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 his Oscar for Best Foreign Film (All Quiet On The Western Front), director Edward Berger may have found his follow-up project with one of the biggest action heroes of the past few decades. Deadline reported that Universal Pictures is in early development stages of a new installment in the Jason Bourne franchise, and Berger is in negotiations to direct. The report also noted that Matt Damon, who starred as Bourne in four of the five films, would be first approached to return in the iconic role once a script is finished.
New Regency's Jeff Nichols-directed crime drama, The Bikeriders, which was at 20th Century Studios, is getting acquired by Focus Features. Focus is taking global rights to the pic, re-teaming them with New Regency (with whom they partnered on 2022’s The Northman), and is planning a 2024 theatrical release. The movie, which made its world premiere at Telluride, was also written by Nichols and stars Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy, and follows the rise of a Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.
After the settlement of the recent Hollywood strikes, the cast has now been set for the erotic thriller, Babygirl. Nicole Kidman (The Undoing), Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory), and Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw) lead an ensemble that also includes Sophie Wilde and Jean Reno. The film, written and directed by Halina Reijn, follows a successful CEO who begins an illicit affair with her much younger intern.
Netflix has shared a first-look photo of Eddie Murphy's return to the Beverly Hills Cop franchise as Axel Foley. Murphy returns to reprise the Axel role nearly 30 years after the premiere of Beverly Hills Cop 3. Mark Molloy directs the sequel, which also stars Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Taylour Paige, along with Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot reprising their characters from previous installments. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley is set to be released in 2024.
TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN
Peaky Blinders producer, Caryn Mandabach Productions (CMP), has optioned P.D. James's Cordelia Gray novels, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin, which were penned in 1972 and 1982 respectively by the celebrated British author. Gray’s character at the time was hailed for being a pioneering protagonist in the rise of feminism. The first novel sees her hired to investigate the death of a young university student who is found hanged under mysterious circumstances, while the second book is set in a Victorian castle and centers around actress Clarissa Lisle, who has been receiving death threats. James, who died a decade ago, only wrote two Gray novels and was best known for her Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, which have recently been adapted by Channel 5, starring Bertie Carvel.
Happy Valley and Grantchester actor James Norton has been set to lead an ITV adaptation of JP Delaney’s bestselling novel, Playing Nice. Norton will star in the four-part limited series alongside Niamh Algar (Mary and George), James McArdle (Mare of Easttown), and Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey). Norton, a BAFTA nominee who has been on the list of actors in the running to play James Bond, also serves as executive producer. The series follows two couples who discover their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up. Set against the sweeping backdrop of Cornwall, they face an agonizing dilemma: do they keep the son they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child? Pete (Norton) and Maddie (Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple: Miles (McArdle) and Lucy (Brown Findlay). All four agree to a solution, but it becomes clear that hidden motives are at play.
The upcoming 14th season of CBS's venerable cop family drama, Blue Bloods, will be its last. The popular series starring Tom Selleck is getting an extended farewell with a two-part final season which will consist of 18 episodes. The first 10 will air this coming midseason, premiering on CBS Feb. 16 and streaming live on Paramount+; the remaining 8 will run in fall 2024. Blue Bloods follows multiple generations of the Reagan family working in New York law enforcement. The cast also includes Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes, Len Cariou, Marisa Ramirez, and Vanessa Ray.
NBC has announced its midseason premiere dates, which include mid-January returns for Wolf Entertainment’s three "Chicago" dramas (Chicago Med, Fire, and PD) and the three "Law & Order" dramas (Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Organized Crime). The "Chicago" trio will premiere on Wednesday, January 17, and the "Law & Order" set will debut on Thursday, January 18. That is a month before dramas on the other major broadcast networks are set to return with new episodes and a couple of weeks before any scripted series elsewhere come back. Previously announced shows that have yet to be dated include the remaining episodes of this season’s Quantum Leap and Magnum P.I.
The cancellations continued ahead of the holiday weekend. Amazon axed a trio of scripted series from its Prime Video service, including The Horror of Dolores Roach and Harlan Coben’s Shelter. The Horror of Dolores Roach starred Justina Machado as a woman released from prison after 16 years and returns to a severely gentrified Washington Heights with $200 and the clothes on her back. Harlan Coben’s Shelter, which premiered in August, is a mystery drama based on Coben’s 2011 YA novel. The series starred Jaden Michael, Constance Zimmer, Abby Corrigan, and Adrian Greensmith.
Fox is looking to the beginning of March for the return of its scripted slate, unveiling its midseason schedule that includes the return of The Cleaning Lady (Tuesday, March 5 at 8pm), Alert: Missing Persons Unit (Tuesday, March 5 at 9pm), and Animal Control (March 6 at 9pm). Fox had already pushed 9-1-1: Lone Star to the 2023/24 fall schedule alongside new series, Doc and Rescue Hi-Surf, which had previously been eyed for a 2022/23 launch. There are no signs of the second season of Accused, however.
Reid Scott has joined the upcoming season as a new series regular on the NBC police procedural, Law & Order, portraying an as-yet unnamed NYPD detective. Scott will fill the void left by former series regular Jeffrey Donovan, who recently exited the show over creative differences. The Law & Order cast also includes Sam Waterston as DA Jack McCoy, Hugh Dancy (Hannibal, The Path) as senior prosecutorial assistant Nathan Price, and Camryn Manheim (The Practice) as Lt. Kate Dixon. Law & Order premieres its 23rd season on January 18, 2024.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
CBS News spoke with James Ellroy, the author of L.A. Confidential and over a dozen other novels, about his new book, The Enchanters, which focuses on a private investigator looking into the death of Marilyn Monroe.
The latest episode of The Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with David Swinson, a former D.C. Police Department detective and author of the Frank Marr Trilogy and two stand-alone crime novels, including his latest, Sweet Thing.
On Crime Time FM, Tom Benjamin chatted with Paul Burke about Last Testament in Bologna; British private eye Daniel Leicester; the porticos of the ancient city, Giallo; AirBnB and tourism in a university town.
The Red Hot Chili Writers talked with crime writer Susi Holliday and discussed female serial killers, before Susi took a stab at explaining the meaning of Diwali.
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