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
Roundtable Entertainment has greenlighted the action thriller, MOM, with filmmaker Mark Pellington (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies) signed on to direct from a script by Brent Jordan. Billed as an "adrenaline-fueled" story, the project follows a single mother who embarks on a daring cross-country rescue mission, piecing together clues in the search for her teenage daughter who has fallen victim to the horrors of human trafficking.
The crime drama, Heist 88, starring two-time Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance, has set its premiere dates. Inspired by one of the largest bank robberies in U.S. history, the film is set to debut exclusively on Paramount+ with Showtime on September 29. Heist 88 is set at a time before widespread computerization and the cybersecurity protections of today. The story centers on Jeremy Horne (Vance), a criminal mastermind with an innate ability to convince anyone to do just about anything. After deciding to pull one last job before going to prison, Horne recruits four young bank employees to steal close to $80 million dollars in a daring and brazen assault on the nation’s banking system. Menhaj Huda (Kidulthood) directed from a script by Dwayne Johnson-Cochran (Minor Adjustments).
Netflix released a teaser trailer for director David Fincher’s new film, The Killer, which debuts on Netflix in November after a limited theatrical run in late October. The film, which stars Michael Fassbender, is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alexis Nolent and follows an assassin who’s battling his employers (and himself) on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal. He does yoga before each kill, destroys the evidence, then repeats. However, after a fateful near-miss triggers an international manhunt for him, the assassin will have to face his inner demons and do the one thing the plan doesn't allow for: improvise. The cast also includes Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O’Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton.
Apple Original Films, partnering with Paramount Pictures, has changed the release plan for the Cannes Film Festival hit, Killers of the Flower Moon, to debut as a wide global theatrical release (including Imax) on October 20. Directed by Martin Scorsese and written for the screen by Eric Roth and Scorsese, the fact-based story is based on David Grann’s bestselling book. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Lily Gladstone star, with Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, and Tantoo Cardinal rounding out the additional cast.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Magpie Murders producer, Eleventh Hour Films, has optioned C.M. Ewan's thriller, The House Hunt, for a limited TV series. The project centers on the story of an everyday young couple, Lucy and Sam, who are selling their recently renovated dream house, but one viewing turns into a nightmare and events spiral beyond their control.
The Lincoln Lawyer has been renewed for a third season at Netflix that will consist of ten episodes following a successful sophomore turn that saw the series reach the Top 10 in eighty-one countries. Season 3 will be based on The Gods of Guilt, the fifth book in Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer series, with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo returning as Mickey Haller. Additionally, Becki Newton (Lorna), Jazz Raycole (Izzy), Angus Sampson (Cisco), Yaya DaCosta (Andrea Freemann) and others will reprise their roles. The show follows Mickey Haller, an iconoclastic idealist who runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles.
Masterpiece on PBS has announced the premiere date and released first look images for the upcoming season of Miss Scarlet and the Duke, which returns on January 7, 2024, for its fourth season. In the new season, Eliza (Kate Phillips) has taken over the business of detective agency, Nash & Sons, and things are not going entirely smoothly, although help comes from some familiar sources. Outside of work, her relationship with William Wellington, a gruff Scottish detective inspector of Scotland Yard (the "Duke," played by Stuart Martin) builds towards a looming decision that will shape both their lives.
The Dutch thriller, Anonymous, is back for a second season on BBC. The show follows a pair of crime fighters who take justice into their own hands and relentlessly battle the criminal underworld — despite not knowing about each other. One is a public prosecutor (Anniek Pheifer) fighting the Cabo criminal gang, while the other is a history teacher (Jeroen Spitzenberger) who masquerades as "Anonymous."
A trailer was released for The Pigeon Tunnel, a documentary on the late David Cornwell, aka John le Carré. Cornwell worked for both MI5, the UK's domestic counterintelligence agency, and MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, before he became a bestselling spy novelist. The documentary is an adaptation of le Carré's autobiography and features an intimate interview between le Carré and Errol Morris, an Academy Award-winning director, alongside archival footage and reenactments of the stories le Carré tells. The Pigeon Tunnel will begin streaming on Apple TV+ on October 20.
The premiere of HBO’s anticipated True Detective: Night Country has been pushed back and is now listed as January of 2024 (the exact day is unknown). In Night Country, when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) must confront their pasts and the dark truths lying underneath the Arctic ice. John Hawkes, Christopher Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Anna Lambe, Aka Niviâna, Isabella Star Lablanc, and Joel D. Montgrand also star.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
The latest episode of The Red Hot Chili Writers discussed summer holidays; India's moon landing; Christie's Evil Under the Sun; and David Suchet's unusual method for perfecting Hercule Poirot's walk.
Victoria Selman chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her latest novel, All the Little Liars; psychological depth in thrillers; what readers want; victims and survivors; and more.
On the latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast, author Michael Z. Lewin read "Her Upstairs," his story of Greek gods and cribbage from the July/August 2023 issue. Lewin is the creator of the Albert Samson series of detective novels, the first regional series of its kind.
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