In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news. There's a lot of activity due to the flood of pent-up news following the dormant holiday season, but we'll try to get through it all:

AWARDS

The 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards were handed out at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles last night. Crime drama nods include Joaquin Phoenix snagging a Best Actor nod for his role as the Joker and Brad Pitt as Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.
 

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

It's been 25 years since the original Bad Boys film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Miami cops, and 17 years since Bad Boys II. But Sony’s Bad Boys For Life, the long-awaited third installment of the series, is in the midst of the second-best MLK Weekend opening of all time at the domestic box office, leading to an inevitable sequel. Bad Boys For Life screenwriter Chris Bremner has been set to return and write the script for the fourth movie, although there is no word on whether Belgians Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah will return to direct. But Smith and Lawrence are expected to reprise their respective roles.

Mike Colter has joined the cast of the thriller, Till Death, which is directed by Aharon Keshales and stars Jason Sudeikis and Evangeline Lilly. The project follows convicted felon Jimmy (Sudeikis) who gets early parole after serving twelve years for armed robbery. Upon his release from prison, he vows to give Annie (Lilly), his childhood love, now dying from cancer, the best last year of her life.

RLJE Films has acquired rights to The Postcard Killings, the thriller based on James Patterson and Liza Marklund’s 2010 bestseller, The Postcard Killers. Jeffrey Dean Morgan stars as NYPD Detective Jacob Kanon, whose world is thrown into turmoil when he learns his daughter and son-in-law have been brutally murdered in London. When similar crimes are being reported across Europe, with each killing accompanied by a postcard sent to a local journalist, Jacob will do whatever it takes to stop the killings and find justice for his little girl.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy-nominated Breaking Bad prequel, Better Call Saul, has been picked up for a sixth and final season. The 13-episode final season is set to air on AMC in 2021. Showrunner Peter Gould said he was set to begin work on the final run of episodes in the coming weeks.

Amazon Studios has greenlit Jack Reacher, a series based on the character from Lee Child’s bestselling series of books that will be scripted by Nick Santora (Scorpion, Prison Break). The first season will be based on the first Jack Reacher novel, The Killing Floor. Amazon is also determined to find a Jack Reacher-sized actor, according to Amazon Studios head, Jen Salke, who added "You may see us take our time really making sure we find that person."

The CW greenlit a Walker, Texas Ranger reboot series. Walker will star Jared Padalecki as Cordell Walker, a widowed father of two with his own moral code who returns to his home in Austin after two years of undercover work on a high-profile case. He’ll attempt to reconnect with his family and find common ground with his new partner (one of the first women in Texas Rangers history), while growing increasingly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.

The Disney-owned Freeform network has picked up the Jessica Biel-produced Last Summer, an unconventional thriller that takes place over three summers — 1993-95 — in a small Texas town. The plotline:  "When a beautiful popular teen, Kate (Mika Abdalla), is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia), goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by ’95, the most despised person in America."

BBC One has commissioned and set the cast for a new six-part thriller from the makers of Bodyguard. Vigil (working title) will tell the fictional story of how the disappearance of a Scottish fishing trawler and a death on-board a Trident nuclear submarine create conflict between the police, the Royal Navy, and intelligence services.

Acorn TV has acquired the North American rights to Channel 4’s David Tennant four-part drama, Deadwater Fell. Created and written by Daisy Coulam (Grantchester), Deadwater Fell centers on a Scottish community that is torn apart by mistrust and suspicion when a happy family is murdered by someone they know and trust. Tennant becomes a prime suspect in the investigation.

CBS’s FBI and FBI: Most Wanted could be joined by another spinoff from executive producer Dick Wolf, who has always envisioned FBI as a franchise. Wolf, who is behind the formidable Law & Order and Chicago franchises said the FBI offers an "endless trove of stories." CBS and Wolf will likely start working on developing another FBI series next season.

Speaking of the current FBI franchises, FBI and FBI: Most Wanted are set for a crossover episode in the spring that would start in New York. Dick Wolf also hinted at potential crossovers with other series in the Wolf universe, such as Chicago PD, despite the fact that they are on a different network.

Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) is heading back to the courtroom to star in AMC’s upcoming legal thriller, 61st Street. He’ll play Franklin Roberts, a public defender in the twilight of his career who takes on the case of a lifetime: a promising, black high school athlete who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system when he is taken by the police as a supposed gang member and accused of the death of an officer during a drug bust gone wrong.

Hannibal star Hugh Dancy is joining The Good Fight's upcoming fourth season in a major recurring role. Dancy will play Caleb, a former military officer who now works as an associate at the huge multi-national law firm that has acquired Reddick Boseman & Lockhart. However, his wit and decency threaten to make him a better fit with Diane and Co. than the overlords.

Kurt Fuller will be returning as Woody in the second TV movie continuation of the USA series, Psych. Fuller's character, Dr. Woodrow Juniper "Woody" Strode, was introduced in Psych Season 4 as the SBPD's quirky coroner. The producers also announced that Allison Miller, James Roday, Sarah Chalke, Kadeem Hardison, and Richard Schiff have also been added to the cast.

Netflix has ordered a 10-episode third season of its hit stalker-drama series, You, based on Caroline Kepnes’s bestselling books, for premiere in 2021.

Showtime has opted not to proceed with spy thriller Intelligence, from The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal. Intelligence was to be based on real stories from around the world, exploring the secret inner workings of power – how espionage intersects with politics, finance, media and Silicon Valley. 

Meanwhile, another Showtime project, the Ray Donovan series, is nearing the end of its run, according to Showtime’s Co-President of Entertainment, Gary Levine. Levine added that Showtime is expected to make a decision on the future of the Liev Schreiber-fronted show "in the next few weeks" but hinted that it is set to return for an eighth and final season.

Netflix has released the cast of Mindhunter from their contracts, although the show has not been cancelled and co-executive producer David Fincher has the option of producing a third season in the future. The project is based on the best-selling true-crime nonfiction book, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The first two seasons starred Holt McCallany, Jonathan Groff, and Anna Torv as fictionalized versions of key people behind the formation of the FBI team and included depictions of some of America’s worst serial killers and their crimes.

ITV and BritBox’s long-running detective drama, Vera, is returning for an 11th season. The show stars Brenda Blethyn as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, a middle-aged employee of the Northumberland & City Police, who plods along in a disheveled state but has a calculating mind. The series is based on novels by British crime writer, Ann Cleeves.

Starz has opened talks to order a second season of the gritty crime drama, Dublin Murders, adapted from Tana French’s crime thrillers featuring the Dublin Murder Squad. The show stars Killian Scott as Rob Reilly, a smart-suited detective whose English accent marks him as an outsider, who is dispatched to investigate the murder of a young girl on the outskirts of Dublin with his partner, Cassie Maddox, played by Sarah Greene.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Monocle Magazine's Meet the Writer podcast welcomed bestselling UK crime author, Sophie Hannah, who has taken up where Agatha Christie left off by continuing the stories of Hercule Poirot.

Debbi Mack, host of the Crime Cafe podcast, welcomed crime writer Blaine Pardoe to the show.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham chatted about Dublin Murders, the TV adaptation of In the Woods and The Likeness by Tana French (see the TV listings above).

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Jess Montgomery about the latest installment in her historical procedural series featuring Sheriff Lily Ross.

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is up, featuring the first chapter of A Legacy of Murder by Connie Berry, read by actor Ariel Linn.

Dr. DP Lyle's Criminal Mischief podcast tackled the topics of toxicology and poisons in the first of a two-part series on the subject.

Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, answered questions about suspects seeking sanctuary in a church, off-site offices, and what a homicide scene looks like the day after the police leave.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Bookclub spoke with Rachel Monroe, a writer and volunteer firefighter living in Marfa, Texas, about her book, Savage Appetites, which takes a look at the appeal of true crime through four narratives of fixation.

Scott Montgomery led a discussion of private detective fiction with a panel of authors, historians, and editors including Matt Coyle, Tim Maleeny, Laura Oles, Tim Bryant, Billy Kring, and Jeff Vorzimmer, on the Mystery People's latest podcast.


THEATRE

Calgary, Canada's Vertigo Theatre Mystery Series is presenting Whispers in the Dark beginning January 25. Based on the short story, "A Pair of Hands" by Arthur Quiller Couch, the play centers on Miss Elizabeth Le Petyt, an aspiring author, who ventures to Cornwall to escape her hectic London life. The cottage she chooses has a mysterious past, and seems like the perfect inspiration for her writing. However, misplaced items, inexplicable events and whispers in the dark disrupt her solace, and have her questioning her sanity. 

An adaptation of Kay Mellor’s classic ITV drama, Band of Gold, is heading to the Darlington Hippodrome in the UK on January 27. The story revolves around a group of women - Carol, Rose, Anita and Gina - and tells the story of how a young mother is drawn into the notorious red-light district where a killer is on the loose.

Cleveland, Ohio's Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square will present Clue on January 25. Based on the popular mystery board game, the play sees murder and blackmail are on the menu when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they’ll never forget.

American Son is headed to the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, on January 22. Set in a Miami-Dade police station in the middle of the night, a mother is hunting for answers about her missing teenage son. Soon her husband appears, and the evening spirals out of control.

Joseph Kesselring's iconic play, Arsenic and Old Lace, will be presented at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in La Mirada, California, with a run beginning on January 24. Abby and Martha Brewster are two spinster sisters known for their acts of charity – which lately includes poisoning lonely, old men with their homemade arsenic-laced elderberry wine.

When An Inspector Calls heads to the UK's Milton Keynes Theatre on January 21. Based on JB Priestley’s classic thriller, the story follows Inspector Goole, who arrives unexpectedly at the prosperous Birling family home and shatters their peaceful dinner party with his investigations into the death of a young woman.

Tom Chambers stars as Tony Wendice, a jaded ex-tennis pro who has given it all up for his wife Margot, in Dial M for Murder (made famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1950 film) at the Norwich Theatre Royal beginning January 21. When Tony discovers Margot has been unfaithful, his mind turns to revenge and the pursuit of the "perfect crime."

The Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach will present The 39 Steps with an opening date of January 21. Based on the novel by John Buchnan, the play is a fast-paced whodunit filled with nonstop laughs and over 150 characters (played by four actors).

The humorous whodunnit musical, Curtains, will head to the Sunderland Empire Theatre in the UK on January 21. The star of the new Broadway-bound musical, Robbin Hood, has been murdered on stage on opening night, and the entire cast and crew are suspects. Time to call in the local detective, Frank Cioffi, who just happens to be a huge musical theatre fan.

British director-choreographer, Melly Still, is set to direct a production of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack’d, "re-contextualised for an Indian audience" by writer Ayeesha Menon. The play will be staged at the NCPA in Mumbai between January 30 and February 9.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

AWARDS

The nominations for the 92nd annual Academy Awards were revealed early this morning. Crime dramas are represented by Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (Best Picture; Best Director: Quentin Tarantino; Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino); Best Actor: Leonardo DiCpaprio); Joker (Best Adapted Screenplay: Todd Phillips & Scott Silver); Best Picture; Best Director: Todd Phillips; Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix); The Irishman (Best Picture; Best Director: Martin Scorsese; Best Supporting Actor: Al Pacino and Joe Pesci; Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve Zaillian); and Knives Out (Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson).

The British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) nominations (easy at-a-glance list here) were announced last Tuesday amidst some controversy over the lack of diversity. The nods for crime dramas included most of the same entities that have swept the other awards thus far, including The Irishman (Best Director, Best Supporting Actor), Joker (Best Director, Best Actor), and Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor). One new addition is Margot Robbie, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sharon Tate in Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. Rian Johnson (Knives Out) and Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood) also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay, and Steven Zaillian (The Irishman) and Todd Phillips, Scott Silver (Joker) for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Crime dramas honored by the Writers Guild of America in their list of nominations for the year's best films include Knives Out, written by Rian Johnson for Best Original Screenplay and The Irishman (screenplay by Steven Zaillian, based upon the book, I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brand) and Joker (written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver, based on Characters from DC Comics) for Best Adapted Screenplay. Because of WGA rules, the Quentin Tarantino-penned Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood wasn't eligible for Original Screenplay.

The Directors Guild Award television nominations included Ava DuVernay (When They See Us), and Vince Gilligan (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) in the Movies for TV and Limited Series category.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Writer-director Rian Johnson is already working on a follow-up to his hit original whodunit, Knives Out, lining up a potential franchise for Lionsgate. Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter at a Lionsgate's pre-Golden Globes party that he was developing a sequel centered on Daniel Craig's Southern detective Benoit Blanc investigating a new case. The filmmaker added that he was eager to make the pic quickly, ideally in the next year.

The X-Men's Nicholas Hoult will join Tom Cruise in the upcoming Mission: Impossible sequel, according to director Christopher McQuarrie via Instagram. His exact role is unknown, but Hoult is expected to play a villain. Cruise is reprising his role as the globe-trotting secret agent, Ethan Hunt, in the seventh and eighth follow-ups, while McQuarrie is writing and directing both (and plans to shoot them back-to-back).

Protagonist Pictures has boarded world sales on Sundance-bound drama-thriller, Surge, starring Ben Whishaw. The film sees Whishaw as a man trapped in a soulless job, living a life devoid of emotion and meaning. After an impulsive act of rebellion, he unleashes a wilder version of himself and is propelled on a reckless journey though London, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has closed a deal for Clarice, a crime drama series project based on the iconic Thomas Harris character, Clarice Starling, which is set after the events in The Silence Of the Lambs. The project, written and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, has received a "big series commitment" and is described as "a deep dive into the untold personal story of Clarice Starling, as she returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C."

Synchronicity Films has optioned Craig Russell’s "Lennox" book series and will adapt the period Scotland-set thrillers for TV, with Robert Murphy (DCI Banks, Inspector George Gently, Vera) attached to handle the adaptation. The series is set in tough inner-city Glasgow in the 1950s where the titular Lennox is a private eye billed as "a damaged man in a hard city at a hard time" who finds himself caught between three Glasgow crime bosses.

Legendary Television has closed a deal to develop the Jonathan Lethem novel, Gun, for a TV series. Johan Renck, coming off his Emmy-winning work on the acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl, has been set to direct and will also serve as executive producer with David Flebotte (The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire), who’ll be the showrunner.

The first trailer dropped for Season 4 of Fargo on FX featuring Chris Rock as the head of a 1950s-era crime syndicate in Kansas City. It was also announced last week that Yellowstone's Kelsey Asbille has also recently been added in a key role in the upcoming fourth installment of the network’s anthology series.

FX has also set premiere dates for the spring, including the limited series, Devs (March 4), about a young software engineer who investigates her boyfriend's apparent suicide only to discover a technology-based conspiracy that could change the world, and Fargo’s much-anticipated return for a fourth installment on Sunday, April 19 at 10 p.m.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts, Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, featured their annual look at the Bad Sex Awards (previous nominees have included Stephen King, George Pelecanos, and Lee Child).

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover featured Tosca Lee to chat about A Single Light, book two in the "Line Between" series.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, welcomed Libby Klein to talk about her Poppy McAllister series and cozy mysteries in general.

Writers Detective Bureau host, Det. Adam Richardson, offered up a tip on a great new forensic science resource and answered questions about getting a warrant signed by a judge and the realities of knock and notice.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Bella Ellis, author of the recently released novel, Vanished Bride. The story sets Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë as detectives investigating the disappearance of a young wife and mother.

THEATRE

The Good Company Players are presenting Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure on stage at the 2nd Space Theatre in Fresno, California. The Steven Dietz adaptation of the 1899 William Gillette play (which introduced the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” which was not in the original stories) blends a lot of the Irene Adler story of "A Scandal in Bohemia” with the schemes of the nefarious Moriarty from "The Final Problem." (HT to Kings River Life)

A production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is heading to the Court Theater in Chicago on January 16. The classic tale centers on a group of strangers - one of whom is a murderer - stranded in a boarding house during a snow storm.

The Genesian Theatre Company in Sydney, Australia will stage The Ladykillers with opening night on January 18. Adapted by Graham Linehan from an Ealing comedy-mystery film, the play centers on a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing.
 

The New Wimbledon Theatre is the latest stop for a touring UK production of the John Kander/Fredd Ebb/Rupert Holmes musical mystery, Curtains, opening January 14. Local detective, Frank Cioffi, is called in when Jessica Cranshaw, star of the new Broadway-bound musical, Robbin Hood, has been murdered on stage on opening night.

On January 14 at the Richmond Theatre in London, Dial M for Murder will have its opening night. Made famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s world-renowned film of 1950, the drama centers around a husband who plans "the perfect crime" when he suspects his wife of being unfaithful.

Media Murder for Monday

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

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out the Golden Globe Awards last evening. Crime drama winners include Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood (Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy; Brad Pitt for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical or Comedy; and Best Screenplay); and Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Joker. On the TV side, Patricia Arquette won the Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series for The Act, based on the real life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

The American Society of Cinematographers on Friday revealed its nominees in the Theatrical and Spotlight categories for the 34th ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards. The nods include crime dramas The Irishman (Rodrigo Prieto) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Robert Richardson).

Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman also won Best Picture at the 24th annual The International Film Festival in Italy. The Netflix mob epic scored six overall wins at the just-ended festival, tied for the most with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino won Best Director at the fest, which also awarded Joe Pesci (The Irishman) Supporting Actor.

The Woman in the Window, adapted from the bestselling novel by AJ Finn, has experienced a few bumps during the production process. Most recently, Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor, and his creative partner Atticus Ross were on board to score the film until negative test screening reactions led to extensive reshoots and "the filming becoming something brand new altogether." Danny Elfman (Batman, Dumbo) has apparently taken over scoring duties on the project, which is directed by Joe Wright and stars Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Julianne Moore, Brian Tyree Henry, and Wyatt Russell.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy-, SAG-, and Golden Globe-winning thriller series, Killing Eve, has been renewed for a fourth season, months before the third season premieres this spring on BBC America. The fourth iteration will continue the show's tradition of passing the torch to a new female showrunner each season — from Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Season 1, to Emerald Fennell in Season 2, to Suzanne Heathcote in Season 3, and to a writer still to be determined in the fourth. Killing Eve stars Sandra Oh as MI5 agent Eve Polastri and reigning Best Actress Emmy winner Jodie Comer as assassin Villanelle, a duo who get caught in an obsessive cat-and-mouse pursuit. Season 3 is adding Dame Harriet Walter, Danny Sapani, and Gemma Whelan to the cast, among others

Amazon has released the official trailer and set Friday, February 21 for the premiere of Hunters, its highly-anticipated conspiracy thriller series starring Al Pacino and executive produced by Jordan Peele. Created by David Weil (Moonfall), Hunters follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. "The Hunters," as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team of Hunters will set out on a bloody quest to bring the Nazis to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham celebrated the new year on the Read or Dead podcast by talking about some of the books they are excited to pick up in the first half of 2020.

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is a special bonus episode featuring the first chapter of "Ghost Busting Mystery," the first book in the Shady Hoosier Detective Agency series by Daisy Pettles. The program was a shared recording of the first chapter from the new podcast, Daisy Pettles Crime Comedy, which features the entire book.

On season five, episode sixteen of Crime Cafe, Debbi Mack interviewed Cathi Stoler, author of the Laurel and Helen New York Mysteries.

Meet the Thriller Writer welcomed New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, who broke into television writing with a freelance script sale to Spenser: For Hire and has since penned numerous TV programs and more than thirty novels, including Killer Thriller and True Fiction.

The latest Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast episode featured "The Engineer’s Thumb" by Terence Faherty, who is the author of two popular novel series, the Edgar-nominated Owen Keane mysteries and the multiple Shamus Award-winning Scott Elliott private eye series.


THEATRE

The UK's Cambridge Arts Theatre will present My Cousin Rachel from January 13 to 18. The adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's psychological thriller sees feverish passion battling reason in a classic Gothic romance set in the wild, rock-ribbed landscape of the Cornish coast.

The Ken Ludwig adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express will ride into the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on January 14. Detective Hercule Poirot has to solve a murder on a snowbound train where all the passengers are suspects.


The Long Beach Playhouse will stage another Agatha Christie play, The Unexpected Guest, beginning January 11. Lost in the fog, a stranger seeks refuge in a nearby house, only to find a man shot dead and his wife standing over him with a smoking gun. Remarkably under the circumstances, the police suspect a man who died two years previously, leading to a tangled web of lies that reveals family secrets and chilling motives.

The Off-Broadway TBG Mainstage in New York will present 17 Minutes January 10 through February 15. In the aftermath of a school shooting, Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Rubens must come to terms with the choices he made during the tragedy.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup (shortened due to the holiday) of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

The Chicago Indie Critics announced their nominees for the group’s fourth annual film awards, with Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women leading with eight nominations. Crime dramas also received a lot of love, including The Irishmen (Best Big Budget Film; Adapted Screenplay; Al Pacino and Joe Pesci for Supporting Actor; and Best Ensemble Cast); Knives Out (Best Big Budget Film; Original Screenplay; Best Ensemble), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Big Budget Film)

Zachary Levi (Shazam) is joining Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley, and Tahar Rahim in Prisoner 760, a true-life legal drama being directed by Kevin Macdonald. Billed as a fight for survival against impossible odds, Prisoner 760 tells the true tale of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (whose memoir the film is based on), a man who was captured by the U.S. government and held for years in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial. Slahi finds unlikely allies in defense attorneys Nancy Hollander and her associate Teri Duncan (played by Foster and Woodley, respectively) and a military prosecutor named Lt. Stuart Couch (Cumberbatch). Levi will play an old friend of the prosecutor's, a federal agent by the name of Neil Buckland.

STXfilms has released a new trailer for Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen. Matthew McConaughey stars as American expat Mickey Pearson, who built a highly profitable marijuana empire in London. When word gets out he’s looking to cash out of the business forever it triggers plots, schemes, bribery, and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Amazon Studios has put in development Mastermind, a crime drama series based on Evan Ratliff’s critically praised book, The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal, with writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917) set to pen the adaptation. Mastermind is the true-life story of Paul Le Roux, an unassuming former programmer who built a sophisticated globe-spanning criminal empire until he was taken down by his own lieutenant and the DEA. Le Roux eventually became one of the biggest criminal informants in DEA and FBI history.

Korean actor Jung Woo-sung is to exec produce a mystery sci-fi thriller for Netflix titled The Silent Sea. The project is set in a precarious future where Earth is running out of water and follows a group of elite scientists who set off for the moon to retrieve some unidentified samples from an abandoned research station. The drama is based on the eponymous 2014 short film directed by Choi Hang-yong, who will also direct the Netflix series.

Wondering when some of your favorite shows will be returning to the airwaves with new episodes for the midseason? Deadline has a handy list that also includes new dramas: Deputy (January 2 on Fox); The Brokenwood Mysteries (January 6 on Acorn); FBI: Most Wanted (January 7 on CBS); Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (January 10 on NBC); 9-1-1: Lone Star (January 15 on Fox); Tommy (February 6 on CBS); Briarpatch (February 6 on USA Network); and For Life (February 11 on ABC).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The most recent Speaking of Mysteries podcast welcomed author Alan Furst to discuss his new historical espionage novel, Under Occupation, set during the German Occupation of Paris.

This week on The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, Adam answered your questions about: your one free phone call, obtaining video evidence, and notifying victims of an offender’s release from custody.

The latest Spybrary podcast featured reviews of A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré and quick reviews from Spybrary listeners on the books they love (and hate!).

THEATRE

The Anne L. Bernstein Theater in New York City continues its production of Perfect Crime, the longest-running play in NYC history. Perfect Crime is a funny and romantic thriller about a psychiatrist who may have killed her husband - but then why is he still alive? It's billed as "a great time at the theater for fans of Law & Order, CSI, and Investigation Discovery who think they can solve the 'perfect crime.'"

The Asolo Repertory Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts in Sarasota, Florida, is presenting Ken Ludwig's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, from January 8 to March 8. With a locomotive full of suspects and alibis for each one, it's the perfect mystery for infamous detective Hercule Poirot.

Media Murder for Monday

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

Five-time Emmy-winner Kelsey Grammer, Thomas Jane, and Denise Richards have signed on to co-star opposite Adam Copeland in the heist thriller, Money Plane, directed by Andrew Lawrence. Co-written by Lawrence and Tim Schaaf, the indie follows a professional thief (Copeland) who must rob an underworld criminal casino on an airplane to settle a debt with his ruthless employer (Grammer). While the heist unfolds in midair, the second man on the ground (Jane) uncovers a sinister double cross that threatens everything.

Marisa Tomei has signed on to star alongside Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced in the Brian Andrew Mendoza-directed Netflix revenge feature, Sweet Girl. The story centers on a devastated husband (Momoa) who vows to bring justice to the people responsible for his wife’s death while protecting the only family he has left, his daughter (Merced). Also in the cast are Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Raza Jaffrey, Adria Arjona, Justin Bartha, Lex Scott Davis, Michael Raymond-James, Dominic Fumusa, Brian Howe, Nelson Franklin, and Reggie Lee. 

Shea Whigham (Detective Burke in Joker) is joining both Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8. Director Christopher McQuarrie teased the role he’ll play with the words: "You won’t see him coming," although there were no explanations as to whether he'll be playing for or against Ethan Hunt’s next missions.

Filming is underway on the European thriller A Perfect Enemy, starring Tomasz Kot (Cold War), Athena Strates (The Good Liar), Marta Nieto (Madre) and Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen). The English-language film is adapted from the novel Cosmétique de l’Ennemi by Amélie Nothomb, and follows a sophisticated and successful businessman who is approached in an airport by a chatty woman with sinister intentions. 

The trailer for The Woman in the Window was released last week. Based on A.J. Finn’s psychological suspense thriller, the film stars Amy Adams as an agoraphobic woman who can't convince anyone she's seen a woman murdered in the apartment across the street.

The first trailer dropped for Tenet, Director Christoper Nolan mysterious "mind-bending thriller game." Although few details have been released about the film, it stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh and is set in the world of "international espionage." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan teased that the film crosses multiple genres and is without a doubt the "most ambitious" project he and producer Emma Thomas have ever made. Tenet is due in theaters July 17, 2020.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Doctor Who and The Catch star John Simm will star in an adaptation of Peter James’ Roy Grace crime novels from Endeavour creator Russell Lewis for ITV. Grace will comprise two feature-length episodes and will be based on James’ first two Roy Grace books, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, which introduce Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a hard-working police officer who has given his life to the job. Simm, who also starred in HBO’s first Game of Thrones prequel pilot, will play the tenacious detective.

CBS has assembled an all-female creative team for Cold Shoulder, a cop drama from Nina Tassler and Gail Berman, Little Women producer Denise Di Novi, Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante and former CSI: New York showrunner Pam Veasey. Written by Veasey, Cold Shoulder is based on the novel of the same name by La Plante about a police officer unable to prevent the death of her partner in the line of duty who seeks help from a fellow detective as she attempts to pick up the pieces of her broken life.

The CW has put in development Infamous, an action-drama from writers George Northy (Charmed) and Darren Stein (Jawbreaker), and Mike Tollin and his Tollin Productions. The project is a take on the thrilling spy drama with a modern, satirical celebrity twist inspired by the true stories of world-famous actors, models, and musicians who moonlighted as spies for the Allied Forces in WWII (including Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr and Josephine Baker).

The classic 1989s buddy cop comedy feature Turner & Hooch is getting a TV series remake for Disney+ from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix and 20th Century Fox TV. Details about the series are scarce, but it is believed to be keeping the premise of the original movie, which starred Tom Hanks and revolved a police detective and his dog.

Oscar, Tony, and Emmy Award winner Viola Davis, Rob Morgan (Just Mercy), and Aisling Franciosi (The Fall) are set to co-star opposite Sandra Bullock in the life-after incarceration Netflix film from director Nora Fingscheidt and Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. Based on the 3-part British miniseries Unforgiven, the drama follows Ruth Slater (Bullock) who is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past. Facing severe judgment from the place she once called home, her only hope for redemption is finding the estranged younger sister she was forced to leave behind.

After taking over as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown and winning an Oscar for The Favourite, Olivia Colman is taking a far different turn to star as a killer in HBO and Sky's crime drama, Landscapers, written by her husband, Ed Sinclair. Landscapers is inspired by the true story of Susan and Christopher Edwards, a Mansfield, U.K., couple who were convicted in 2014 of killing Susan's parents and burying them in their back garden. The series is described as "a darkly comedic true-crime drama based on extensive research, hours of interviews, and direct access to the accused, who have always protested their innocence."

Karen Aldridge (The Get Down) is set as a series regular in the upcoming fourth installment of FX’s anthology series, Fargo, headlined by Chris Rock. Noah Hawley returns as director and showrunner for Season 4, which is set in 1950 in Kansas City, where two criminal syndicates — one Italian, led by Donatello Fadda, one African American, led by Loy Cannon (Rock) — have struck an uneasy peace.


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack interviewed Dexter crime writer Jeff Lindsay about his new series featuring master thief Riley Wolfe.

Writer Types welcomed guest co-host Wendy Heard (author of The Kill Club) for chats with John Vercher (Three-Fifths) and Tori Eldridge (The Ninja Daughter). Plus, there was a meeting of the Writer Types book club with Dan & Kate Malmon.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham got into the holiday spirit by reading some holiday mystery books.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro spoke with Charles Salzberg about his Swann novels and Second Story Man.

Ellison Cooper was the special guest on It Was a dark and Stormy Book Club, discussing the suspense thriller, Buried, an FBI neuroscientist is on the trail of a serial killer who's turned up the heat on a cold case.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

AWARDS

The Screen Actors Guild announced their nominations for the best performances of 2019. On the movie side, crime dramas were represented by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt for Best Actor in a Drama and Best Supporting Actor, respectively (Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood) and also Supporting Actor nods to Al Pacino and Joe Pesci for The Irishman. The Outstanding Cast nominations (the SAG equivalent of Best Picture) also included Once... and The Irishman. On the TV side, Mahershala Ali was a Best Dramatic Actor nominee for True Detective, along with Jharrel Jerome for When They See Us, while Jodie Comer was nominated for her leading role in Killing Eve. Plus, the Best Ensemble nods for TV Series included Big Little Lies.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Jesse Eisenberg is starring in and exec producing the independent thriller, Wild Indian, written and directed by Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. The story follows two Anishinaabe men who are inextricably bound together after covering up the savage murder of a schoolmate. After years of separation following wildly divergent paths, they must finally confront how their traumatic secret has irrevocably shaped their lives. Filling out the cast are Michael Greyeyes, Chaske Spencer, Kate Bosworth and Scott Haze.

Universal Pictures is developing Tapping the Source, based on the "surfer noir" novel by Kem Nunn. The story follows a man who heads to Huntington Beach to look for his missing sister and for the three men who may have murdered her⁠—a search that takes him on a journey through a twisted world of crazed Vietnam vets, sadistic surfers, drug dealers, and mysterious seducers.

Following an Emmy win for Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series (for Ozark), Jason Bateman has found his next feature film to direct. He’ll helm Shut In, the spec script by first-time screenwriter, Melanie Toast. The project is an edgy thriller in the vein of Panic Room, in which a single mother is held captive by her violent ex, with her two young children left at risk, and she must do everything to protect them and survive.

Hotel Mumbai director Anthony Maras is set to write and direct Peachtree, a ’70s true-crime saga about the spectacular rise and fall of Atlanta porn king Mike Thevis. Craving respectability, he sank millions into charities but ultimately was bought down in a web of murder, blackmail, arson, and extortion.

Bella Thorne is set as the lead in Masquerade, a home invasion thriller which Shane Dax Taylor will direct and write. The project follows 11-year-old Casey (Alyvia Alyn Lind of Daybreak and The Young and the Restless) who must survive the night after a group of intruders, led by Rose (Thorne), break into her family’s home to steal priceless artwork. The thieves will stop at nothing to get what they want, with shocking developments.

The Film Noir Foundation will present a dark holiday classic from south of the border, Roberto Gavaldon's La Otra /The Other (1946), on Wednesday, December 18. The event will also mark the reveal of the full schedule for Noir City International II, a program of noir from around the globe, coming January 24–February 2 to the majestic Castro Theatre in San Francisco. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Nashville exec producer Steve Buchanan has teamed up with Synchronicity Films, producer of Jenna Coleman-fronted BBC drama The Cry, for a music-centered mystery thriller. Set in a small Scottish village, the eight-part series begins after the body of a local musician is discovered in the harbor opposite the local village pub, and will feature original songs from a variety of styles including Scottish contemporary folk music and American tracks.

HBO Europe has picked up the Polish crime series The Thaw from the writer behind The Border. The six-part series follows a female police officer⁠—a single mom trying to balance life and work, who is confronted with the case of her life after the body of a young, unidentified woman is discovered under melting ice after the spring thaw.

Roma Maffia and Tony nominee Daniel Breaker are set for recurring roles in the upcoming fifth season of Billions, Showtime’s Wall Street thriller series starring Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. Maffia will play Mary Ann Gramm, the smart and tough Manhattan District Attorney, while Breaker is recurring as Scooter Dunbar, the brilliant and locked-down Chief of Staff of business titan Michael Prince (Corey Stoll).

ABC has canceled the crime drama Reef Point, starring Poppy Montgomery, after just one season. In the hour-long drama, Montgomery played Cat Chambers, a thief-turned-fixer for the governor of a Pacific Island paradise. The show premiered in June and was based on an idea of Montgomery’s, with former Numb3rs showrunner Ken Sanzel attached to write and executive produce alongside Montgomery. Reef Break also starred Ray Stevenson, Desmond Chiam, Melissa Bonne, and Tamela Shelton.

Discovery and Channel 4 are teaming up to co-produce a U.S. version of the hit British documentary series 24 Hours In Police Custody. ITV Studios-owned production company The Garden Productions has been working on the show for a number of months after securing access to the Kansas City Police Department


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest guest on Meet the Thriller Author, hosted by Alan Petersen, was Diana Xarissa, author of the Aunt Bessie Mysteries, the Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery novellas, the Isle of Man Romances, and her new series, the Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy mysteries.

The most recent Mysteryrats Maze podcast featured the Christmas mystery short story, "Crime Dog On the Road," written by mystery author Neil S. Plakcy, as read by actor Thomas Nance.

On the Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, host and veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson discussed how human resources at a police department would handle confidentiality of a transsexual employee, poking plot holes through the movie Inside Man, and handling romance while undercover. 

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with author Jess Walter, who discussed writing non-fiction, his evolving catalog of novels, NOT getting drunk with Jonathan Tropper, what it means to be "writer famous," and shared a little about his journey as a writer.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed bestselling author Rebecca Cantrell, whose novels have won the ITW Thriller, the Macavity, and the Bruce Alexander awards.

The Crime Time podcast covered small-town gossip, social media and murder, Christmas gift ideas, and more.

Media Murder for Monday

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

Yes, it's the start of cinema awards season again, beginning with the 2019 New York Film Critics Circle winners, announced last week. Martin Scorsese's mob drama, The Irishman, was named Best Film, while Joe Pesci won Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie. The brother team of Josh and Benny Safdie won Best Director nods for the heist drama, Uncut Gems; and Quentin Tarantino won Best Screenplay for Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.

Likewise, the Los Angeles Film Critics Award winners were announced yesterday, with The Irishman winning the Runner-up Best Picture nod (with Martin Scorsese landing Runner-up Best Director for the film), behind the South Korean film, Parasite (Best Picture and Director). Actor Joe Pesci was also the Runner-up winner for his supporting role in The Irishman.

The 25th annual Critics Choice Association’s (formerly the Broadcast Film Critics Association) Critics’ Choice Awards nominations, also announced yesterday, includes Best Picture nods for The Irishman and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, with Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino picking up Best Director nominations, respectively. Best Acting nominations included The Irishman (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Best Ensemble); Once Upon a Time (Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Julia Butters, and Best Ensemble), as well as a Best Ensemble nod to Knives Out. 

The Golden Globe nominations were announced earlier today, and The Irishmen continued its award season accolades with a nod for Best Drama, while Knives Out and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood were both nominated in the Best Comedy/Musical category. Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino were also Best Director nominees for Irishman and Once Upon a Time. Acting-wise, Knives Out had two nominees, Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas; "Once" had two, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt; and The Irishman, two, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. For all the nominees in the various categories, follow this link.

After first  releasing a teaser for the trailer, the official trailer dropped for No Time to Die, the latest⁠—and last⁠—outing for Daniel Craig as James Bond. The movie is expected to hit theaters on April 10th.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Golden Globe television nominee lists included several crime dramas in various categories, namely Big Little Lies, Killing Eve, Mr. Robot, Unbelievable, The Spy, and The Act.

The 25th annual Critics Choice Association’s Critics’ Choice Awards nominations, includes nods to The Good Fight (Best Drama); plus acting nominations for Christine Baranski, Delroy Lindo, and Audra McDonald (The Good Fight); Jodie Comer (Killing Eve); Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, and Meryl Streep (Big Little Lies), Mahershala Ali (True Detective); Jesse Plemons (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie).

Indie feature studio Roadside Attractions continues its foray into scripted television by acquiring Robert Dugoni’s bestselling spy thriller, The Eighth Sister, to develop as a TV drama. Set in present-day US and Russia, The Eighth Sister (the first book in a planned series), follows Charles Jenkins, a long-retired African American CIA case-officer who is re-engaged by his former bureau chief to run a top-secret mission in current day Moscow—only to find himself running for his life and possibly betrayed by his own country.

ABC has given a put-pilot commitment with penalty to ISB (working title), a one-hour crime drama from Kevin Costner, Aaron Helbing, A+E Studios, and 20th Century Fox TV. Written and executive produced by Costner and Helbing, ISB follows the elite special agents of the Investigative Services Branch who are tasked with solving the most complex and heinous crimes committed within the National Parks of the ISB’s Pacific West region.

Fox has put into development a remake of the British crime drama, Silent Witness, to star Melissa Leo, who will exec produce alongside Outlander writer Joy Blake and Kim and Eric Tannenbaum. Silent Witness is a long-running legal drama, airing on the BBC since 1996. It follows two determined women with conflicting methodologies working for the Chief Medical Examiner in the shadow of a major departmental scandal involving corruption at the highest levels. 

Spanish crime thriller, The Room, is set for a UK adaptation. The series follows Yago Costa, who was considered a top-notch police detective until he committed murder. Now, he is in prison and aims to tell the world why he did it. He’s counting on help from Sara, a young and ambitious journalist to whom he gives his exclusive story, but she has to decide if she's willing to put her own life in danger to get to the truth—and, ultimately, whether she can trust him.

BBC Studios has secured its first commission from Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, a noir thriller from The Spanish Princess and Mr. Selfridge writer Kate O’Riordan. The six-part series is set on the rugged coast of County Clare where a wife investigates the brutal death of her husband who is found dead at the foot of a cliff the morning after a family party. As she unravels the circumstances that led to his demise, she discovers how his controlling, manipulative behavior impacted their children and his siblings and comes to the shocking realization one of them may have been driven to murder.

HBO has greenlighted The White House Plumbers, a five-part limited series starring Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux, which revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history. The project is based in part on public records and Integrity, the book by Egil "Bud" Krogh and Matthew Krogh. The series tells the true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), accidentally toppled the Presidency they were zealously trying to protect.

Greg Silverman’s Stampede Ventures has acquired best-selling author Max Seeck’s thriller novel, The Faithful Reader (to be published as The Witch Hunter in the  U.S.), for a TV series adaptation. The story follows Detective Jessica Niemi, who is called to investigate an extraordinary murder case. The wife of a famous writer, Roger Koponen, seems to have been killed in a bizarre ritual. As more ritual murders occur, it becomes obvious that Jessica is after a serial killer. But the murders are not random – they follow a pattern taken from Roger’s bestselling trilogy. Has a fan gone mad, or is this case more personal? How can Jessica stop a criminal who knows every detail of the book even better than the author?

Gal Gadot will produce a U.S. adaptation of the Israeli crime drama Queens for Endemol Shine. The most-watched series of 2018 for the Israeli network HOT, Queens follows the women of the Malka family who must band together after all the Malka men are murdered by a rival crime syndicate. Thrust into a life that they did not choose or necessarily want, the women realize they can finally control their own destinies and respond to each other and the world around them as complete individuals, all while trying to stay alive.

Wild Sheep Content is teaming with France’s Studio Reaz to adapt Marked for Life, the debut novel by Scandinavian crime writer Emelie Schepp. The story centers on Jana Berzelius, a young, brilliant but emotionally stunted Swedish prosecutor, who was adopted as a child and can’t remember anything about her life before the age of nine. While investigating the death of a prominent figure in her community, she follows a trail that leads to a dead young boy who has a tattoo on the back of his neck similar to Jana’s, further deepening the mystery. 

BBC One has commissioned a legal drama, Showtrial, a six-part series about a murder trial that explodes in the national consciousness. The project follows Talitha Campbell, the arrogant daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur, who is put on trial following the disappearance of fellow student, Hannah Ellis, the hard-working daughter of a single mother. Showtrial follows both sides of the argument from the point of arrest to the verdict, with the nation gripped by the details of the case, which touches on wealth, politics and prejudice.

The primary cast is set for Netflix's eight-episode thriller series, Clickbait, which "explores the ways in which our most dangerous and uncontrolled impulses are fueled in the age of social media and reveals the ever widening fractures we find between our virtual and real-life personas." Zoe Kazan stars as Pia Brewer, a young woman desperate for answers in the search for her missing brother, a case that has become a media sensation. Betty Gabriel and Adrian Grenier will play Pia's family members, while Phoenix Raei plays a detective with the Oakland Police Department who finds himself at the center of a media storm as he investigates this case.

Natalie Martinez, Brian Geraghty, Genesis Rodriguez, and Keilani Arellanes have joined Kiefer Sutherland and Boyd Holbrook in Quibi’s The Fugitive, a new take on the 1993 Harrison Ford film that was in turn based on the 1960s TV series. This version of the story centers on Mike Russo (Holbrook), a blue-collar worker who just wants to make sure his wife and 10-year-old daughter are safe when a bomb rips through the Los Angeles subway train he’s riding on. When Mike is wrongfully blamed, he must prove his innocence by uncovering the real perpetrator, before the legendary Detective Clay Bryce (Sutherland) who's heading the investigation can apprehend him. 

CBS has put in development Truth & Justice, a crime drama from one of its top drama showrunners, Peter Lenkov (Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, Magnum P.I.), as well as The Oath creator Joe Halpin and The Dirt author Neil Strauss. The project revolves around a disgraced cop-turned-PI and a down-and-out journalist, both seeking redemption, who team up and use nothing but their intellect, perseverance and profound empathy to dive deep into the lives of victims and perpetrators to deliver the justice that is so desperately needed in an otherwise flawed system.

The BBC One murder-mystery drama, Shetland, is to return for two more series. Based on the crime novels of Ann Cleeves, series six and seven will be filmed in 2020 and 2021 for six, hour-long episodes in each season. Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall as Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez, debuted on BBC One back in 2013.

Briana Cuoco, sister of The Flight Attendant star and executive producer Kaley Cuoco, has been tapped for a recurring role on the upcoming HBO Max series. The Flight Attendant centers on Cassie (Kaley), a flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man—and no idea what happened. Briana will play Cecilia, a quirky and ambitious assistant who’s obsessed with organization and eavesdropping on calls.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is up, featuring the Christmas mystery short story "A Christmas Trifle" by Donna Andrews, read by actor Ariel Linn.

Special guest co-host Alafair Burke joined Eric Beetner on Writer Types to talk with authors Kate White and Steph Cha. Eric also spoke with four Australian authors on a tour of the United States: Emma Viskic, Sulari Gentill, Jock Serong, and Robert Gott.

Speaking of Eric Beetner, he was named on the latest episode of Frank Zafiro's Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast by guest Connie Irvine as one of the authors whose books you should get to know, along with Colin Conway and others.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about what mysteries they read this year that were their favorites.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed attorney J.K. Franko to talk about the first in The Talion Trilogy, Eye for Eye, which sees one couple take the law into their own hands with disastrous consequences.

Media Murder for Monday

I hope everyone had a thanks-filled weekend surrounded by family and friends! (And maybe some pie...)

Since it's the start of a new week, that means it's time for a brand-new (and slightly truncated) roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Warner Bros. has hired director Albert Hughes to helm a reboot of the 1993 crime drama, The Fugitive. The film is said to put a "new spin" on the original film starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones about an innocent man running from the law for murdering his wife. The film was in turn based on a 1963 TV series starring David Janssen and Barry Morse. (The Warner Bros project is not to be confused with the streaming service Quibi's reboot of The Fugitive, which stars Kiefer Sutherland and Boyd Holbrook in the story of a bomber attacking an LA subway station.)

Saban Films has acquired North American rights to Martin Owen’s Twist. The modern take on Charles Dickens’s classic, Oliver Twist, stars Academy Award-winner Michael Caine along with Lena Headey, Rita Ora, Raff Law, and Sophie Simnett. From a script written by John Wrathall and set in contemporary London, the story follows a gifted graffiti artist who is lured into a street gang headed by a father figure, Fagin, who plans a series of audacious art thefts. Also starring are Robert Glenister (Live By Night), George Russo (I Am Soldier) and Izuka Hoyle (Mary Queen of Scots).

Production is underway on the British drama, Here Before, the feature debut of writer and director Stacey Gregg. The psychological thriller stars Birdman's Andrea Riseborough as a bereaved mother who begins to question her reality when new neighbors move in next door.

Finn Wittrock has been added to the cast of Deep Water, the Adrian Lyne-directed thriller starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. The story is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and follows an attractive young married couple, Vic and Melinda Van Allen, whose mind games with each other take a twisted turn when people around them start turning up dead.

Vertigo Releasing has picked up the Craig Fairbrass-starring thriller, Villain, for UK and Ireland release. Villain follows Eddie Franks, a man who is released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence and attempts to help his family by reconnecting with his daughter and clearing his brother’s debt. Despite his best efforts, he finds himself drawn back into a life of crime, with devastating consequences.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Killing Eve director Shannon Murphy and Beatrix Christian (Picnic at Hanging Rock) are adapting Emily Bitto’s novel, The Strays, as a six-part TV series. Inspired by the Australian artist collective Heide Circle, The Strays explores what happens when a violent act in the past of a subversive group of artists is linked to the death of a young woman in the present.

Justified alum David Meunier is set for a recurring role in Marvel’s Helstrom, the forthcoming Hulu series based on the comic book. Helstrom follows Daimon and Ana Helstrom, played by Tom Austen and Sydney Lemmon, the son and daughter of a mysterious and powerful serial killer. Meunier will play Finn Miller, a part of a secret organization that handles work not for the faint of heart.

The Tony Award-winning actress Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit) has been cast in a recurring role in CBS’s upcoming midseason drama series, Tommy, as a sports agent. Tommy stars Edie Falco as Abigail "Tommy" Thomas, a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles.

HBO Max has picked the U.S. rights to the British crime drama, White House Farm, starring The Irishman’s Stephen Graham and Black ’47’s Freddie Fox. The six-part series is based on the true story of members of the same family who were murdered at an Essex farmhouse in 1985. Graham plays DCI "Taff" Jones and Fox plays the killer, Jeremy Bamber. Mark Addy, Gemma Whelan, Mark Stanley, Alexa Davies, Cressida Bonas, Alfie Allen, Amanda Burton, and Nicholas Farrell also star.

Amazon has ordered a second season of the Indian thriller, The Family Man. The series stars Manoj Bajpayee and Priyamani and tells the story of a middle-class man who secretly works as a spy for a branch of the National Investigation Agency while also dealing with a wife and two kids.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest Spybrary podcast featured a round table discussion about Agent Running In the Field by John le Carré.

On the Writers Detective Bureau, host and veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson tackled the topics of "Boot, Deconfliction, and Pending Further Leads."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed two authors to the show, Rosemary Simpson (the Gilded Age Mysteries) and Gilly Macmillan, whose first novel, What She Knew was an Edgar Award finalist.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Robocop Returns has landed director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters), who takes over from Neil Blomkamp after he exited the project in August. The film is being developed as a direct sequel to the original 1987 movie, and the original film's screenwriters, Ed Neumier and Michael Miner will be producing. The original Robocop (directed by Paul Verhoeven) centered on a police officer who, on death’s doorstep, is used as an experiment to create a new type of half man, half machine officer who struggles with resurfacing memories and corrupt city officials.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley has added Holt McCallany (Mindhunters) to the Fox Searchlight film's cast of Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, and Willem Defoe. Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, the project revolves around an ex-carnival con-man turned spiritualist (Cooper), who teams up with a female psychiatrist to scoop cash out of the wallets and lives of their wealthy marks with some less than holy moves – until things take a sour turn. McCallany will play Anderson, a get-the-job-done bruiser with more going on that is first apparent from his tough guy persona.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

NBC has put in development Escape, an action thriller drama based on the 2015 Russian series Quest, from Lucifer executive producer Jason Ning. In the story written by Ning, six complete strangers wake up on the roof of a building in San Francisco and are told they have 36 hours to live unless they can solve a series of deadly games set throughout the city.

ITV-owned producer Big Talk and British writer Sean Conway (Ray Donovan) are working on a drama adaptation of Tade Thompson’s African noir novel, Making Wolf (to be published in May 2020). The book tells the story of Weston Kogi, a London security guard who returns to his West African home country and thinks telling people he works as a homicide detective is harmless hyperbole. However, he is kidnapped and forced by two separate rebel factions to investigate the murder of a local hero, Papa Busi. Solving the crime may tip a country on the brink into civil war and cost Weston his life.

Harrison Ford is headed for the first regular television role of his career. The star of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark is attached to star in a series adaptation of The Staircase, detailing the trial of American novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife in 2001. Peterson claimed his wife died after falling down the stairs at their home, but police suspected he bludgeoned her to death and staged the scene to look like an accident. The project is currently being shopped to networks and streaming services.

Yorgos Lanthimos is set to direct an adaptation of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, in development at Fox Searchlight Television. Based on the best-selling book by Mark Seal, the limited series will tell the true story of Clark Rockefeller, a gregarious, successful, and mysterious descendant of the Rockefeller clan. When his wife Sandra begins to suspect that Clark isn’t who he says he is, his decades-long web of deception slowly begins to unravel.

Dr. Who and Good Omens star, David Tennant, is to play infamous Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen in the three-part ITV drama, Des. The project is based on the Brian Masters book, Killing For Company, in which the author cooperated with Nilsen to get inside the mind of a man who murdered at least 15 men and boys between 1978 and 1983 (Nilsen died in jail last year.) Joining Tennant is The Crown star Jason Watkins, who will play Masters, and Line Of Duty actor Daniel Mays, who features as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay.

Trainspotting and Broadwalk Empire actress, Kelly Macdonald, is to play the police officer suspected of corruption in season six of BBC One’s smash-hit crime drama, Line Of Duty. Macdonald will star as Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson, who draws the attention of anti-corruption unit AC-12 for her unconventional conduct during the investigation of an unsolved murder. Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar will return as the AC-12 officers investigating Macdonald’s character.

Quibi’s untitled action thriller starring Liam Hemsworth has added five new cast members: Jimmy Akingbola, Sarah Gadon, Zach Cherry, Christoph Waltz, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. The series from Scorpion creator Nick Santora follows Dodge Maynard (Hemsworth) who, out of desperation to take care of his pregnant wife before a terminal illness can take his life, accepts an offer to participate in a deadly game where he soon discovers that he’s not the hunter but the prey. Gadon is set to play Dodge’s wife Valerie, and Cherry will step into the role of Looger, Dodge’s best friend from childhood. Akingbola’s role is being kept under wraps.

Adam Rose and Taylor Black have been tapped for recurring roles opposite Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba on the upcoming second season of Spectrum’s action drama, L.A.’s Finest. Season one of the series follows Syd Burnett (Union), who was last seen in Miami taking down a drug cartel and left her complicated past to become an LAPD detective. Paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna (Alba), a working mom with an equally complex history, Syd was forced to confront how her unapologetic lifestyle was masking a greater personal secret.

The trailer has dropped for Dare Me, the USA Network program based on Megan Abbott’s 2012 novel of that same name. Dare Me, which will follow the lives of some competitive high school cheerleaders in "a small Midwestern town," is set to debut on December 29, with Abbott as one of its executive producers.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Harlan Coben spoke with France 24 about his books and how "writers never like to admit it but all lead characters are based on them."

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of "The Cupid Caper" by Larissa Reinhart, read by actor Teya Juarez.

Elizabeth Zelvin’s short story, "A Work In Progress" (from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: May/June 2019) is the current selection for the AHMM Podcast.

Writer Types welcomed three authors for an interview, Nicci French, Nick Kolakowski, and Trey R Barker.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham gave some recommendations of books you can pick up during the holiday season to gift to the people in your life — or just get for yourself.

Suspense Radio's Beyond The Cover welcomed as special guest, the international bestselling author, John Connolly, to chat about the latest in his Charlie Parker series, A Book of Bones.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack chatted with true crime writer and private investigator, Dennis N. Griffin, about his books and founding The Transparency Project.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with Lou Berney, author of November Road, which this year won the Anthony, Barry, Left Coast Crime, and Macavity Awards for Best Mystery Novel, as well as the Hammett Prize.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with John Glatt about his latest true crime book, The Family Next Door, which tells the horrific story of the Turpin Family.

The Crime Time podcast reviewed the film adaptation of Doctor Sleep; the book, The Lying Room by married-couple authors, Nicci French; and Andrew McGahan’s The Rich Man’s House.

The latest Partners in Crime episode discussed the Golden Age of crime fiction, the comeback of audio fiction, and more.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Beverly Hills Cop is returning after Paramount made a one-time license deal (with an option for a sequel) that will enable Netflix to make the fourth installment of the film with Eddie Murphy and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The studio had been developing a reboot for a while, and Netflix jumped at the chance for a potential big-star franchise.

John Woo’s forthcoming remake of his 1989 crime drama, The Killer, has had a bit of setback after star Lupita Nyong’o had to back out of the project. The iconic director note that it was a scheduling problem because "she’s so popular right now" and script rewrites had taken longer than expected, affecting the star's availability. Woo's project is still being planned as a gender-flipped take on the classic drama starring Chow Yun-fat.

Screen Gems has preemptively bought Reparations, a script by Jeff Howard and Andre Owens described as "an action heist movie interwoven with a socially conscious theme." Although some details of the plot are sketchy, here's the pitch: When a lost cache of Confederate gold falls into the wrong hands, an amateur crew comes together to get the gold and use it to fund long overdue reparations.

Shailene Woodley is set to star in the title role of Girl Named Sue, the true story of California DEA agent Sue Webber-Brown and her role in creating the Drug Endangered Child (DEC) protocol. Set in the in the ’90s at the height of the crystal meth crisis, Webber-Brown fights her way into the boys’ club of law enforcement where she takes it upon herself to help the small children overlooked during raids, a decision that will change her life forever.

Filming is underway on Deep Water, the first movie from Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne in almost two decades. Adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel, the story follows Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas who play Vic and Melinda Van Allen, an attractive young married couple whose mind games with each other take a twisted turn when people around them start turning up dead.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has put in development Borrowed Time, a drama from writer Amanda Green, Elizabeth Banks, and Max Handelman. Written by Green, Borrowed Time follows a cop who wakes up in the body of a stranger with no memory of who she is. The search for her identity is complicated by someone who is trying to kill the person whose life she is inhabiting. She prevents the murder, only to awaken in a different body with a new mystery to solve.

Fox has given a script commitment plus penalty to Sometimes I Lie, a limited series starring and executive produced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum, Sarah Michelle Gellar. The project, based on former BBC journalist Alice Feeney’s debut novel, stars Gellar as Amber Reynolds, who is in a coma. She can’t remember how she got there, but she knows it wasn’t an accident. Terrified and trapped in her own body, she tries to piece together her memories of the last week, knowing that someone is lying and that her life is still very much in danger.

Amazon Studios has picked up a fourth and final season of Goliath, its original legal drama series from David E. Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro that stars Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton won a Golden Globe for playing McBride, the hard-living, once-famous L.A. lawyer with a complicated past who seeks redemption by solving cases nobody else can crack.

Gary Oldman is to star in the spy drama, Slow Horses, for Apple's new digital TV serivce with Justified’s Graham Yost exec producing. Based on Mick Herron’s spy novels, the project features Jackson Lamb, a brilliant but irascible leader of a group of spies, who end up in MI5’s Slough House, having been exiled from the mainstream for their mistakes.

Don Johnson, set to reprise the title role in USA Network’s upcoming Nash Bridges revival, confirmed today that longtime co-star Cheech Marin will be back for the reboot reprising his role as Inspector Joe Dominguez. The original series, which ran on CBS from 1996 to 2001, starred Johnson as an investigator in an elite Special Investigations Unit of the San Francisco Police Department.

ITV has cancelled Rob Lowe’s British cop drama, Wild Bill, after just one season. The West Wing star played high-flying U.S. cop Bill Hixon, who was appointed Chief Constable of the East Lincolnshire Police Force in the UK.

The pilot for Last Summer, the Freeform thriller from Jessica Biel and and Michelle Purple, has assembled a strong cast including Michael Landes, Brooklyn Sudano, Harley Quinn Smith, Chiara Aurelia, Mika Abdalla, Froy Gutierrez, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, and Nathaniel Ashton. Last Summer is an unconventional thriller that actually takes place over three summers in the '90s in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate (Abdalla), is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette (Aurelia), goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by ’95, the most despised person in America.

Tamara Podemski is set to co-star in Run, HBO’s romantic comedic thriller pilot from Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her frequent collaborator Vicky Jones. Run centers on Ruby (Merritt Wever), a woman living a humdrum existence who one day gets a text inviting her to fulfill a youthful pact, promising true love and self-reinvention, by stepping out of her life to take a journey with her oldest flame. Podemski plays Babe, a soft-spoken police detective with a dry sense of humor, whose first big case offers her the chance to show off her genuinely good police skills and also meet someone who might change her life forever.

Austin Stowell is joining the upcoming streaming drama, The Old Man, as a series regular, playing a younger version of Jeff Bridges’ character Dan Chase. The series is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry and centers on the titular "old man" (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and now lives off the grid. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. Stowell’s story as the younger Dan Chase will take place thirty years prior to the events of the pilot, as he undertakes a dangerous mission against the backdrop of the Soviet-Afghan war.

Lorraine Toussaint, Chet Hanks, and Jimi Stanton are set to recur in Your Honor, Showtime’s limited series starring Bryan Cranston. Based on the Israeli drama format Kvodo, the legal thriller stars Cranston as a respected New Orleans judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices.

CBS will finally air a crossover between its Friday night, set-in-Hawaii dramas Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. Peter Lenkov, executive producer on both series, announced the crossover in an interview with TV Line, explaining that the story will involve the two sets of investigators converging on the same hotel. Lenkov described the event as "a big-stakes story that really feels like a two-hour movie." The episodes are set to air back-to-back on Friday, Jan. 3.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed Navada Barr, the award-winning novelist and New York Times best-selling author of the Anna Pigeon mysteries.

Dean Koontz was the guest on Meet the Thriller Author, discussing Nameless, his new series of short thrillers available for free to Prime and Kindle Unlimited members.

Write Place, Wrong Crime host, Frank Zafiro, chatted with John Sheppherd about his career in low budget movies, and his book Bottom Feeders, which is about a murder...on the set of a low budget movie.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts, Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, talked about the end of times; which crime writer they would like to team up with come the zombie apocalypse; trying not to slander Jeffery Archer; the vagaries of American toilets, and much more.

This week's topics on the Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, were "20BooksVegas, POIs and UNSUBs, and Wiretap Technicalities."

THEATRE

Baltimore, Maryland's Everyman Theatre continues its 2019/2020 season with Agatha Christie's famous whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express. Everyman's production, directed by Founding Artistic Director, Vincent M. Lancisi, was adapted by noted playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor; Crazy For You), and runs December 3, 2019, through January 5, 2020.