ and Network 10 has Olivia Swann (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) playing NCIS Special Agent Michelle Mackey and Todd Lasance (Spartacus: War of the Damned) playing Sergeant Jim "JD" Dempsey. The duo are joined by Sean Sagar as NCIS Special Agent, DeShawn Jackson; Tuuli Narkle as AFP Liaison Officer, Constable Evie Cooper; Mavournee Hazel as AFP Forensic Scientist, Bluebird ‘Blue’ Gleeson; and William McInnes as AFP Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Roy Penrose.
Bohemian Rhapsody star Lucy Boynton is set to headline the ITV series, Ruth, about the last woman to hang in the UK. Boynton will play Ruth Ellis, a nightclub hostess who was hanged at the age of 28 after fatally shooting her abusive lover, David Blakely. The four-part series is made by ITV Studios-backed Vera producer Silverprint Pictures. It's written by Kelly Jones (The Long Call) and based on Carol Ann Lee’s biography, A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story. Ruth is told over two parallel timelines, with one half of the story following Ellis’ entry into a dizzying upper-class London and her ultimate downfall. The other follows John Bickford, Ellis’s lawyer, as he unravels secret truths about the case that remained hidden for decades.
FX released a first look at A Murder at the End of the World (f/k/a Retreat). The project is a limited-run mystery series with a new kind of detective at the helm: a Gen Z amateur sleuth named Darby Hart (Emma Corrin). Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire (Clive Owen) to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must use all of her skills to prove it was murder against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.
The BBC has released first-look images for The Sixth Commandment, a brand new four-part true crime drama that explores the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and the extraordinary events that unfolded over the following years. Penned by Sarah Phelps, it stars Timothy Spall and Anne Reid and tells the story of how the meeting of an inspirational teacher and a charismatic student, Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke), set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club visited Sweden to talk to author Tove Alsterdal about her book, You Will Never Be Found, which features police officer Eira Sjödin.
Read or Dead hosts Kendra Winchester and Katie McLain Horner discussed mysteries and thrillers for Audiobook Month.
On Crime Time FM, Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter chatted with Paul Burke about their new psychological thriller Believe Me; new ways of publishing; the Groucho Club; and writing partners.
Watched EXTRACTION 2 over the weekend and very much enjoyed it. Picks up right where the first left off.
Posted by: Kevin Ralton Tipple | June 19, 2023 at 10:43 AM
Glad to hear it, Kevin! I was wondering how they were going to "rescue" the Rake character after seemingly killing him off in the first movie - when it really felt like a budding franchise. This may turn out to be an interesting summer at the box office.
Posted by: BV Lawson | June 19, 2023 at 07:47 PM