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:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Robert De Niro, Colson Baker, and John Malkovich are set to star in the action thriller, Wash Me In The River, which hopes to begin production in November. Randall Emmett is directing and producing the film that tells the story of an opioid addict out for revenge against the dealers who sold him drugs that caused the death of his fiancée—all while two cops are hot on his tail. Additional casting is underway, including rapper Quavo (of the group Migos), who is also in talks to join the cast.

Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman and Batwoman star Ruby Rose are leading the cast in George Gallo’s action-thriller, Vanquish, which is currently filming on location in Biloxi, Mississippi. Freeman plays a retired police commissioner who blackmails his caretaker (Rose) by kidnapping her daughter, forcing her into helping him double cross his team of dirty detectives in an attempt to clean up the city.

Donnie Yen is set to star in the action thriller, The Father, alongside Alec Baldwin and Frank Grillo. Tommy Wirkola (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters) will direct the film from a script by P. G. Cuschieri that’s described as "a fast-paced ode to ’80s action movies." Set against the Irish-American gangland of South Boston, the project charts the struggle of middle-class Hong Kong immigrant, John Chung (Yen), making the best of his family’s new American life while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s docklands. When his wayward teenage boys stumble upon four kilos of heroin, they’re hunted by a local crime ring and a group of corrupt cops. Forced to revive his past to protect his kin, John will stop at nothing until they are safe from harm.

Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Aksel Hennie (The Martian) have been set to co-star in director Tommy Wirkola’s Norwegian-language thriller, The Trip. The story follows a dysfunctional husband (Hennie) and wife (Rapace) who head to a remote lakeside cabin under the guise of reconnecting, but each has secret designs to kill the other. Before they can carry out their respective plans, unexpected visitors arrive and the couple is faced with a greater danger than anything they could have plotted.

Colson Baker (The Dirt) and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) are set to topline the action-thriller, One Way, which will be directed by Andrew Baird from a script by Ben Conway. One Way will follow Freddy (Baker) who goes on the run with a bag full of cash and cocaine after a robbery of his former crime boss goes wrong. Suffering a potentially fatal wound, he slips onto a bus headed into the unrelenting California desert. With his boss and her henchmen hot on his heels and his life slipping through his fingers, he is left with very few choices.

Harry Styles has landed a lead role in the New Line thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, the next directing outing for Olivia Wilde. Styles replaces Shia LaBeouf, who had to depart the project due to a scheduling conflict. Styles joins Florence Pugh and Chris Pine in the cast, both of whom signed on earlier this year. Although little is known about the movie’s plot, Don’t Worry, Darling is set in an isolated, utopian community in the 1950s California desert. Katie Silberman wrote the screenplay based on a spec script by Shane and Carey Van Dyke.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Amazon Prime Video is developing a scripted series starring Nicolas Cage as the infamous Joe Exotic, made a household name by the hugely popular Netflix docuseries, Tiger King. The project, which had been in the works at CBS TV Studios, is based on the Texas Monthly article "Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild," by Leif Reigstad. Now in prison after being sentenced to 22 years for his role in a murder-for-hire plot, Joe Exotic continues to make headlines.

Singer-songwriter, Halsey, will co-star opposite Sydney Sweeney in The Player’s Table, a TV series based on Jessica Goodman’s bestselling debut novel, They Wish They Were Us. The project is a taut murder mystery set against the backdrop of an exclusive prep school on Long Island.

Actors Gary LeRoi Gray and Dawn Richard have joined the cast of the limited series, Trace, for the new streaming service, VIM2Tv. The crime thriller is written by Anthony Bawn and based on the unsolved murders of a serial killer, The Doodler, in 1970's San Francisco.

Caleb Castille, who recurred as the character Devin Rountree in last season's NCIS: Los Angeles, has been promoted to series regular for Season 12 of the CBS series. After Castille’s Devin Rountree appears on the radar of NCIS’s Office of Special Operations, Agents G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) decide that he be may a fit for their tight-knit group.

A trailer was released for Rebecca, Ben Wheatley’s Netflix update on the 1938 Daphne Du Maurier novel first adapted by Alfred Hitchcock, which stars Armie Hammer, Lily James, and Kristin Scott Thomas.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Karin Slaighter joined WAMC's The Hudson River Sampler podcast to chat about her latest thriller, The Silent Wife.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "The Glass Slip Up," written by Chelle Martin and read by Sean Hopper.

Rhonda Evans and Frank Collerius, hosts of the New York Public LIbrary's podcast, The Librarian Is In, featured "a deep dive" into Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone were joined by John Connolly, author of the Charlie Parker series, chatting about his worst book events, his views on selfies, and how he met Stephen King.

Read or Dead talked about mysteries featuring technology and social media, along with some mixed feelings about adaptation news recently announced.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Thomas O’Callaghan, author of the series featuring NYPD Homicide Commander Lieutenant John W. Driscoll.

Oilvier Bosman was the special guest on The Gay Mystery Podcast, talking about his play, Death Takes a Lover, which was subsequently turned into the first D.S.Billings Victorian Mystery.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed August Norman to discuss Sins of the Mother, the second installment in the Caitlin Bergman mystery series.

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

After launching their careers together on Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie are reuniting on the spy thriller, Five Eyes. Ritchie will direct and produce the project about an an agent (Statham) recruited by the global intelligence alliance, "Five Eyes," to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapon that threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with a high-tech CIA expert, he sets off on a globe-trotting mission to infiltrate a billionaire arms broker's crime syndicate.

Amazon Studios, Skydance TV, and Paramount TV Studios have found their Jack Reacher. Alan Ritchson (Titans) has been tapped for the title role in Jack Reacher, the streamer’s drama series based on the character from Lee Child’s international bestselling series of books. As conceived by Child, the imposing, 6'5"-tall, 250-pound character of Jack Reacher is a U.S. Army veteran investigating suspicious activities that frequently put him in danger. (Santora is 6’4” and 235 pounds). The role was played by the 5'7" Tom Cruise in the 2012 Jack Reacher feature film and the 2016 sequel.

Greenland star Gerard Butler and Captain America actor Frank Grillo are set to star in the Joe Carnahan-directed action thriller, Copshop. The story centers on a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman (Butler), a smart rookie female cop, and a double-crossing con man (Grillo), who seeks refuge behind bars when there's no place left to run. Casting for the female lead is still in progress.

Stephan James is in final negotiations to co-star with Russell Crowe in Paramount’s thriller, American Son, which is based on the critically acclaimed French film, A Prophet. Andrew "Rapman" Onwubolu is on board to direct the movie from a screenplay by crime author, Dennis Lehane. The film centers on a man (James) who falls under the control of a ruthless mobster (Crowe) while in prison and later builds a multiracial crime syndicate to take down his mentor and earn a place for his crew alongside the Italian and Russian mafias.

A new trailer was released for the next James Bond installment (and the last one for Daniel Craig), No Time to Die, giving fans a deeper look at the long-awaited 007 movie — and its scarred (both emotionally and physically) supervillain played by Rami Malek.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Skydance Television is developing an original hour-long series headlined and executive produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first major foray into scripted television. Created by Nick Santora (Scorpion), the series is said to be a global spy adventure with a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter at the center of the story. Preliminary casting is underway for the role of the daughter. 

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington and The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar are among the cast of the second season of Netflix’s police interrogation drama, Criminal, which just released a trailer. The drama takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite. It is a stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question. Season two returns to the streamer on September 16.

Jess Ryder’s psychological thriller novel, The Ex-Wife, is getting the series treatment, with BlackBox Multimedia and Night Train Media teaming for an international co-production. New York Times bestselling author and actress, Catherine Steadman, known for roles in Downton Abbey and her novels including Something In The Water, has been drafted to pen the screenplay, marking her screenwriting debut. The Ex-Wife follows newlywed Tasha, who has the perfect house, a loving husband, and a beautiful little girl. She’d be set if it weren't for Jen, her husband's ex-wife who just won't leave them alone.

CBS has put in development The Bay, a one-hour police drama from director-producer Larry Teng (Nancy Drew); writer-producer Yalun Tu (Wu Assassins); and CBS Television Studios. Described as "The Good Wife meets NYPD Blue," the project centers on two newly partnered Chinese-American detectives who strive to overcome their gender, generational, and cultural differences as they work to bring justice to their dynamic and ever-changing San Francisco community. 

NBC has put in development a father-daughter murder mystery drama from Blindspot creator/executive producer Martin Gero and executive producer Alex Berger. Written by Berger, the story follows a dogged young reporter who witnesses the murder of her sister. As she launches an investigation to find the people responsible, she enlists the help of her estranged father – a legendary but reclusive investigative journalist.

Danish actor Roland Møller is set to co-star opposite Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Citadel, Anthony and Joe Russo’s upcoming global thriller series for Amazon Studios. Møller will play Laszlo Milla, a lead operative of Citadel’s rival intelligence agency, Manticore, who was incarcerated in a Citadel detention facility for years. Now liberated, Laszlo sets his sights on getting revenge on the man responsible for his capture, Mason Kane, and bringing down Citadel once and for all.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, interviewed crime writer Karen Neary Smithson.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed James R. Benn to talk about The Red Horse, the latest installment in Benn's Captain Billy Boyle mysteries set in World War II Europe.

My Favorite Detective Stories host John A. Hoda chatted with Mike Omer about his Zoe Bentley series.

Brad Parks stopped by Meet the Thriller Author to chat about his books, writing at Hardees, and how he tackled subjects like quantum physics to turn into a thriller.

Faye Snowden, author A Killing Fire, was interviewed by Robert Justice on the latest Crime Writers of Color episode.

The Gay Mystery Podcast welcomed Ellen Hart, often called "the LGBTQ’s answer to Agatha Christie" and the author of thirty-five crime novels in two different series.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover spoke with special guests Brian Andrews and Jeff Wilson, the authors behind the latest Tier One thriller, Collateral.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host Steve Cavanagh became a guest on the show to talk about his newly released thriller, Fifty Fifty.

The featured guest on It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club was Alex Gilly. One of his translations, Thierry Cruvellier's The Master of Confession, was longlisted for the 2015 PEN Translation Prize. His own latest crime novel is the thriller, Death Rattle.

The latest Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured Josh Pachter's "The Secret Lagoon."

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

Director-producer Anthony Hemingway is in talks to helm Train Man, a legal drama based on the true story of Darius McCollum, a man with Asperger syndrome whose fascination with subways and trains led to him posing as various New York City Metro officials in order to operate subway trains. McCollum, who was arrested on several occasions, became a folk hero for people who are on the spectrum. Simon Stephenson wrote the screenplay, which will follow the lawyer hired to defend McCollum. The long-gestating project at one point had Julia Roberts eyeing the lead, but as of now, no cast is attached.

The King’s Man, starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Matthew Vaughn, is moving its release date from September of this year to February 26, 2021. The period spy action comedy film, written by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek, is a prequel and the third film in the Kingsman series. The movie features an ensemble cast that includes Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance.

Frank Grillo (Captain America), Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down), and William Forsythe (The Rock) are leading the cast in the crime action-thriller, Ida Red, which has been filming in Oklahoma during the pandemic. Written and directed by John Swab (Body Brokers), the film follows career criminal Ida "Red" Walker (Leo) who is battling a terminal illness while serving a 25-year prison sentence in Oklahoma. Under Ida’s tutelage, her son, Wyatt Walker (Hartnett) has sustained the family business, alongside his uncle, Dallas Walker (Grillo). When a job goes awry, local detective and Wyatt’s brother-in-law, Bodie Collier (Slaine), is joined by FBI agent Lawrence Twilley (Forsythe), to track down the responsible party.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Noel Clarke (Bulletproof) is set to star as a surveillance detective in ITV’s Viewpoint, a Rear Window-esque crime drama based on an idea from Emmy-winning director, Harry Bradbeer. Co-created and written by Ed Whitmore (Manhunt), the five-part drama follows a police surveillance investigation into a tight-knit Manchester community.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is producing Twenty Four Seven starring rapper T.I. in the role of Derrick Parker who was involved deeply in rap history, including the shooting of Tupac Shakur. The project is inspired by the book, Notorious C.O.P.: The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay Investigations from NYPD’s First “Hip-Hop Cop,” by Derrick Parker with Matt Diehl.

ABC has ordered a new limited series called Women of the Movement which debuts sometime in 2021. The six-episode series chronicles the journey of Mamie Till Mobley on her long, arduous journey seeking justice for the murder of her son Emmett Till, who, at the age of just 14, was lynched in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman.

Fox has put in development Interceptor, a one-hour Coast Guard drama written by Katie J. Stone, David Daitch, and John Pruitt. The project follows a rookie Coast Guard Special Forces team, as diverse as the nation they are sworn to protect, who must battle the drug infested waters off the coast of Florida, and navigate the streets of Miami, all while working through the trials of their personal lives.

Taryn Manning (Orange Is the New Black) is set to bring the "Karen" meme to life in a new suspense thriller where she’ll play a Southern white woman who terrorizes her Black neighbors. Karen is from writer-director Coke Daniels and is described as a social commentary with a "powerful message." In the film, Manning will play Karen White, an entitled white woman from the South set on ousting her Black neighbors, who are Black Lives Matter supporters, from her neighborhood.

NBCUniversal is developing Joe Exotic (working title), a limited series starring and executive produced by Kate McKinnon, which has received a joint straight-to-series order by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming divisions. Interest in Joe Exotic skyrocketed this past spring because of the massive popularity of the Netflix docuseries, Tiger King, about the real-life characters depicted in the Joe Exotic limited series. Joe Exotic is one of two high-profile scripted series adaptations of the stranger-than-fiction true story, along with one starring Nicolas Cage as real-life convicted felon, Joe Exotic.

NBC released its fall schedule which includes a three-hour Wednesday block of Dick Wolf dramas, beginning with Chicago Med and capping off the night with Chicago P.D. on November 10. Law & Order: SVU returns on Thursday, Nov. 12, with The Blacklist capping off the week on Friday, Nov. 13 with its Season 8 premiere.

With Hollywood production sideswiped by the coronavirus pandemic for five months, the fall premiere dates for new TV series and new seasons of returning shows are in a state of flux, but Deadline had a list of the currently scheduled lineup including crime dramas such as LA's Finest, which is the Bad Boys spin-off starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba (Spectrum Originals) on September 9; the Kiwi crime drama, One Lane Bridge (Sundance Now) on September 18; Fargo (FX, Season 4) on September 27; Gangs of London and The Salisbury Poisonings (AMC+) on October 1; the sci-fi crime drama neXt (Fox), on October 6; Coroner (The CW) on October 7; and Mystery Road (Acorn, Season 2) on October 12.

However, Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler spin-off, Law & Order: Organized Crime, has been delayed. The anticipated drama was expected to debut this October on NBC, following Law & Order: SVU, but NBC announced Thursday that the show was being pushed until 2021.

A trailer was released for Enola Holmes, based on the book series by Nancy Springer and starring Millie Bobby Brown in the title role, a "wild child," as big brother Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) describes her. When Sherlock’s teen sister, Enola, discovers her mother missing, she sets off to find her, becoming a super-sleuth in her own right as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone started off a new season by welcoming S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland, to talk about poverty, fruit loops, and drunk heroes.

Read or Dead tackled adaptation news (including the Dan Mallory movie), and took a walk down memory lane with middle grade mystery books.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover spoke with author Laura Griffin about her latest book, Hidden, the first installment in her new Texas Murder Files Series.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Lydia King, a practicing physician and author of young adult fiction, adult fiction and non-fiction, and poetry, as they discussed her latest novel, Opium and Absinthe.

Paul Haynes joined It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club following the sentencing of the Golden State Killer. Haynes conducted research for I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara's book on the subject, and then helped finish the book after Michelle's untimely death.

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

Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned The Prize, a spec feature written by Chris Sparling (Buried; Greenland), with Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales co-director Espen Sandberg also on board the project. The conspiracy thriller follows an American private investigator who travels to Stockholm after the suspicious death of an old friend, a ranking member of the Nobel Prize selection committee. Once there, he becomes entangled in a dangerous web of corruption and crime that exists beneath the surface of the powerful and rarefied circle.

A trailer was released for Death on the Nile, with Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Ali Fazal, and Sophie Okonedo leading an all-star cast that also sees Kenneth Brannagh returning as Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to a one-hour drama based on Joshilyn Jackson’s bestselling suspense novel, Never Have I Ever. Adapted by Nurse Jackie co-creator, Liz Brixius, the project revolves around a friendly book club of suburban moms that becomes the perfect feeding ground for a charismatic new neighbor with a penchant for blackmail.

NBCUniversal's Canadian production company, Lark Productions, has pulled together a female-led creative team that includes Avengers actress Cobie Smulders to adapt Amy Stuart’s "Still" series of novels for TV (including Still Mine, the sequel Still Water, and the recently released third novel in the series, Still Here). The first novel features Clare O’Dey, a woman on the run from an abusive husband who becomes embroiled in the search for the truth about the suspicious disappearance of a local woman in a small mining town; in Still Water, Clare uses her newfound investigative skills to unravel another disappearance from a women’s shelter; and in the third novel Still Here, Clare tracks two missing persons, including the private investigator, Malcolm, who set her on her journey.

Annapurna Pictures has teamed with Janicza Bravo (of the upcoming Zola), to write and direct a series adaptation of Ian Parker’s New Yorker article, "A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions," with Jake Gyllenhaal attached to star. Published in February 2019, Parker’s article explores the complex life of former book editor Dan Mallory, whose debut psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window (written under the pseudonym A.J. Finn), was number one on the New York Times Bestseller list, the first debut novel to do so in twelve years. The author's many false claims will be the inspiration for the series, which will follow an unreliable narrator who nurses brain tumors he does not have and mourns family members who are not dead while preying on people’s sympathy to get away with almost anything.

Aleyse Shannon (Charmed) has been set as a new series regular in IMDb TV’s Leverage reboot, a new incarnation of the 2008 crime drama from Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment. The Leverage sequel is described as "a fresh update of the original concept, about reformed crooks using their unique skills to right corporate and governmental injustices inflicted on common citizens." Shannon will play a hacker and joins fellow new star to the series, Noah Wyle, who will play Harry Sullivan, a corporate lawyer looking for redemption after realizing he’d been on the wrong side of the table for his entire career. Returning cast members include Beth Riesgraf, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, and Aldis Hodge, although it was announced embattled actor Timothy Hutton will not be returning for the follow-up.

There will be no second season for Penny Dreadful: City of Angels after Showtime cancelled the series. The show was set in 1938 Los Angeles amid social and political tension as a grisly murder shook the city, and was a sequel to the original Penny Dreadful program that aired from 2014-16 on Showtime and Sky. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels starred Nathan Lane, Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto, Kerry Bishé, Rory Kinnear, Adriana Barraza, Michael Gladis, Jessica Garza, and Johnathan Nieves.

World Productions has resumed filming on its BBC One submarine thriller, Vigil, starring Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie. Produced in Glasgow, Scotland, the show was forced to shut down earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but filming is now back underway with safety protocols. The BBC released a first-look image of the six-part series, which tells the fictional story of how the disappearance of a Scottish fishing trawler and a death onboard a Trident nuclear submarine create conflict between the police, the Royal Navy, and intelligence services.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

John A. Hoda, the host of My Favorite Detective Show, chatted with Mark Edward Langley about his series featuring ex-marine Arthur Nakai—who spent years as a member of the Shadow Wolves, an ICE tactical unit tasked by the US government to hunt human traffickers and drug smugglers on the US/Mexico border.

The latest Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast featured the first two chapters of the mystery novel, Homebody, written by Louise Titchener and read by actor Casey Ballard.

The Seattle Public Library's Thrilling Tales podcast recently offered short story readings including such classics as E. Phillips Oppenheim's "The Reckoning with Otto Schreed" (1922), and the G. K. Chesterton story, "The Hammer of God" (1910) featuring Father Brown. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

The Documentary on One podcast profiled Sam Millar, whose life reads like pure fiction: after joining the IRA as a teenager, he spent years on the notorious blanket protest in Northern Ireland and later admitted to taking part in a seven million dollar armed robbery in the US before starting a new life as a writer of award winning crime novels.

Criminal Mischief host, Dr. DP Lyle, took on the topic of "Nasty Deadly Poisons."  Although crime writers have long loved poisons in their plots, especially arsenic, there are other more uncommon, and deadly, options for a murder mystery.

Writer Types welcomed debut thriller writer, David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Winter Counts), along with authors Johnny Shaw (The Southland) and Jospeh Reid (Departure).

This latest special guest on Speaking of Mysteries was Robert Pobi, discussing Under Pressure, the second installment in his series featuring Dr. Lucas Page—an astrophysicist who also happens to be a best-selling author and professor, former FBI agent, and world-class misanthrope.

Meet the Thriller Author was joined by John Gilstrap, the New York Times bestselling author of a series with hostage rescue specialist Jonathan Grave, and a screenwriter who's been contracted to write and co-produce the film adaptation of his book, Six Minutes to Freedom.

Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled "Vehicle Tampering Clues, Trademarks, and Notice of Warrant Service."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed C. M. Gleason to discuss her novels in the Lincoln's White House Mysteries series.

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

Elisabeth Moss and Blumhouse are developing a feature adaptation of the upcoming Virginia Feito psychological thriller novel, Mrs. March, a project in which the multi-Golden Globe and Emmy winning actress will play the titular character. Mrs. March follows a polished Upper East Side housewife who unravels when she begins to suspect the detestable protagonist of her husband’s latest bestselling novel is based on her. Feito will write the screenplay and executive produce.

Spyglass Media has optioned the rights to False Assurances, the debut bestselling novel from Christopher Rosow. The story is set in motion when the FBI Boston field office gets a hoax call, with a man claiming his sailboat was hijacked and used to smuggle weapons and terrorists into the United States. A presidential visit to Boston that night requires an investigation into the claims, and the FBI dispatches admin staffer Ben Porter, a laid-back millennial and the opposite of Jack Ryan in almost every way.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Idris Elba will star in and produce a new romantic spy thriller for Apple TV, teaming up with X-Men and Murder on the Orient Express producer, Simon Kinberg. Though plot details are being kept under wraps, the film is said to be in the vein of another Kinberg project, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which he wrote back in 2005, and will combine action and romance elements in the spy genre. Travon Free, a writer on The Daily Show, wrote the screenplay.

CBS’s CSI event series has been quietly moving forward, with William Petersen and Jorja Fox in negotiations to star in CSI: Vegas, which will serve as a sequel to the mothership series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Casting is under way for four new characters who will join Petersen’s Gil Grissom and Fox’s Sara Sidle. Although CSI: Vegas has not been officially ordered, its filming is eyed to begin in the fall when COVID conditions permit Hollywood production to resume safely.

Wonder Woman 1984 star, Connie Nielsen, and Doctor Who’s Christopher Eccleston are set to star in the psychological drama, Close to Me, a six-part serial adaptation of British author Amanda Reynolds’s novel. The project tells the story of Jo Harding (Nielsen), a woman who has a seemingly perfect life with her partner (Eccleston) until a fall erases an entire year from her memory. As she struggles to piece events together, Jo discovers that her life was in fact far from perfect, with someone trying to keep a terrible secret from her.

AMC Networks-owned streamer UMC has ordered the legal drama, Lace, with a six-episode order for its first season. The series will follow a prolific Los Angeles attorney who often blurs the lines between right and wrong to protect her rich and powerful clientele. It is currently casting and the producers are in talks with Jamal Hill, who helmed the Netflix feature, Deuces, to direct.

The CBS dramas NCIS and its spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles have been assigned tentative dates to start production on their upcoming seasons under strict COVID-19 protocols: Sept. 9 for the mothership series and Sept. 3 for NCIS: LA. As is the case with any attempts to restart production during the pandemic, the dates are not set in stone and might easily be pushed as conditions related to the spread of the coronavirus change daily.

Spectrum Originals has set a new premiere date for the Gabrielle Union-Jessica Alba series, L.A.’s Finest, after delaying the cop drama earlier this summer. The series will return for its second season on Wednesday, Sept. 9, when all 13 episodes are made available on-demand to Spectrum subscribers. A spinoff of the Bad Boys film series, L.A.’s Finest features Gabrielle Union reprising her role as Syd Burnett from 2003’s Bad Boys II. Now an LAPD detective, Syd is paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba).

FilmRise is launching its first original production, the forensic investigative series, Bloodline Detectives, hosted by Nancy Grace. The twenty-episode syndicated series will feature criminal investigations using familial DNA and premiere nationwide October 3 on stations reaching nearly 90% of the country followed by a roll out on streaming platforms in 2021.

Netflix has dropped the first trailer for Young Wallander, which premieres on September 3 and tells the story of detective Kurt Wallander’s first case as a recently graduated police officer in his early 20s. Swedish actor Adam Pålsson features in the eponymous role alongside Argo’s Richard Dillane and Black Mirror’s Leanne Best. Pålsson takes on the mantle of Wallander after he was previously played by Kenneth Branagh in a BBC adaptation of Henning Mankell’s novels.

ITV has commissioned an extended second season of its odd-couple detective series, McDonald & Dodds, starring Jason Watkins (The Crown) and Tala Gouveia (Cold Feet). The show features BAFTA-winner Watkins as Detective Sergeant Dodds, a modest and unassuming figure, who is thrown together with Detective Chief Inspector Lauren McDonald, a feisty crime fighter from London’s Metropolitan Police. McDonald & Dodds is set against the backdrop of the historic British city of Bath, in southwest England, and is created and executive produced by Shetland writer, Robert Murphy.

Peacock has handed a series order to the young-adult mystery drama, One of Us is Lying, and has tapped Darío Madrona, co-creator of Netflix’s Elite, as showrunner. The streaming service has given the adaptation of Karen M. McManus’s novel an eight-episode order after ordering a pilot last year. One Of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five high schoolers walk into detention and only four make it out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Crime Writers of Color podcast spoke with J. L. Brown, author of the Jade Harrington mystery novels.

On the Crime Cafe podcast, Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Ann Aptaker, author of the Cantor Gold mystery novels, which have won Lambda Literary and Goldie Awards.

Writer Types featured a "cornucopia of accents on the show this week as four authors from all over the world discuss four very different books." Special guests included Gigi Pandian, David Joy, Poppy Gee, and Jax Miller.

Laury A. Egan visited the Gay Mystery Podcast to talk about her novels which include Jenny Kidd, an LGTBQ suspense set in Venice, and the literary suspense novel, Wave in D Minor.

On the latest Read or Dead podcast, hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about a new Megan Abbott book; Unsolved Mysteries; cold cases and more.

T. Jefferson Parker was the guest on Speaking of Mysteries to discuss Then She Vanished, the fourth installment in his series about the Fallbrook, CA-based private investigator, Roland Ford.

Beyond the Cover chatted with Laurell K. Hamilton about her current release, Sucker Punch.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Joseph Reid to talk about Departure, the latest installment in his Seth Walker series about an air marshal turned investigator who solves crimes in and around aviation.

Writer/producer/director, Michael Elias, stopped by It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club to discuss his new novel You Can Go Home Now, which features a tough Queens detective with a series of cold case homicides on her desk – men whose widows had the same alibi: they were living in Artemis, a battered women’s shelter, when their husbands were killed.

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

Spyglass Media Group has teamed with Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Michael Clear to develop a film based on the 1980s classic action series Knight Rider. TJ Fixman, a former video game writer, is adapting the screenplay. Created by Glen A. Larson, Knight Rider first aired on NBC from 1982-1986 and featured a high-tech car named KITT that assisted the mysterious crime-fighting driver Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff). The series amassed a significant cult following and inspired TV spinoffs, films, video games, books, and a Knight Rider convention known as KnightCon. Plot details for this latest installment are being kept under wraps, although it is said to be a present-day take that will maintain the anti-establishment tone of the original.

Lionsgate studios confirmed that a fifth John Wick movie is in the works and announced that both John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 will be filmed back-to-back. The fourth installment was originally scheduled for release in May of 2021 but is now slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. A release date for John Wick 5 was not announced. John Wick has become a big action franchise for Lionsgate, with the Starz John Wick TV series, The Continental, looking to premiere sometime following the fourth movie.

Chad Stahelski is set to produce New Line’s remake of the 2010 South Korean film, The Man From Nowhere, with Derek Kolstad penning the script. Stahelski previously directed all three John Wick films with Kolstad serving as writer. The Man From Nowhere was the highest grossing film in South Korea during its year of release making $42M and centered around a quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past who takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

The Kissing Booth’s Joey King is in negotiations to star opposite Brad Pitt in the action-thriller, Bullet Train, for Sony Pictures. Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch will direct and also supervise the script, which will be written by Zak Olkewicz. The film is based on the Japanese novel, Maria Beetle, by best-selling author Kotaro Isaka (which Harvill Secker has separately announced it will publish in English next year). In the novel, five assassins find themselves on a fast-moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between and discover their missions may be related. The question becomes, who will make it off the train alive and what awaits them at the terminal station?

STXfilms has won the U.S. rights to director Kevin Macdonald’s untitled legal thriller (formerly known as Prisoner 760). The project stars Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Zachary Levi and tells the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim), who is captured by the U.S. government and languishes in prison for years without charge or trial. Losing all hope, Slahi finds allies in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Woodley). Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Stuart Couch (Cumberbatch), eventually reveals a shocking and far reaching conspiracy.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Van Ditthavong’s feature directorial debut, All Roads To Pearla (formerly known as Sleeping In Plastic), which had its world premiere at the 2019 Austin Film Festival. The crime-thriller stars Alex MacNicoll, Addison Timlin, Corin Nemec, Nick Chinlund and Dash Mihok and is described as a dark coming-of-age tale about a high school wrestler in a small Texas town who becomes entangled with a beautiful drifter and her psychopathic lover.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Novelist-turned-TV-writer Megan Abbott is setting up her latest television project after eOne snapped up the rights to her upcoming book, The Turnout. The story is set in the hothouse world of a ballet school led by the Durant sisters, Dara and Marie, and Dara’s husband Charlie. After they hire Derek, a charismatic, possibly shady contractor to renovate the studio, Marie throws herself into an intense affair with him that threatens the family's tight bonds and brings forward family secrets until an act of violence overturns everything.

Apple TV+ has given a straight-to-series order to a crime drama from Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey and writer Adam Perlman. The untitled series is based on the Toronto Life article "The Sting" by journalist Michael Lista and follows a frustrated Canadian detective who takes on a decades-old cold case in hopes of winning a confession and becoming a hero. The case quickly spirals out of control when the undercover cop attempts an elaborate sting, adding playacting cops, taxpayer resources, and an unexpected friendship with the peculiar target.

Thomas Jane will star in and executive produce the crime drama, Troppo, a series adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Candice Fox’s Crimson Lake novel. Yolanda Ramke (Netflix’s Cargo) will pen the adaptation. Jane stars as an ex-cop falsely accused of a disturbing crime who escapes to the tropics of Far North Queensland. The series is slated to go into production later this year in Australia.

Landmark Studio Group has partnered with District 33 to develop and produce Shadows in the Vineyard, a limited-run drama series based on journalist Maximillian Potter’s bestselling book, Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison The World’s Greatest Wine, with Noah Wyle and Judith Light attached to star and executive produce. The project is set against the backdrop of the gorgeous, rolling countryside of the Cote-d’Or in Burgundy, France and is based on the true story of the outlandish 2010 plot-by-poison extortion scheme that targeted the most sought-after and expensive wine in the world – the legendary Romanée-Conti.

Michelle Gomez has been cast as a series regular in a recasting of HBO Max’s thriller series, The Flight Attendant, starring and executive produced by Kaley Cuoco. The Flight Attendant is a story of how an entire life can change in one night when flight attendant Cassie (Cuoco) wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. Gomez plays Miranda, a hardened, savvy businesswoman with anger-management issues who Cassie meets in Bangkok, and replaces Sonoya Mizuno who was initially cast in the role. Michiel Huisman, Colin Woodell, Zosia Mamet, Merle Dandridge and Griffin Matthews also star.

Valerie Mahaffey (Dead To Me) has been cast in Big Sky, ABC’s straight-to-series drama created and executive produced by David E. Kelley. Based on The Highway, the first book in C.J. Box’s Cassie Dewell series of novels, the story sees private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) partnering with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. When they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another victim is taken.

Amazon Studios has ordered a second season of its hit conspiracy thriller drama series, Hunters, starring Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, and Jerrika Hinton. Created by David Weil and executive produced by Jordan Peele, the first season of Hunters followed 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 United States.

Hulu’s upcoming drama, No Man’s Land, tells the story of the all-female militia that fought in the Syrian civil war against ISIS. Called the YPJ, or Women’s Protection Units, these courageous women took on the terrorist ISIS soldiers who were terrified of dying by their hand. The series stars Félix Moati, Mélanie Thierry and James Purefoy alongside Souheila Yacoub, Joe Ben Ayed, James Floyd, Dean Ridge, Julia Faure, François Caron and Céline Samie.

Hulu announced new programming including a true-crime series, The Girl From Plainville, starring Elle Fanning. The series is based on the true story of Michelle Carter, who was controversially convicted of involuntary manslaughter of Conrad Roy III in the infamous texting-suicide case. In addition to starring as Carter, Fanning will executive produce alongside co-showrunners Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus, as well as Brittany Kahan Ward.

Sundance Now has boarded the New Zealand crime series, One Lane Bridge, in the U.S. and Canada (while sister AMC Networks streamer Acorn TV has taken the rights in the UK and Latin America). One Lane Bridge tells the story of young Maori detective, Ariki Davis (Dominic Ona-Ariki), who investigates the death of local legend, Grub Ryder, after his body is found at the bottom of One Lane Bridge. During his investigation with Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Tremaine (Joel Tobeck) in Queenstown, Davis taps into his Matakite — a supernatural ability akin to a second sight that he hasn’t experienced since his youth.

Netflix unveiled a first look at Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca, the adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic novel that was previously turned into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. Armie Hammer and Lily James lead the cast, playing the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier in Hitchcock’s version) and his new wife (previously Joan Fontaine), with Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers.

Showtime has debuted the first clip for Bryan Cranston’s limited legal drama, Your Honor. The ten-part series is executive produced by The Good Fight duo Robert and Michelle King and The Night Of’s Peter Moffat, who also writes. The Breaking Bad star plays a respected judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run in New Orleans that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story "Nova, Capers, and a Schmear of Cream Cheese," written by Debra H. Goldstein and read by actor Thomas Nance.

Via Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog, which also brought us another such "story time" last week: The Elmhurst (IL) Public Library is offering a Storytime for Grown-Ups podcast, including shorts by Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl, William Faulkner, B.J. Novak, Edgar Allan Poe, Bill Pronzini, and Ian Rankin.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Andrew Allan, author of the Walt Asher thriller series, on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan who writes mysteries set in her hometown while working as an editor in the newspaper industry.

On the Spybrary Podcast, Jeff Quest of the Spy Write blog joined Josh Pachter to talk about the mid-eighties digest, Espionage Magazine.

All Things Investigative chatted with J. Todd Scott, a federal agent-turned novelist of the Texas border series.

The Gay Mystery podcast talked about "impossible crimes" with Robert Innes, author of The Blake Harte Mysteries.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with the "cop doc," Ellen Kirschman, a clinical psychologist and recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Police and Public Safety Psychology.

The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured O'Neil de Noux, 2019 Shamus Award winner for Best Short Story for his tale "Sac-a-Lait Man," from EQMM's September/October 2019 issue.

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

Ariel Winter (Modern Family) is joining the cast of Don’t Log Off, an indie feature set entirely during the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine. The comedy-thriller marks the directorial debut from the Baer Brothers, Brandon Baer and Garrett Baer. Additional casting includes Luke Benward (Dumplin’), Ashley Argota (The Fosters), Brielle Barbusca (Big Time Adolescence), Sterling Beaumon (The Killing), Jack Griffo (Alexa & Katie), Khylin Rhambo (Teen Wolf), and Kara Royster (Pretty Little Liars). The plot, written by the Baer Brothers, revolves around six friends attending a virtual surprise party when the birthday girl suddenly goes missing.

A trailer was released for Honest Thief, starring Liam Neeson as bank robber Tom Carter, ready to pay back the $9 million he’s stolen throughout a career in crime. Turning himself into law enforcement, he’s ready to do his time, and go straight for the woman he loves (Kate Walsh). There’s just one, huge problem: a pair of dirty agents (Anthony Ramos and Jai Courtney) want to make off with the money for themselves and frame Carter with a murder to make sure he can’t stop them.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy Award nominations were announced last week and include several spots for crime dramas, including Best Drama Series nods for Better Call Saul (AMC), Killing Eve (BBC America), and Ozark (Netflix); a Best Actor nomination for Jason Bateman (Ozark); and Best Actress nominations for Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) and Laura Linney (Ozark).

The winners of the British version of the Emmys, the BAFTAs, were also announced, with a few crime dramas among the honorees. Best Drama went to the darkly comedic crime caper, The End of the F***ing World; Glenda Jackson won Best Actress in a Drama for Elizabeth is Missing about an elderly woman living with dementia who struggles to piece together a double mystery; Will Sharpe won Best Supporting Actor for the detective drama, Giri/Haji; and Naomi Ackie won Best Supporting Acress for The End of the F***ing World. A BAFTA special award was also given to Idris Elba (the star of Luther) for his role in championing diversity and new talent in the industry.

AMC streamer Acorn TV has unveiled its second original project, the crime drama Cannes Confidential. Penned by Midsomer Murders writer, Chris Murray, the eight-part series is a romantic procedural that blends comedy, mystery and crime detection with a heart-warming love story — all against the backdrop of the Cote d’Azur. Fun trivia: Acorn is billing Cannes Confidential as the first English-language procedural drama to be produced and set on the Cote d’Azur since the 1970s action-adventure comedy, The Persuaders, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.

Acorn TV has also commissioned a second season of Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries after licensing the first season of the Australian crime drama. The show, originally brought to Acorn subscribers last year, is a spin-off of Australian broadcaster ABC’s series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Geraldine Hakewill stars as the charming 1960s detective Peregrine Fisher, who takes up the detective mantle from her aunt Phryne Fisher (featured in the original ABC drama) after the latter goes missing over Papua New Guinea in her light plane.

ABC (the U.S. network) is developing the thriller drama, The Women, from writers Jennifer Johnson and Glenn Porter, producer Mark Pellington, and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment. The Women is described as a propulsive thriller about a conspiracy of powerful and dangerous women who attempt to take over the global power structure before male dominance leads us to ruin, using violence to end violence, corruption to end corruption, and destruction to end destruction.

Showtime is developing an hourlong drama from Brian Grazer, Terence Winter, and Nicholas Pileggi. Written by Boardwalk Empire creator Winter, the untitled series is inspired by Pileggi’s in-depth chronology of organized crime in America — which is also the history of corruption in America — as seen through the eyes of the mafia’s First Family.

Actor Stanley Tucci is to star in Oscar-winner Alejandro Amenábar’s first TV series, La Fortuna, a co-production between AMC and Spain’s pay-TV broadcaster Movistar+. Based on Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral’s graphic novel, El Tesoro del Cisne Negro (The Treasure Of The Black Swan), the story centers on young diplomat Alex Ventura who teams with a combative public official and a brilliant American lawyer to recover treasure stolen by adventurer Frank Wild (Tucci), who travels the world plundering historic items from the ocean.

Fox set a premiere date for the crime drama, L.A.'s Finest. Spawned from the universe of Jerry Bruckheimer’s Bad Boys movie franchise, L.A.'s Finest stars Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba as cops taking on the most dangerous criminals in Los Angeles.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The staff of the Saint Paul (MN) Public Library have initiated the Adult Storytime Podcast with mystery readings "The Lenten Croft Robberies" by Arthur Morrison; "The Coin of Dionysus" by Ernest Bramah (with blind detective Max Carrados, 1913); and "The York Mystery" by Baroness Orczy (with the Old Man in the Corner, 1902). (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist blog.)

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Charlie Donlea, the USA Today and International bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, and Some Choose Darkness. His latest novel is The Suicide House, about a chilling murder in a prestigious prep school.

Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, got excited about adaptations of The Shining Girls and Magpie Murders, and discussed mystery books by Black authors that they’ve recently picked up.

Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled "Areas of Responsibility, Nolle Prosequi, and GPS Tracking."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Kate Winkler Dawson, author of The American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI.

The Gay Mystery Podcast welcomed Mark Zubro, the author of thirty-seven novels and eight short stories. His book, A Simple Suburban Murder, won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery.

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 movie adaptation of Delia Owens's bestseller, Where the Crawdads Sing, has found its director in Olivia Newman. Oscar nominee Lucy Alibar is writing the screenplay, with Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures producing. Equal parts haunting crime thriller and moving coming-of-age tale, the story is set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century South where a young woman named Kya is abandoned by her family and raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. However, when her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is thrust into the spotlight, instantly branded by the local townspeople and law enforcement as the prime suspect for his murder.

Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts have signed on to star in the family drama, Leave the World Behind, which is based on the upcoming Rumaan Alam novel. Netflix has landed feature film rights to the work, and Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) is attached to direct from his own adapted script. Leave the World Behind is a story about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

PBS’s Masterpiece is set to co-produce and broadcast the murder mystery, Magpie Murders, a six-part drama series based on the novel by Foyle’s War creator, Anthony Horowitz. Adapted by Horowitz for the small screen, Magpie Murders revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life. 

Magpie Murders is also part of The BBC and ITV’s joint-venture streamer BritBox, which revealed more of its first slate of UK drama originals. The new additions include an adaption of the 1938 novel, The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake (the nom de plume of poet Cecil Day-Lewis, father of Daniel Day-Lewis). The story follows a grieving mother who infiltrates the life of the man she believes killed her son and stars Jared Harris, Cush Jumbo, Billy Howle, and Nathaniel Parker. Also on the BritBox slate is Crime, the first TV adaptation by Trainspotting writer Irvine Welsh, which is based on his own book. The six-part series will star Mission: Impossible 2 actor Dougray Scott as Detective Inspector Ray Lennox, who is investigating the disappearance of a schoolgirl while battling cocaine addiction and a mental breakdown.

Perry Mason is coming back for a second season at HBO after becoming the network's most-watched series premiere in nearly two years. A reboot of the long-running CBS drama, the series follows Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys), a low-rent private investigator who is living check-to-check and is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. John Lithgow stars as Elias Birchard "E.B." Jonathan, a struggling attorney and a semi-regular employer of Mason; Juliet Rylance plays Della Street, E.B. Jonathan’s creative and driven legal secretary; Tatiana Maslany plays Sister Alice McKeegan, the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, preaching to a hungry congregation and a radio audience across the country; Chris Chalk is Paul Drake, a beat cop with a knack for detective work; and Shea Whigham stars as Pete Strickland, who is hired by Mason as an extra set of eyes on his various investigations.

Netflix has begun production on O2, a French survival thriller to be directed by Alexandre Aja and to star Melanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, and Malik Zidi. O2 tells the story of a young woman who wakes up in a medical cryo unit. She doesn’t remember who she is or how she ended up sequestered in a box no larger than a coffin. As she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

Paramount is finalizing a deal to move its adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse to Amazon Studios. The film stars Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Smith-Turner, and Jamie Bell with Stefano Sollima directing from a Taylor Sheridan-penned script. The film would mark the second Clancy property to find a home at Amazon, with the John Krasinski TV series, Jack Ryan, featured on Amazon Prime.

Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) will star in the Apple TV+ thriller series, Shining Girls, an adaptation of Lauren Beukes’s 2013 novel, with Leonardo DiCaprio set to executive produce. The Shining Girls book centers on a Depression-era drifter who must murder the "shining girls" in order to continue his travels. Moss will star as a Chicago reporter who survived a brutal assault only to find her reality shifting as she hunts down her attacker.

The Canadian legal drama series, Burden of Truth and Diggstown will both be back for another season. Set in Manitoba and starring Kristin Kreuk, Burden of Truth follows Joanna Chang, a ruthless, big-city lawyer who returns to her small hometown in Millwood for a case that will change her life forever. Diggstown follows legal aid lawyer Marcie Diggs (Vinessa Antoine), who continues her exploration of a system fraying at the edges as she and her band of tireless colleagues fight to protect society’s most vulnerable from a capricious justice system. 

Amazon Prime Video has commissioned a second season of La Jauría, the Spanish-language thriller from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula productions, which made the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman. The renewal comes just weeks after Season 1 debuted on Amazon on July 10 across Latin America and Spain. The eight-part series tells the story of the disappearance of a young girl, who becomes the center of a police investigation into an online game that grooms men into assaulting women.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The latest episode of the Mysteryrats Maze podcast featured the mystery short story, "Crime of Passion," written by mystery author Guy Belleranti and read by actor Kelly Ventura.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Cathi Stoler to talk about Bar None, the first installment in her “Murder on the Rocks” series, featuring New York bar owner Jude Dillane.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover spoke with author Riley Sager about his latest thriller, Home Before Dark, about a house with long-buried secrets and a woman's quest to uncover them.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Michael Elias about his latest psychological thriller, You Can Go Home Now, featuring a female cop on the hunt for a killer while battling violent secrets of her own.

My Favorite Detective Stories was joined by D.P. Lyle, author of 17 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the Samantha Cody, Dub Walker, and Jake Longly thriller series and the Royal Pains media tie-in novel.

Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled the topics of finding digital evidence when the devices are missing, elicitation of detectives by a mole in the department, and where to believably take a statement from a Reporting Party.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club quizzed former Vegas security officer, Paul W. Papa, about the first book in his new series featuring Massimo "Max" Rossi, the son of Boston Rossi, a mob "fixer."

THEATRE

Theatre is very slowly staging a rolled-out comeback, at least outside the U.S. The UK's Berkshire Theatre will produce a new comedy version of The Hound of the Baskervilles to be staged in the outdoors. This new version of the mystery, devised by the Watermill company, will be performed by three actors on the back lawn of the rural Berkshire theatre. Socially distanced audiences will watch from an arrangement of 20 tables that each seat up to four people from one party only.

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

Netflix announced its most financially ambitious feature film so far, The Gray Man, based on the series of bestselling novels by Mark Greaney. Set to star Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, the project follows ex-CIA operative turned freelance assassin, Court Gentry (Gosling) as he is pursued by an old colleague, now nemesis, Lloyd Hansen (Evans). Joe and Anthony Russo, the brothers who helmed several critically and commercially successful Marvel Studios films with Evans (including 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier) will direct.

James Patterson and Condé Nast are teaming up to revive the vintage crime fighter, The Shadow, in a series of books that will also aim to be adapted for the screen. Hachette Book Group imprint Little, Brown and Company will publish the original series, whose first installment is due out in the fall of 2021. The Shadow, an iconic New York vigilante, originated in the 1930s as a series of pulp novels by Walter B. Gibson. A popular radio drama based on the books featured the voice of Orson Welles, and in 1994, Universal released a feature film adaptation starring Alec Baldwin.

Jon Hamm is set to star in and produce a feature film reboot of Fletch, the brazen investigative reporter from Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s and 1980s Fletch mystery novels. The new film adaptation will specifically be based on the second book in the Mcdonald series, Confess, Fletch. In a mysterious chain of wild events, Fletch finds himself in the middle of multiple murders, one of which implicates him as a prime suspect. While on a quest to prove his innocence, Fletch is tasked with finding his fiancée’s stolen art collection, the only inheritance she’s acquired after her father goes missing and is presumed dead. Zev Borow, consulting producer of the Lethal Weapon TV series, will be penning the feature adaptation.

Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn, creators of the hit BBC drama, The Salisbury Poisonings, have been attached to direct the feature film, Chasing Agent Freegard, a thriller starring James Norton. The movie is written by Captain Phillips co-producer Michael Bronner and is based on the gripping true story of con man Robert Hendy-Freegard (Norton), who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and manipulated and threatened multiple people into going underground for fear of assassination.

Tyler Posey (MTV’s Teen Wolf) has signed on to star opposite Lelia Symington in Brut Force, the first feature from writer-director Eve Symington. The film follows Sloane (Lelia Symington), a reporter who returns to her rural California hometown to investigate harassment of local vineyard workers, uncorking a tangled web of crime, corruption, and murder behind wine country’s shiny façade. Posey will play the love interest and "homme fatale." Vico Escorcia (History’s Texas Rising) will also co-star as the missing girl and catalyst to the neo-noir tale.

Clerkenwell Films has optioned the TV rights for Rewind by Irish writer Catherine Ryan Howard. Rewind is a psychological thriller that begins with a murder being captured on film, before jumping back in time to reveal the events leading up to the crime.

The Kourosh Ahari-directed psychological thriller, The Night, has landed a license for theatrical release in Iran. This is a historic benchmark for the country’s filmmaking community as it is the first U.S.-produced film to receive a license for theatrical release in Iran since the revolution.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Quinn Colson novels by Ace Atkins are being developed as a TV series at HBO. In the books, Colson is a former Army Ranger who returns to his home in rural northeast Mississippi only to discover it's been overrun with corruption, drugs, and violence. In addition to writing the Quinn Colson novel series, Atkins also took over Robert B. Parker’s Spenser character following Parker’s death in 2010, with one novel adapted into the Mark Wahlberg-Winston Duke film, Spenser Confidential.

Grantchester is coming back for a sixth season after British broadcaster ITV and PBS Masterpiece renewed the drama and announced it will start shooting in September (and could become one of the first big British scripted series to return). The show, set in the quaint but crime-ridden village of Grantchester, England, follows the investigations of an unlikely pairing: a detective (Robson Green) and a vicar (Tom Brittney, who took over from James Norton in the role).

Alejandro Amenábar, the Oscar-winning director behind The Others and The Sea Inside, is to make his first-ever television drama for AMC and Spain’s pay-TV broadcaster Movistar+, adapting Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral’s graphic novel, El Tesoro del Cisne Negro (The Treasure Of The Black Swan). The story centers on young diplomat Alex Ventura who teams with a combative public official and a brilliant American lawyer to recover treasure stolen by Frank Wild, who travels the world plundering historic items from the ocean.

Des, ITV’s drama starring David Tennant as British serial killer, Dennis Nilsen, has been acquired by a number of international broadcasters and streamers, including AMC Networks’ Sundance channel. Des follows Nilsen’s unraveling from the point of his arrest to his trial, and is based on the Brian Masters book, Killing For Company, which attempted to get inside the mind of the killer. Masters is a central character in ITV’s drama and is played by The Crown's Jason Watkins. Line Of Duty actor Daniel Mays also stars as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay.


Author Chris Bohjalian's suspense novel, The Red Lotus, has been optioned to be developed into a drama series with Kate Brooke (A Discovery of Witches, Bancroft) attached to pen the adaptation and serve as the showrunner. The Red Lotus follows Alexis, a young ER doctor in New York whose boyfriend goes missing while on vacation in Vietnam. As a result, she uses her own deductive reasoning and expertise as an emergency room medical professional to embark on an international manhunt.

The Rosario Dawson-starring drama, Briarpatch, is not returning for a second season after the USA Network cancelled the show. Based on the Ross Thomas novel, Briarpatch follows Allegra Dill (Dawson), a dogged investigator returning to her border-town Texas home after her sister is murdered. What begins as a search for a killer turns into an all-consuming fight to bring her corrupt hometown to its knees. The series also starred Jay R. Ferguson, Brian Geraghty, Edi Gathegi, Kim Dickens, Alan Cumming, and Ed Asner.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Debbi Mack interviewed police reporter turned crime writer, Mark S. Bacon, on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Writer Types co-host, Halley Sutton (The Lady Upstairs), joined Eric Beetner to chat with SA Cosby (Blacktop Wasteland) and SC Perkins (Lineage Most Lethal).

Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, caught up on the news they missed, including lawsuits featuring Dan Brown and the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate, and read some locked room mysteries in honor of not leaving their homes.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed former orthopedic surgeon John Bishop, who writes the Doc Brady Medical Thriller series.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with D.C. Alexander, a former federal agent whose debut novel, The Legend of Devil's Creek, was a #1 Amazon Kindle best seller.

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

Screen Gems has preemptively acquired the spec script, Sabine, written and produced by author Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X) and screenwriter, Philip Eisner (Event Horizon). Sabine centers around an ambitious young female detective who hunts down a determined serial killer and begins to see the world through the killer’s eyes. Hurwitz and Eisner recently also wrote the thriller, Sweet Girl, which is in post-production for Netflix starring Jason Momoa.

Apple Studios has acquired the rights to adapt Snow Blind, a thriller based on a graphic novel of the same name that will star Jake Gyllenhaal. Gustav Möller (The Guilty) will direct the film based on the story by Ollie Masters and published by BOOM! Studios in 2017. Snow Blind tells the story of a high school student in Alaska whose life is turned upside down when he posts a photo of his dad online. He soon thereafter learns that he and his family are in the Witness Protection Program and are now being hunted by not only the FBI but also a man out for revenge who invades their small town.

Brad Pitt is set to star in Bullet Train, the Sony Pictures action movie that also recently announced the hiring of director David Leitch (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw). Zak Olkewicz wrote the script, based on the 2010 Japanese novel, Maria Beetle, by Kotaro Isaka. In the novel, five assassins find themselves on a fast-moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between. They discover their missions are intertwined, and the question becomes—who will make it off the train alive and what awaits them at the terminal station?

The Nacelle Company, Stone Canyon Entertainment, and producer Devon Shepard have optioned the rights to the life story of former Philadelphia police officer, Jeffrey Walker. Walker, an African-American, spent his 20-year career as a narcotics officer in a system that harasses, unfairly arrests, and often kills those in the very community from which he came. The project would tell the story of Walker’s redemption, as he hits bottom and then begins the courageous work of helping dismantle that unjust system—one he once helped to thrive.

The IRA thriller, Borderland, has rounded out its cast, which will include John Boyega (Star Wars), Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim), and Felicity Jones (The Theory Of Everything). The film follows an Irish paramilitary, Michael (Reynor), who witnesses the shooting of his pregnant wife at the hands of an SAS sergeant named Tempest (Boyega) when a border ambush goes wrong. When Tempest is sent back to London to lead a covert counter-terrorist operation, Michael joins a ruthless active service unit (ASU) wreaking havoc in the capital. For Michael, the mission is personal – to hunt down Tempest – and he’ll stop at nothing to avenge his wife’s death.

Chinese megastar Donnie Yen is set to star in and produce the crime thriller, Golden Empire, in which he will play a notorious drug kingpin who hits the top of the most wanted list for both the U.S. and Mexican governments. The film will explore the complexities of the character, showcasing the inner turmoil of one of the world’s most successful multinational drug lords.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Mad Men creator, Matthew Weiner, has a new series in the works. Although plot details are being kept under wraps, the project is being described as a "mystery dramedy." Weiner is writing the series and will also executive produce and direct. Should it move forward, the show would mark Weiner’s return to the world of basic cable, though the project could potentially end up on FX and Hulu as well.

HBO Max has given a series commitment to Gotham City, a spinoff of Matt Reeves's upcoming film, The Batman (starring Robert Pattinson). The series on HBO Max will be set inside the Gotham City Police Department and “will build upon the motion picture’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City.” The series would be the second to focus on the Gotham police following Fox’s Gotham, which starred Ben McKenzie as Commissioner Gordon in the days before Bruce Wayne became Batman.

HBO Max has also put in development Rip Crew, a crime drama from Code Black creator Michael Seitzman, executive producer Mike Weiss, and ABC Signature Studios. Written by Weiss, the story follows a disgraced ex-FBI agent turned criminology professor who discovers that his most gifted students are planning a massive heist. He then decides to scoop their score and become the type of criminal he used to chase.

Damian Lewis and Dominic West are in negotiations to headline and executive produce a limited series adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s bestselling Cold War espionage thriller, A Spy Among Friends, for Spectrum Originals and UK streamer BritBox. The six-episode project comes from former Homeland executive producer Alexander Cary, Sony Pictures Television and ITV Studios. It follows the defection of notorious British intelligence officer and KGB double agent, Kim Philby (West), through the lens of his complex relationship with MI6 colleague and close friend, Nicholas Elliott (Lewis). 

Showtime is developing La Bravura, a one-hour psychological thriller dramedy from veteran showrunner Tad Quill, S.W.A.T. co-creator Shawn Ryan, and Sony Pictures Television. Quill will serve as writer on the series, which is about a husband whose marriage comes under strain after he films a behind-the-scenes documentary of his wife's elaborate heist of the Getty Museum.

Elisabeth Moss will star as infamous Texas murderer, Candy Montgomery, in the Universal Content Productions limited series, Candy. The project comes from Robin Veith and Nick Antosca, the duo behind Hulu's true-crime limited series, The Act. Candy is set in 1980 Texas, when Candy Montgomery (Moss) seemingly had it all – loving husband with a good job, a daughter and a son, a nice house in the brand new suburbs. So why did she kill her friend from church with an ax?

Orange is the New Black alum, Dascha Polanco, is set as a lead opposite Tate Donovan and Melissa Leo in the Fox pilot, Blood Relative. Tracie Thoms (Truth Be Told) and Sarah Catherine Hook (Conjuring 3) also have been cast as series regulars in the forensic genealogy-themed crime drama from writer-producer Chris Levinson and producer Liza Chasin.

Vienna Blood, the adaptation of Frank Tallis’ novels, has been renewed for a second season by Germany’s ZDF and Austria’s ORF, while BBC Two and PBS will also air the series. The new three feature-length episodes will be written by Sherlock's Steve Thompson and directed by Robert Dornhelm (Anne Frank: The Whole Story). The first series starred Matthew Beard as central character Max Liebermann, the protégé of Sigmund Freud, and was set in 1900s Vienna. When Liebermann comes into contact with Oskar Rheinhardt (played by Tatort’s Juergen Maurer), a detective struggling with a strange murder case, he is called to help him solve the investigation.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring an excerpt from Clean Up on Aisle Six by Daniel Stallings, as read by actor Ian Jones.

Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, was joined by authors Lee Matthew Goldberg (The Ancestor), Lydia Kang (Opium and Absinthe). and Timothy Jay Smith (Fire on the Island).

Suspense Magazine's Beyond the Cover welcomed Leslie Lutz to talk about her debut thriller, Fractured Tide.

Meet the Thriller Author featured broadcaster-turned-author Glenn Dyer, discussing the first two books in his historical Conor Thorn thriller series, The Torch Betrayal and The Ultra Betrayal.

The Spybrary podcast reviewed three Charles McCarry spy novels in the author's Paul Christopher series.

Mugshots: My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Rick Pullen, an award-winning investigative reporter, magazine editor, and author of the Naked City series of thrillers as well as The Apprentice, about a rookie reporter thrust into the Washington political nightmare.

Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, discussed what happens when a cop gets injured on duty; who handles the civil and criminal aspects of an insider trading investigation; and what kind of data is available to a detective investigating the homicide of a foreign national.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Heather Young, author of The Lost Girls, which won the Strand Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award.

If you're a fan of true-crime podcasts, Parade published a listing of "32 True Crime Podcasts Worthy of an Immediate Binge-Listen."