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
Laura Harrier (White Men Can’t Jump) has been tapped for a major role opposite Bill Skarsgård and Nicolas Cage in Lords of War, the sequel to 2005 crime thriller, Lord of War, which Andrew Niccol (Anon) wrote and is directing for Vendôme Pictures. Lords of War picks up the story of Yuri Orlov (Cage), the world’s most notorious gunrunner, watching as he discovers he has a son, Anton (Skarsgård), who isn’t trying to right his father’s wrongs, he’s trying to top them. Not only selling guns but the "trigger pullers" too, Anton is amassing a mercenary army to fight America’s Middle East conflicts. This is the story of Yuri and Anton’s bitter rivalry — even at odds over the same woman. Who will prevail when father and son go to war?
Lionsgate has acquired world rights to the thriller, Amber Alert, which will star Hayden Panettiere (Scream VI) and Golden Globe winner Tyler James Williams (Abbott Elementary). In Amber Alert, Jaq (Panettiere) is eager to get to her first day at a new job, and her driver, Shane (Williams), is just trying to earn a little extra at his side hustle. An alert of a child abduction on their phones will change all that when they discover they are behind a car that matches the description of the kidnapper’s. Unable to let a possible child trafficker escape, they begin a pursuit that will put their own lives at risk.
Lionsgate‘s John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas as a young female assassin, will be delayed a year from June 7, 2024 to June 6, 2025. The move comes as John Wick architect Chad Stahelski has inked a new deal with Lionsgate to oversee the franchise and is working with Ballerina director Len Wiseman on additional action sequences for the movie, to amp it up even more than it is. Taking over Ballerina's original calendar slot is Rupert Sanders’s The Crow, with Bill Skarsgård assuming the iconic role of The Crow in this modern re-imagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (played by FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN
True Detective has been renewed for a fifth season at HBO. Issa López, who served as showrunner for True Detective: Night Country, the fourth and most successful installment of the crime franchise, will oversee the next series as part of an overall deal she signed with the network. It’s yet to be decided as to whether season five will be related to Night Country or will be an entirely new story. True Detective: Night Country starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, detectives who have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice to solve the disappearance of eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station in Alaska.
Meryl Streep is returning to Only Murders in the Building for season 4 on Hulu, reprising the recurring role of Loretta Durkin, and will be joined by new cast addition, Eva Longoria. Although many plot details of the new season have not been revealed, the story will focus on "unraveling the murder of Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), Charles-Haden Savage’s (Steve Martin) mind-bogglingly identical stunt double from his years on the series Brazzos, and the show's 2020 revival."
Berlin, the prequel to Money Heist and based on the character of the same name, has been renewed at Netflix for Season 2. Pedro Alonso, who portrays Andrés de Fonollosa (aka Berlin) in both the prequel and in the original series, will return for this second season. The rest of Berlin’s heisting gang will also return, including Michelle Jenner, Tristán Ulloa, Begoña Vargas, Julio Peña Fernández, and Joel Sánchez. Berlin takes place several years before the events of Money Heist and the tragic end of the Professor’s (Álvaro Morte) brother. Set primarily in Paris, the series follows Berlin and his gang as they steal €44 million in jewels and frame the security team surrounding the treasure for their crime. But this run-of-the-mill high-stakes heist becomes complicated when Berlin falls for the victim’s wife.
The BBC has ordered two more six-part series of the police drama, Blue Lights, not surprising since the first season became one of the top ten dramas for the broadcaster when it launched in 2023, but news of series three and four even comes ahead of the second installment set to air this spring. Set in Belfast, the drama follows a batch of constables as they navigate policing in a post-conflict Northern Ireland. Season Two will see Siân Brooke and Martin McCann reprise the roles of rookie Grace Ellis and her partner, experienced police officer Stevie Neil. Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff will also be back as Grace's fellow new recruits, Annie Conlon and Tommy Foster, as will Joanne Crawford and Andi Osho as Sergeant Helen McNally and Sergeant Sandra Cliff, respectively.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Mark Edlitz, author of James Bond After Fleming, joined James Bond aficionados Bill Kanas, Brian McKaig, and guest host Matt Raubenheimer on the Spybrary podcast to dissect the evolution of 007 in books.
Read or Dead discussed book picks inspired by True Detective: Night Country.
Crime Time FM featured the latest selection of crime, mystery and thriller fiction reviewed by Paul Burke.
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