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 a competitive situation, Searchlight Pictures has landed the spec script Clean Break from writer Ryan Brennan and has already begun development on the project. The thriller follows a fiercely independent pool hustler who finally meets her match in a fellow pool shark, and their irresistible but destructive attraction to one another leads to deadly consequences that she can’t outrun.
Focus Features has acquired the sci-fi thriller Hot Spot, the second English-language feature from veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska. Focus will distribute the film in all territories worldwide, excluding Poland, Greece, and France. The project is set in a near-future society ruled by sentient A.I., where a private eye investigates a murder case only to discover a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Another Harlan Coben thriller is coming to Netflix after the streamer gave a series order to I Will Find You. The eight-episode limited series will be adapted from the author’s 2023 novel, by showrunner Robert Hull (Quantum Leap). I Will Find You follows an innocent father serving a life sentence for the murder of his own son. When he receives evidence that his son my still be alive, he is determined to break out of prison to discover the truth. The project is the latest series from Coben under his Netflix deal, following his 2014 thriller Missing You, which is getting the series treatment on Jan. 1, 2025, while other titles Caught and Run Away are in the works. Coben’s other successful series for the streamer include Fool Me Once, Stay Close, The Stranger, The Innocent, Gone for Good, Hold Tight and The Woods. He is also currently writing a thriller novel with Reese Witherspoon, due October 2025.
Prime Video has ordered Silent River, a thriller drama series starring and executive produced by John Krasinski (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and Matthew Rhys (The Americans). The project comes from Krasinski and Allyson Seeger’s production company, Sunday Night, whose first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios has been extended. Told through the viewpoint of two men — played by Krasinski and Rhys — whose lives are far more connected than they realize, Silent River explores the cracks of small-town America in the wake of discovering a serial killer among them.
ITV has reportedly axed two of its primetime crime dramas: The Tower, an adaptation of the novels by Kate London, which starred Gemma Whelan and Emmett J Scanlan and told the story of London-based DS Sarah Collins; and Passenger, which tells the story of what happens in a sleepy Northern village after a local girl disappears, written by Andrew Buchan and starring Wunmi Mosaku, David Threlfall, Rowan Robinson, and Jack James Ryan. (HT to The Killing Times)
Tom Hardy (Venom: The Last Dance), Pierce Brosnan (Die Another Day), and Helen Mirren (The Queen) are officially set as the leads of Guy Ritchie’s new Showtime and Paramount+ series, which is yet untitled. Production of the global crime series, previously known as The Associate (w/t), is currently underway in London. Hardy will star as Harry Da Souza, a professional conciliator on behalf of the Harrigan family; Brosnan will play Conrad Harrigan, the head of a very successful Irish crime family based in London and Harry’s boss; Mirren will play Maeve Harrigan, Conrad’s wife and the Harrigan family matriarch. The logline refers to the project as "an electrifying, new global crime series centered around two warring families based in London whose enterprises stretch to all corners of the planet and the fiercely loyal ‘fixer’ charged with protecting one of them at all costs."
PODCASTS/RADIO
On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed books for Indigenous Peoples’ Month.
On Crime Time FM, Maxim Jakubowski, Ayo Onatade, Jake Kerridge, Victoria Selman, Paul Burke, and Barry Forshaw discussed their crime fiction best books of the year in "The Great Christmas Debate 2024."
Pick Your Poison host Dr. Jen Prosser investigated the dangers of mistletoe tea and snow flocking spray and the life-threatening complication alcohol can cause in a person who isn’t drunk.
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