In Reference to Murder

Mystery 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

Two-time Oscar winner Michael Caine, Game Of Thrones star Lena Headey, and singer Rita Ora are among the cast for Twist, an update on the classic Charles Dickens story, Oliver Twist. Also starring will be David Walliams, Franz Drameh, Sophie Simnett, and newcomer Raff Law (son of Jude Law) in the title role. The project reimagines the character of Oliver as a streetwise artist living on the streets of day London. A chance encounter with a gang of grifters led by the charismatic Dodge (Ora) sees Twist (Law) caught up in a high stakes heist to steal a priceless painting for master thief, Fagin (Caine), and his psychopathic business partner, Sikes (Headey).

Sony’s TriStar has preemptively picked up Cooper McMains’ feature thriller, The Tip, and attached Emmy winning director John Strickland (The Bodyguard) to direct. Although the details of the Cooper McMains script are being kept under wraps, elements involve a waitress and a hefty $10K tip from a stranger with events turning dangerous.

Willem Dafoe has closed a deal to join Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and Rooney Mara in Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Nightmare Alley. Dafoe will play the head barker at a traveling carnival who gives Bradley Cooper’s character a job, ushering him into a world of show biz and grifting. Del Toro, who co-wrote the script with Kim Morgan, will direct the thriller for Fox Searchlight with a production start date in early 2020.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Ilene Rosenzweig, Reel One Entertainment, Element 8 Entertainment, and Paris-based La Sabotière are developing a series based on Mary Higgins Clark’s U.S. crime novel, I’ll Be Seeing You. The project will be developed as an open-ended anthology series with each season inspired by a different Higgins Clark novel and a different crime, with over 40 titles to choose from. It will featuring a diverse cast of strong female characters, and set against the familiar backdrop of downtown Manhattan and the suburbs of New Jersey.

CBS has put in development, Bent, a crime drama from writer Vaun Wilmott (Star Trek: Discovery, Prison Break), Jerry Bruckheimer TV, and CBS Television Studios. Written by Wilmott, Bent revolves around an instinctive and streetwise Texas law enforcement officer who is caught between two parental figures – her biological father, who co-opted her into his 10-state crime spree as a child, and her adopted father, who caught them and took her in as his own.

Netflix is developing a sequel to Murder Mystery, the comedy that starred Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, with James Vanderbilt in negotiations to return and pen the script. Sandler and Aniston played a married couple who become embroiled in a murder plot while on a European vacation, bickering their way through the solving of the mystery.

PBS Masterpiece has joined the remake of the classic European detective series, Van der Valk, and will co-produce and air the show in the U.S. The original 1970s series was loosely based on the Nicolas Freeling novels and starred Barry Foster as the thoughtful titular Dutch detective, tackling crimes against a picturesque Dutch backdrop. The producers said the new iteration will see Van der Valk re-imagined as an unapologetic and street-smart cop in Amsterdam who leads a dynamic team investigating mysterious crimes.

Also on the European front, Hammarvik, created by best-selling Swedish author Camilla Läckberg, is the next original production from Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), the Nordic region’s leading streaming company. The innovative 16-part series blends crime drama and soap opera, and will premiere exclusively on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service across the Nordic region in late 2020. Set in the small community of Hammarvik, the series follows police officer Johanna who returns to her home town for her mother’s funeral, whereupon she is confronted by old memories, conflicts and relationships.

Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to The Service, a one-hour drama from writer Drew Lindo, Blindspot creator Martin Gero, and Warner Bros TV. Ten years after her best friend, Josh, vanished, journalist Maya Ford is shocked to see him re-emerge in New York as an operative for The Service, a secret organization that creates elaborate public deceptions to change the lives of its clients. As she follows the man she once knew into The Service’s web, she’ll discover that its unseen influence has the power to change the world.

Fox has given a script commitment plus penalty to Live, a Washington, D.C.-set police drama series executive produced by This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown through his 20th Century Fox TV-based Indian Meadows Productions. Written by Chris Collins (The Wire), Live is based on the Korean series of the same name and is described as "a grounded and gritty, adrenalized exploration of six interconnected unsung heroes within D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department" seen primarily through the eyes of Darcell Murrray, a young African-American cop born and raised in one of the most dangerous sectors of D.C.

Former Grimm executive producers Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner have reteamed with that series’ former writers Thomas Ian Griffith and Mary Page Keller for a new drama project for NBC. The Translator’s Daughter is a thriller about an American college student who, while interning for the CIA, finds herself torn among the loyalty to her country, the female crime boss protecting her, and the young New York detective with whom she’s fallen in love.

CBS TV Studios is looking to reboot the 1995 film comedy, Clueless, for the small screen as a mystery drama of sorts. The show would be focused on the Dionne character played by Stacey Dash in the Alicia Silverstone-led movie and the followup series. The reboot is described "as a baby pink and bisexual blue-tinted, tiny sunglasses-wearing, oat milk latte and Adderall-fueled look at what happens when the high school Queen Bee (Cher) disappears and her life-long number two (Dionne) steps into Cher’s vacant Air Jordans. How does Dionne deal with the pressures of being the new most popular girl in school, while also unraveling the mystery of what happened to her best friend, all in a setting that is uniquely 2020 LA?"

The Mediapro Studio Argentina is partnering with Vice Studios to co-produce The Cliff (El Acantilado), a crime thriller series set in Patagonia. The show has been created by Martin Hodara (who directed 2017 crime feature Black Snow starring Ricardo Darín) and is set in a small Patagonian town where the suicides of several teenagers have shaken local residents. The storyline follows the families of those affected seeking justice while authorities cover up crimes behind the deaths to avoid political consequences.

In a New York Times profile, author John le Carré revealed that his sons' production company, The Ink Factory, is plotting an epic new TV series about his most famous character, spymaster George Smiley. The Ink Factory now plans to do new television adaptations of all the novels featuring Cold War spy George Smiley - this time in chronological order. Le Carré says that his sons are interested in casting the British actor Jared Harris (Chernobyl, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). Harris was originally cast in Tomas Alfredson's 2011 le Carré adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, as MI6 chief Percy Alleline, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, in which he played Professor Moriarty.

Why Women Kill has been renewed by CBS All Access for Season 2, according to the streaming service. The first season of the darkly comedic, drama anthology series stars Lucy Liu, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste and examines details the lives of three women living in three different decades: a housewife in the ’60s, a socialite in the ’80s and a lawyer in 2019, each dealing with infidelity in their marriages. Season 2 will follow a new set of characters dealing with acts of betrayal.

Weeds alum Justin Kirk is set for a key undisclosed recurring role opposite John Lithgow, Matthew Rhys, and Tatiana Maslany in the limited HBO series, Perry Mason. The reimagined Perry Mason is set in 1932 Los Angeles and follows the origins of American fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason (Rhys).

Karrueche Tran (Claws) is set to recur on the upcoming Fox series, Deputy, starring Stephen Dorff. Deputy is a cop drama that blends the spirit of a classic Western with a modern attitude and gritty authenticity. Tran will play Genevieve, the fun-loving, quick-witted partner of a by-the-books deputy in the department. Yara Martinez, Brian Van Holt, Siena Goines, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Shane Paul McGhie, and Mark Moses co-star.

USA released the first full trailer for the third season of its crime drama anthology, The Sinner. In the third installment, Pullman plays Harry Ambrose, a detective who begins a routine investigation of a tragic car accident on the outskirts of Dorchester, in upstate New York but goes on to uncover a hidden crime that pulls him into the most dangerous and disturbing case of his career. Matt Bomer also stars as one of the men involved in the accident, and Chris Messina plays his creepy college friend.


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

British crime author Martina Cole revealed she often receives marriage proposals from prisoners and indulges in a "big glass of whiskey" before writing her most gruesome scenes. The 60-year-old writer from Essex appeared on Loose Women where she opened up about her illustrious literary career, having released 22 novels about crime.

On East Coast Radio, host Terence Pillay chatted with multi award-winning author Deon Meyer about his writing and the upcoming Mnet show, Trackers, based on Meyer's novel.


RNZ: Saturday Morning spoke with Michael Connelly about his new Harry Bosch book, The Night Fire, which also sees the return of Connelly's characters LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Bosch's half-brother attorney, Mickey Haller.

Writer Types welcomed three great authors: Wendy Corsi Staub, Jake Hinkson, and Matthew Mather, plus a report from the Men Of Mystery conference featuring Howard Michael Gould, Brett Battles, Jack Carr, Paddy Hirsch, Phoef Sutton, and Neal Griffin.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro featured author Catriona McPherson, who discussed her golden age mysteries starring Dandy Gilver, her comedic Lexy Campbell novels, her newest domestic Noir (Strangers at the Gate), Scotland, book conferences, and why mailboxes should be red instead of blue.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the topics of "Preptober, FBI Consultants, and SWAT Standoffs."

It Was A Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with author Joshilyn Jackson about her new psychological thriller, Never Have I Ever.

Red Hot Chilli Writers looked at the link between Agatha Christie's disappearance and a hotel room in Istanbul; the fate of Edgar Allen Poe; chatted with crime and contemporary romance novelist Elly Griffiths; found out about a fat bear contest in Alaska; discussed the Booker Prize; reviewed A Very Expensive Poison; and talked about the influence of book blurbs.

THEATRE

The New Victoria Theatre in Woking UK, is presenting The Girl on the Train from October 28 through November 2. This is the latest stop in the touring production of the adaptation of Paula Hawkins's novel, which centers on Rachel, whose only escape is the perfect couple she watches through the train window every day, happy and in love. Or so it appears. When Rachel learns that the woman she’s been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery in which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated.

The Oak Park Festival near Chicago, Illinois, will present The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe — A Love Story, from October 24 through November 17. Two years after the death of his beloved wife, Edgar Allan Poe grapples with love and madness in this innovative, interactive theatre experience that takes place in different rooms in the theatre.


Chicago's Theatre in the Dark is presenting Three Stories Up from October 24 through November 9. After her husband is killed, a transit cop finds herself mixed up in Vancouver’s criminal underground. The 80-minute noir mystery is set (almost) completely in the dark, with the actors playing nearly a dozen characters including cops, priests, journalists, and grifters.

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

Jason Statham is reuniting with Guy Ritchie for the fourth time on an untitled action thriller, a remake of the French 2004 movie, Le Convoyeur, starring Jean Dujardin and Albert Dupontel. The project is a revenge-thriller that will follow "H," a cold and mysterious man responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week. The film also shifts across timelines and between various character’s perspectives.

A female-fronted John Wick spinoff film titled Ballerina is in the works, with Len Wiseman set to direct the film. Ballerina follows a female assassin and will be developed as an extension to the John Wick universe. 

Taken director Pierre Morel is set to helm an action thriller based on the graphic novel, The Blacksmith, by Malik Evans and Richard Sparkman. The project tells the story of a go-to weapons expert who goes on the run after his lab is destroyed and his colleagues are murdered. He has to use his unique set of skills to keep him alive and journey through the heart of his own dark profession. 

Ben Foster (Hell Or High Water) and Gillian Jacobs (Community) have joined Chris Pine in the action-thriller, Violence Of Action, which has now begun principal photography in the U.S., Germany, and Romania. Tarik Saleh (The Nile Hilton Incident) is directing from a script by J.P. Davis. The story centers on James Harper (Pine), who is involuntarily discharged from the Green Berets and joins a paramilitary organization in order to support his family. Harper travels to Berlin with his elite team on a black ops mission to investigate a mysterious threat, where he finds himself alone and hunted across Europe after he is betrayed.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

ABC has given a put pilot commitment to Homicide Special, a crime drama from The Resident co-creator/executive producers Amy Holden Jones and Andrew Chapman. Homicide Special is set inside the Homicide Special division of the Philadelphia PD and follows two young and recently promoted female detectives and a beat cop as they take on an entrenched and corrupt system at an inner city precinct.

Fox has given a script commitment to an FBI drama from The Resident supervising producer Jen Klein. The project is an untitled fast-paced, character-driven drama centering on four female FBI agents in the Manhattan field office, a storyline inspired by journalist and author Doug Stanton’s interviews of women in law enforcement. 

David Oyelowo has been tapped for the lead role in Showtime's The President Is Missing, based on the book of the same name by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. The project follows a powerless and politically aimless Vice President (Oyelowo) who unexpectedly becomes President halfway into his administration’s first term, despite his every wish to the contrary. He walks right into a secret, world-threatening crisis, both inside and outside the White House. 

HBO has picked up a series adaptation of the Maniac Cop film franchise from Nicolas Winding Reffn. Set in Los Angeles, Maniac Cop is told through "a kaleidoscope of characters, from cop to common criminal" when a killer in uniform unleashes mayhem upon the streets. Paranoia leads to social disorder as a city wrestles with the mystery of the exterminator in blue – is he mere mortal, or a supernatural force?

The creative team behind NBC’s 2018-19 drama series, The Village, have reteamed for another drama, which has landed at NBC for development. Titled Bad Blood, the crime drama centers on a murder investigation that leads an upstanding detective deep into the life of a criminal brother he never knew he had. While one brother struggles to go straight, the other increasingly finds himself with a foot in two worlds — cracking cases, harboring secrets, and treading the slippery moral slope of putting blood before blue.

Prodigal Son has been picked up for a full season at Fox, taking Season 1 up to 22 episodes total. The series premiere of Prodigal Son was the highest-rated new series on any network and helped lead Fox to its first victory on opening night of the broadcast season in 10 years. The Walking Dead's Tom Payne stars as Malcolm Bright, a criminal psychologist whose father, Dr. Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen), is a notorious serial killer known as "The Surgeon." Bright's relationship with his father gives him both the baggage and the expertise he needs to solve crimes as a consultant for the NYPD. The network also announced that Here and Now alum Raymond Lee is set for a recurring role in the series.

Last week I noted that the Bourne franchise is coming back very soon to USA with a spinoff series called Treadstone. The show, which is primarily set within the present day, follows a number of sleeper agents after the supposed shuttering of Treadstone years prior. Now, Amazon has picked up the global rights to the drama and will launch the series outside of the States in January 2020 following its debut on the NBCU-backed cable network on October 15. The series stars Jeremy Irvine, Tracy Ifeachor, Omar Metwally, Brian J. Smith, Hyo Joo Han, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, Emilia Schüle, and Michelle Forbes.

A+E networks' spy documentary series, Damien Lewis: Spy Wars, has been picked up in international markets including Canada and China shortly after the Smithsonian Channel snagged it for the U.S. market. The project is Homeland star Lewis's first foray into factual television, and is an eight-part documentary series telling the true stories behind some of the most important international spy operations of the past 40 years.

The Irishman’s Stephen Graham and Black ’47’s Freddie Fox are to star in the new ITV crime drama, White House Farm. Graham plays DCI "Taff" Jones and Fox plays Jeremy Bamber in the factual drama that tells the story of members of the same family who were murdered at an Essex farmhouse. Mark Addy, Gemma Whelan, Mark Stanley, Alexa Davies, Cressida Bonas, Alfie Allen, Amanda Burton, and Nicholas Farrell also star.

Clive Owen is joining Julianne Moore in the thriller, Lisey’s Story, the upcoming Apple+ limited series from Stephen King and J.J. Abrams. Based on King’s best-selling novel from 2006, the eight-episode follows Lisey (Moore) two years following the death of her husband when a series of events causes her to face realities about her husband she had repressed and forgotten.

The Expanse star Cas Anvar has booked a recurring role on the sixth and final season of ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. Anvar plays Robert Hsieh, an in-house lawyer of a popular dating app who works closely with Caplan & Gold on a discrimination suit. 

Game Of Thrones alum Michiel Huisman is set as the male lead opposite Kaley Cuoco in HBO Max’s thriller drama series, The Flight Attendant. The Flight Attendant follows Cassie (Cuoco), a flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. Huisman will play Alex, a charming, wealthy businessman, who runs into some serious bad luck in Bangkok and ends up sticking with Cassie longer than expected. It was also announced that The Purge alum Colin Woodell is set for a key role as an out-of-work actor whose boozy charm is very attractive to Cassie.

Avan Jogia, Dane DeHaan, and Maika Monroe are set to star in the upcoming Quibi series, The Stranger. The thriller follows an unassuming young rideshare driver who is thrown into her worst nightmare when a mysterious Hollywood Hills passenger enters her car. Her terrifying ride with the stranger unfolds over 12 hours as she navigates the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles in a chilling game of cat and mouse. 

John Boyd has been upped to a series regular on FBI for the CBS drama’s current second season. His first episode as a series regular will air on October 22. Bones-alum Boyd plays Agent Stuart Scola, a silver-tongued, quick-witted former Wall Street type. 


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Deon Meyer spoke with JustNje about expectations surrounding the M-net series adaptation of his acclaimed crime novel, Trackers.

In the latest Read or Dead podcast episode, regular host Katie McClean Horner was joined by guest host, Liberty Hardy, to talk about Knives Out, creepy mysteries, and more.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed author Deborah Crombie to chat about the latest in her series with Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James, Bitter Feast.

The latest episode of Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast features the mystery short story, "Mr. Borden Does Not Quite Remem…" written by Ana Brazil and read by actor Kelly Ventura; the story has to do with Lizzie Borden and is perfect for Halloween.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack welcomed journalist and crime writer Peter Eichstaedt. His nonfiction works include First Kill Your Family, his book on child soldiers in Uganda (the 2009 Colorado Book Award winner), and his latest thriller novel is Enemy of the People, the second installlment in his series featuring journalist Kyle Dawson.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Book Club featured guests Lauren North, author of The Perfect Son, and former Toronto Police Officer tuned crime writer, Desmond Ryan, author of Man at the Door.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with Owen Mullen about his native Scotland and his new book, Deadly Harm.

Beyond The Cover welcomed special guest Casey Barrett to talk about his latest book, The Tower of Songs.

THEATER

The Portland Ballet will present Tales by Poe, October 18-19, at Westbrook Performing Arts Center. Inspired by the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Artistic Director Nell Shipman has transformed Poe’s "Berenice," "Tell Tale Heart" and "Masque of the Red Death" into ballets suitable for the most haunting time of the year.

The Lakewood Playhouse is presenting the return engagement of their popular one-man show, An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe. The play will be performed October 18-19 and features Tim Hoban as Edgar Allan Poe inviting you into his parlor to hear some of his most famous stories of the macabre and imagery-filled poetry. 

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

The full cast was revealed for Kenneth Branagh's Death on the Nile just as the sequel to Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express begins filming in Egypt (with a target release of October 9, 2020). The Agatha Christie adaptation once again stars Branagh as Hercule Poirot, along with co-stars Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright. Michael Green, who adapted Murder on the Orient Express, is pulling down writing duties for Death on the Nile. Branagh also announced that he is going to shoot the project in 65mm.

Sony Pictures Classics has set a release date for Marco Bellochio’s The Traitor, which is the official entry from Italy for the International Feature Film Oscar. The film opened on May 23 in Italy and will now be released stateside in New York and Los Angeles on January 31, 2020. The Traitor is based on the true story of Tommaso Buscetta (played by Pierfrancesco Favino), the man who brought down the Cosa Nostra mafia in Sicily. During its Cannes premiere, The Traitor screened in competition and received a 13-minute standing ovation.

Christopher McQuarrie has apparently begun work on the next two Mission: Impossible movies. While the exact plan for the two films hasn't been revealed, they'll be released a year apart from each other which means the two films are set to be shot back-to-back.

A trailer was released for Guy Ritchie’s latest film, The Gentlemen, with Matthew McConaughey playing the sole American expat among an impressive cast of British tough guys. McConaughey’s character has built a profitable marijuana empire in London and is rumored to be cashing out of his business forever, leading every gangster in town to plot schemes, bribes and blackmail in an attempt to win his empire. The only problem is, he is not for sale. Also in the cast are Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has given a put pilot order to Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren’s one-hour drama, The International. Lundgren is set to star as Anders Soto, described as part negotiator, part international spy. He is a one-man covert black-ops team working for the U.N., called in to find asymmetrical solutions to the world’s most delicate and complex problems. Stallone is set to direct, while Ken Sanzel will write and executive produce.

The Bourne franchise is coming back soon to USA with a spinoff series called Treadstone. The show, which is primarily set within the present day, follows a number of sleeper agents after the supposed shuttering of Treadstone years prior. Treadstone will expand the lore of the franchise as well as playing into a new Bourne film, which is in the works.

CBS has put in development Drift, a drama from Black List writer Christopher Salmanpour. After the disappearance of her wife on a scuba trip, a renowned and fearless oceanographer forms an unorthodox but highly skilled team of specialists. They take on the unique challenge of solving crimes committed at sea where evidence and clues are as fickle as the tides, devoting themselves to bringing closure to victims who rarely get it.

AMC has given a series order to the courtroom drama, 61st Street, being described as a "two-season television event series," with eight episodes each. The drama centers on Moses Johnson, 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. Peter Moffat, who wrote the BBC drama which inspired HBO’s The Night Of, is showrunner and executive producer.

TBS has given a straight-to-series order to Obliterated, a 10-episode one-hour action drama. Obliterated is a serialized action dramedy focused on an elite special forces team tracking a deadly terrorist network, hell-bent on blowing up Las Vegas. After their raging end-of-mission party filled with alcohol and drug-fueled debauchery, the team discovers the bomb they deactivated was a decoy. With the clock ticking, the intoxicated team has to fight through their impairments, overcome their personal issues, deactivate the bomb, and save the world.

Sonoya Mizuno (Maniac) is set as a series regular opposite Kaley Cuoco in HBO Max’s thriller drama series, The Flight Attendant, based on the novel by New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian. The project centers on Cassie (Cuoco), a flight attendant, who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. Mizuno will play Miranda, a savvy and potentially dangerous businesswoman who Cassie meets in Bangkok.

S.W.A.T. actress, Stephanie Sigman, confirmed her departure from the CBS drama on social media this week after fans noticed her absence from the show’s Season 3 premiere. One of the show’s original cast members alongside series star Shemar Moore, Sigman portrayed Jessica Cortez, commanding officer of the LAPD Metropolitan Division for two seasons. In the Season 2 finale, the character accepted an offer from the FBI to leave the LAPD and go undercover.

Once Upon a Time alumna Mekia Cox is returning to ABC with a series regular role on the upcoming second season of the cop drama, The Rookie, starring Nathan Fillion. Cox will play Detective Nyla Harper, who tries to reclaim a more normal law enforcement life after a four-year stint working undercover. Her character first appears in the upcoming fourth episode "Warriors and Guardians."

BBC One is set to premiere its Sarah Phelps-written crime drama, Dublin Murders, on October 14. The eight-episode series has been picked up by Starz in the U.S. and is adapted from Tana French’s first two novels in the Dublin Murder Squad crime series, In The Woods and The Likeness. Filmed in Belfast and Dublin, Dublin Murders stars Killian Scott (C.B. Strike) and Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful) as detectives dispatched to investigate a child’s murder, who find a community caught between old and new Ireland.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Laura Lippman joins WYNC's Greene Space to discuss her new book, Lady in the Lake, for the first installment of the book club, "Get Lit with All Of It."

Two Crime Writers and Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste presented a live recording from the Bloody Scotland crime festival as they were joined by an array of talent including Richard Osman, Mark Billingham, Caroline Kepnes, Chris Brookmyre, Helen FitzGerald, and Abir Mukherjee.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack interviewed retired police officer and detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Andy Caldwell. Caldwell's book, Room 1203, is the true crime story of the O.J. case, on which Caldwell served as an investigator.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro welcomed Dietrich Kalteis to talk about his new release, Call Down the Thunder.

The latest Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took a look at the topics of "Firearms Qualifications, Exceptional Means, and OODA Loops."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Anna Lee Huber, the Daphne award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, the Gothic Myths series, and the forthcoming anthology, The Deadly Hours.

The latest podcast from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine features a reading of Macavity Award-nominated short story, "Race to Judgment," by author Craig Faustus Buck.

THEATER

The King's Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland, is staging English dramatist J. B. Priestley's play, An Inspector Calls, through October 12. When Inspector Goole arrives unexpectedly at the prosperous Birling family home, their peaceful dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman. His startling revelations shake the very foundations of their lives.

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

Emmy Award-winning director Jason Bateman (Ozark) is in early talks to direct Ryan Reynolds in Clue, the live-action feature adaptation of the Hasbro board game for Fox/Disney. Bateman also plans to star in the film. Bateman will develop the Clue script with Reynolds, who’s producing through his Maximum Effort banner, along with Allspark Pictures, the film division of Hasbro. Clue is a comedy and murder mystery inspired by the popular board game, but it’s not connected to the 1985 Clue film starring Tim Curry.

Warner Bros is rebooting its 1991 neo-noir gangster film, New Jack City, which Snowfall actor and filmmaker Malcolm M. Mays is writing. The original movie, directed by Mario Van Peebles, boasted a star cast that included Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Chris Rock, Flavor Flav, Allen Payne, Judd Nelson, and Peebles. The plot revolves an arrogant New York City drug lord during the 1980s crack epidemic and a detective who goes undercover in the gang.

Will Smith will take on the role of New York City crime boss Nicky Barnes in his next Netflix film, The Council. Peter Landesman will executive produce and wrote the screenplay that tells the never-before-told story of a crime syndicate consisting of seven African-American men who ruled Harlem in the 1970s and early ’80s. It wasn't an ordinary crime syndicate – the men dreamed of a self-sufficient and self-policing African American city-state, funded by revolutionizing the drug game.

David Strathairn, who earned an Oscar nomination for Good Night, and Good Luck, has joined the cast of Nightmare Alley, the noir thriller being written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Bradley Cooper is headlining the Fox Searchlight production, an adaptation of the 1946 noir novel by William Lindsay (first adapted in the 1947 film noir starring Tyrone Power). Toni Collette, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett also star in the cast. The story is set in a world of carnival hustlers and con men, telling the story of a "mentalist" (Cooper) who teams up with a female psychiatrist (Blanchett) to trick people into giving them money.

Actor Emilio Insolera has joined the cast of 355, the Simon Kinberg-directed global spy thriller starring Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Bingbing Fan, Sebastian Stan, and Edgar Ramirez. Based on an idea by Chastain, the plot centers around female spies from agencies around the world who must use all their considerable talents and training to stop an event from occurring that could thrust our teetering world into total chaos.

A new teaser released for Netflix's upcoming El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie gives us our first look at Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul, reprising his role) in the moments after he left Walter (Bryan Cranston) and drove to freedom in the Breaking Bad TV series finale. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie will premiere on Netflix and in select theaters Oct. 11.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Showtime has given an eight-episode series order to Ripley, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling series of novels, starring Sherlock alum Andrew Scott. The Night Of director, Steven Zaillian, will write and helm the series that centers on Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York. The character was first introduced in Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1955 and later appeared in four more of her novels. He was most famously portrayed on-screen by Matt Damon in the 1999 film by Anthony Minghella.

Rebus is set to return to TV screens after over a decade away. The detective drama starred Ken Stott in the role of DI John Rebus for three seasons when John Hannah quit the role after the first series. Rebus creator, Scottish author Ian Rankin, has confirmed its long-awaited comeback and that new episodes are on the way with Gregory Burke penning the scripts. It's said the new episode could have a Nordic Noir-style, while Rankin (who has penned 22 books featuring Rebus) will have a much bigger say in how the series is run. No broadcast date has been set yet, and there is no word on whether the show would return to ITV.

In a competitive situation with multiple networks bidding, CBS has landed Queens, a police drama from The InBetween creator/executive producer Moira Kirland, executive producer Matt Gross, and studio Universal TV. Written by Kirland, Queens centers on a veteran homicide detective in Queens who takes on the most challenging case of her life — mentoring her new partner, a rookie cop whose Millennial outlook on the world clashes with the veteran’s Gen-X mentality — as these women work to solve the borough’s toughest crimes while also attempting to right a wrong from their past.

Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to DEA, a drama from writer Craig Gore (S.W.A.T.). Written by Gore, DEA is an "operation of the week" show as Jack Riley and his DEA Task Force hunt down a drug kingpin, dismantling dangerous drug organizations in major cities across the U.S. Episodes will be "a combination of smart investigation, intense action, as we explore what drives our main characters (cops and criminals) on both sides of the law."

Freeform has ordered a new thriller pilot from executive producers Jessica Biel, Bert V. Royal, and Michelle Purple, titled Last Summer. It's described as an "unconventional thriller that takes place over three summers – ’93, ’94, ’95 – in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate, is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette, goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town." Each episode is told from the POV of one of the two main girls (Jeanette and Kate), which will have the viewers loyalties constantly shifting as more information is revealed.

CBS has put in development the crime programs Wet House and The Terminal. Cop drama Wet House hails from the Rizzoli & Isles duo of star Sasha Alexander and writer-producer Russell Grant and centers on a female detective who lands at a station for castoff cops with personal demons after she has a fight with a colleague. She soon discovers her new colleagues are not only exceptional police officers who serve and protect their community but also a family of flawed human beings who nevertheless take care of their own. The Terminal is based on a short story by bestselling author Lee Child and centers on an unflappable ex-Marine, the first female to earn the Medal of Honor. When she lands the job of head of security for JFK International Airport, she discovers that protecting what is widely considered the biggest soft target in the world will be the most challenging mission of her life.

Walker, Texas Ranger is getting a reboot, with Supernatural star Jared Padalecki set to headline and executive produce. The "reimagining" of CBS’ long-running 1990s action/crime series starring Chuck Norris is being shopped by CBS TV Studios, with the CW as a leading contender for the new show. The project will see Walker getting a female partner and "will explore morality, family, and rediscovering our lost common ground." At the center of the series is Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a man finding his way back to his family while investigating crime in the state’s most elite unit.

Awesome Media & Entertainment has optioned best-selling author Caroline Mitchell’s detective novel, Truth and Lies, in the hope of creating a female Luther. The story follows the young London detective, DI Amy Winter, the daughter of a husband and wife who were imprisoned for a string of heinous killings. As she investigates the disappearance of a teenage girl, she's forced to reconnect with her incarcerated mother, Lillian, in order to prevent another murder.

Amy Brenneman is set as a lead opposite Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow in FX’s drama pilot, The Old Man, which is based on the eponymous novel written by Thomas Perry. The story centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives gunning for Chase, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. Brenneman will play Zoe, a woman recovering from a bruising divorce, who rents a room to Chase not knowing he’s on the run - and then must draw on reserves she never knew she had in order to survive the day.

Julianne Nicholson (Monos), Jean Smart (Life Itself), Angourie Rice (Black Mirror), Evan Peters (I Am Woman), Cailee Spaeny (On the Basis of Sex), and David Denman (The Replacements) have been cast opposite Kate Winslet in HBO’s limited series, Mare of Easttown. Written and executive produced by Brad Inglesby, who also serves as showrunner, Mare Of Easttown stars Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvania detective whose life crumbles around her as she investigates a local murder.

Sherlock’s Rupert Graves is joining the third season of the Sky drama, Riviera. Graves will play Gabriel Hirsch, the carefree, charismatic and worldly ally of Julia Stiles’ Georgina Ryland. A year has passed since the second season finale, with Georgina having abandoned the cursed Riviera, leaving all its devastation and damage behind to start a new life. Now a rising star in international art restitution, she has reinvented herself as Georgina Ryland as she travels the world – from Venice to Argentina – on the hunt for stolen art works.

Amazon has given a formal Season 3 pickup to its thriller Absentia, starring and executive produced by Stana Katic. Geoff Bell (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Josette Simon (Wonder Woman) have also joined the cast. The series centers on FBI agent Emily Byrne (Katic), with the new season opening three months after the dramatic events of Season 2 that sees Emily nearing the end of her suspension from the Bureau and working hard to be the best possible mother to her son. Everything is upended when one of Nick Durand’s (Patrick Heusinger) criminal cases hits too close to home and threatens the lives of the family Emily is desperately trying to hold together.

BET has canceled the legal drama, In Contempt, after one season. The series which debuted back in April 2018, starred Erica Ash as Gwen Sullivan, an outspoken and passionate public defender in a New York legal aid office.

Fox has added four more characters to its upcoming 9-1-1 spinoff starring Rob Lowe. Natacha Karam, Brian Michael Smith, Julian Works, and newcomer Rafael Silva are joining 9-1-1: Lone Star as series regulars. Karam will play Marjan Marwani, a devout Muslim firefighter, who is also described as an adrenaline junkie. Smith will portray transgender male firefighter Paul Strickland, who "has a gift for observation worthy of Sherlock Holmes." Works will portray rookie firefighter Mateo Chavez, while Silva plays Austin police officer Carlos Reyes.

Timothy Busfield (The West Wing) is set as a series regular opposite Nicholas Pinnock in ABC’s midseason legal drama series, For Life. Written by Hank Steinberg, For Life is a fictional serialized legal and family drama, inspired by the life of Isaac Wright Jr, about Aaron Wallace (Pinnock), a prisoner who becomes a lawyer and litigates cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. Busfield will play Roswell, a legal mentor and trusted friend of Wallace.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Public radio station WLRN in Miami spoke with Alex Segura about his books featuring Cuban-American private investigator, Pete Fernandez.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story "The Mystery of the Jade Cats" by Sharon K Garner and read by actor Ariel Linn. The story is told by a black cat - just in time to kick off the Halloween season.

Criminal Mischief: Episode #28, with host Dr. D.P. Lyle, focused on "The MacGuffin" in crime fiction.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro debuted a new season by welcoming guest, Trey R. Barker, to discuss pounding his heart out as a rock and roll drummer, working in a jail, being a book conference social butterfly, owning a bookstore, and being a cop who writes.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective, Adam Richardson, tackled the topics of "Bad Cops, Romantic Complications, and Interview Rapport."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviewed Faye Snowden, the author of three published mysteries with Kensington, whose new novel, A Killing Fire, features homicide detective, Raven Burns.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Jim Heskett, who writes award-winning mystery-thrillers (and as J.E. Heskett, post-apocalyptic thrillers), seasoned with a dash of snark.

Writer Types, hosted by Eric Beetner and S.W. Lauden, wlecomed three outstanding authors, including Laura Benedict (The Stranger Inside), J Todd Scott (This Side Of Night), and Catherine Ryan Howard (Rewind). 

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham gave "readalikes" for some of the best selling mystery writers like James Patterson, Louise Penny and more.

The Book People podcast snagged Lara Prescott, whose debut novel, The Secrets We Kept, was inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago.

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

Sony Pictures Classics has made another acquisition out of the Toronto International Film Festival with Giuseppe Capotondi’s The Burnt Orange Heresy. The thriller, based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford, stars Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger, and Donald Sutherland and follows an art dealer hired to steal a painting from one of the biggest painters of all time. 

Universal has set August 14, 2020 as the release date for the Bob Odenkirk feature, Nobody, which is described as "John Wick meets Falling Down." Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, the guy you don’t notice, a suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor. But when two thieves break into his home one night, the incident ignites Hutch’s unknown long-simmering rage, propelling him on a brutal path that will uncover dark secrets he fought to leave behind.

Parks and Recreation alum, Natalie Morales, has joined the cast of Warner Bros.’ The Little Things opposite Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Rami Malek. The pic follows Deke (Washington), a burned-out Kern County, CA. deputy sheriff who teams with Baxter (Malek), a crack LASD detective, to nab a serial killer. Deke’s nose for the “little things” proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. Jared Leto is in talks to join in the role as the serial killer in the project from writer-director John Lee Hancock. Morales will play a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department detective working for Baxter.

NEON has released the first trailer for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning drama, Clemency, written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, who made history as the first black female to snag the marquee award at the festival. The film stars Alfre Woodard as prison warden Bernadine Williams, who, over the years, has been drifting away from her husband while dutifully carrying out executions in a maximum security prison. When she strikes up a unique bond with death-row inmate Anthony Woods (Hodge), Bernadine is forced to confront the complex—and often contradictory relationship between good intentions, unrequited desires, and what it means to be sanctioned to kill.

The first trailer dropped for The Rhythm Section, the revenge thriller starring Blake Lively, Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy Awards were handed out last night, and a few crime dramas notched some wins:  Best Actress in a Dramatic Series was won by Jodie Comer as Vilanelle in Killing Eve; Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie went to Jharrel Jerome for When They See Us; Outstanding Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Movie went to Patricia Arquette for The Act, based on the real life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard the murder of her mother. Jason Bateman won for Best Director of a Drama Series for Ozark, and Julia Garner won for her Supporting Actress role as Ruth Langmore in Ozark.

Kiefer Sutherland and Logan star Boyd Holbrook are joining streaming service Quibi’s adaptation of The Fugitive. The series puts a new twist on the 1993 film of the same name that starred Harrison Ford. Sutherland will star as a grizzled, well-respected Los Angeles cop leading an investigation into Mike Ferro (Holbrook), a blue-collar worker who is incorrectly, and very publicly, blamed for a bomb that destroys a subway train.

The Leftovers alum Amy Brenneman has been cast in the Jeff Bridges/John Lithgow spy drama pilot at FX, The Old Man. Adapted from the Thomas Perry novel, the project stars Bridges as Dan Chase, a former CIA operative who absconded from the agency decades ago and has been living off the grid since. FX describes the series as “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.” Brenneman will star as Zoe, a woman picking up the pieces after a bruising divorce who rents a room to Chase not knowing he’s on the run.

Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment have optioned Arthur T. Burton’s book, Black, Red & Deadly, for a TV series that they’ll develop about 19th century Arkansas slave-turned U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves. Reeves was a notable lawman whose legend has largely been ignored by history. Reeves captured more criminals than Pat Garrett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Wyatt Earp, using flamboyant detective skills that were ahead of their time.

Ashlie Atkinson (BlacKkKlansman) is set as a series regular opposite Rami Malek and Christian Slater on the upcoming fourth and final season of USA Network’s Mr. Robot. The series stars Oscar winner Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cyber-security engineer who becomes involved in the underground hacker group, fsociety, after being recruited by its leader (Slater). Atkinson will play Janice, a chatty taxidermist with a peculiar sense of humor. The series also co-stars Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, Martin Wallström, Grace Gummer, Michael Cristofer, and BD Wong.

Beta Film is partnering with Croatian production company Drugi Plan on the six-part drama series, Amnesia, about refugee and drug trafficking at the south eastern European border. The project will star Branka Katić (Captain America – The Winter Soldier), Tihana Lazović (The High Sun) and Aleksandar Cvjetković (Netflix’s The Paper). The drama is slated to shoot next March in the Plitvice Lakes National Park, the actual route used by many refugees who are fleeing Syria and other war-torn regions.

Justified star Timothy Olyphant is returning to FX with a key role in the upcoming fourth installment of the network’s anthology series, Fargo, headlined by Chris Rock. Season 4 is set in 1950 in Kansas City, Missouri amidst the uneasy truce between two crime syndicates.

The 9-1-1 spinoff, 9-1-1: Lone Star, has added Ronen Rubinstein (Dead of Summer) and Sierra McClain (Mindhunter, Empire) to the cast. The series follows Owen (Rob Lowe), a sophisticated New York firefighter who, along with his son (Rubinstein), relocates to the Texas capital and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life. McClain will play Grace Ryder, an Austin-based 9-1-1 call center operator and wife of firefighter Judd Ryder (Jim Parrack).

J.K. Rowling’s crime drama, Strike, will return to U.S. cable network Cinemax and has added several actors for its next season. Live By Night’s Robert Glenister and Peaky Blinders’ Natasha O’Keeffe have joined the series, which is based on Rowling’s best-selling Cormoran Strike crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Psych fans will have to wait a little longer for the second movie sequel. Originally slated to premiere in 2019, the film will not debut until at least spring 2020. That is because the movie is moving from USA Network, home of the original Psych series and Psych: The Movie, to Peacock, NBCU’s upcoming streaming service.

Escape, an established multicast network owned by E.W. Scripps’ Katz Networks, will rebrand itself as Court TV Mystery on September 30. According to the official announcement of the move, the rebrand will “continue the mission of Escape,” which targets women 25 to 54 with true-crime-focused programming.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR's Morning Edition chatted with Attica Locke, author of Heaven, My Home, which continues the series featuring black Texas ranger, Darren Mathews, who returns from Locke's previous novel, Bluebird, Bluebird.

The latest Speaking of Mysteries podcasts featured Sherri Leigh James, talking about her mystery series with interior decorate, Cissy Huntington, and also author James R. Benn, discussing the 14th installment in his series of World War Two mysteries.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Bookclub spoke with S. A. Lelchuk about Save Me From Dangerous Men, the first in a new series featuring bookseller and private investigator Nikki Griffin, which has been optioned for film and television with foreign rights sold in multiple countries.

THEATRE

Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell will return to Broadway in a revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, a play about three low-level crooks conjuring up a get-rich-quick scheme. The production will begin previews in March 2020 with an official opening on Tuesday, April 14. Fishburne will play the character Donny, while Rockwell will play Teach. The duo’s casting leaves the play’s third character, Bobby, as yet unfilled or unannounced.

The Cambridge Arts Theater and the Theatre Royal Plymouth, both in the UK, are the latest stops for the touring production of The Girl on The Train, based on the novel by Paula Hawkins, about a woman who discovers a woman she's been watching through the window on her train commute has disappeared. The show continues through September 28 for Cambridge and through October 5 for Plymouth.

The Limetree Theatre in Ireland is staging a production of Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced, September 30 through October 2. The classic story features Miss Marple who has to discover who committed a murder - at a party where it was announced in advance.

The Top 10 "Most-Produced Plays of the 2019-20 Season in the U.S." include a couple of crime dramas, including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens, based on the book by Mark Haddon, which tied for the top spot, and also Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig from the book by Agatha Christie.

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

Paramount Pictures is rebooting Face/Off, the 1997 John Woo-directed action thriller that starred John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and has hired Oren Uziel to write the script. In the original film, Travolta played FBI agent Sean Archer, obsessed with catching a homicidal sociopath named Castor Troy who's responsible for killing the fed’s son. The agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and takes the mug of his nemesis so he can be sent to prison to find out a bomb’s whereabouts and stop an attack. The plan goes awry when the bad guy wakes up and takes the face of the FBI agent.

Lionsgate is in final talks to acquire the action spec script, Shadow Force. Kerry Washington and Sterling K. Brown will star in and produce the Leon Chills-scripted action drama that is described as "a two-hander action picture reminiscent of films like Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) has signed on to star in the indie drama, Chicago 1919, with Julie Dash (The Rosa Parks Story) set to direct. The project follows two young African American brothers and their involvement in the Chicago race riot of 1919, an extremely violent racial conflict provoked by ethnic White Americans against Black Americans that began on the south side of Chicago. During the riot, thirty-eight people died, and it was the worst of the nearly twenty-five riots in the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919.

Con O’Neill (Chernobyl) and Sarah Jane Potts (Kinky Boots) will lead the cast in the UK revenge-thriller, Don’t Leave Me. The project follows a suicidal man, now working as a church handyman and soup kitchen worker, as he tracks the killers of his wife and daughter.

Teresa Ruiz (Narcos: Mexico) has been added to the cast of The Minuteman, an action thriller starring Liam Neeson. Ruiz also joins actors Katheryn Winnick and Juan Pablo Raba in the story of a rancher (Neeson) on the Arizona border who becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy desperately fleeing the cartel assassins (led by Raba) who’ve pursued him into the U.S.

According to the LA Times, two venerable institutions are throwing their energies behind a search for lost Sherlock Holmes films. The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Baker Street Irregulars are on a mission to recover and restore missing Holmes films from the silent era and beyond. Finding the bygone works will involve the Library of Congress, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and historians, collectors, and national film archives in Britain, Germany, France and other countries. Previous such efforts have located a missing 1916 Holmes production starring American actor William Gillette, which turned up in 2014 in Paris.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Netflix is adapting Harlan Coben’s mystery thriller, The Woods, as a Polish original. It's the latest international adaptation of a Coben book for Netflix, with the digital platform also remaking El Inocente in Spain with Oriol Paulo, and The Stranger and Safe in the UK. Set in two time spans, 1994 and 2019, The Woods tells the story of a Warsaw prosecutor, Pawel Kopinski, who is still grieving the loss of his sister from twenty five years ago – the night she walked into the woods at a summer camp and was never seen again. But now, the discovery of a young homicide victim – a boy who vanished along with Pawel’s sister – reveals evidence that links him to her disappearance. 

Production company, Bad Wolf, is developing a gritty drugs, sex, and nightclubs drama set in the aftermath of World War One. Soho 1918 follows the birth of the nightclub scene in Soho and tells the true story of a conservative, god-fearing 42-year old single mother, Kate Meyrick, who builds a nightclub empire and criminal family enterprise. She eventually becomes the most dangerous woman in London as well as a competitor to Brilliant Chang, the baron of Soho’s gritty underworld.

Six-time Emmy winner John Lithgow is set as a lead along with Jeff Bridges in FX’s drama pilot, The Old Man. FX has also tapped Jon Watts, who directed and co-wrote blockbusters Spider-Man: Homecoming and its sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home, to direct and executive produce. The project is based on the eponymous novel written by Thomas Perry and centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. 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. Lithgow will play Harold Harper, who is called back to service by the FBI after suffering a terrible personal loss. He has a complicated past with rogue fugitive Chase (Bridges), which makes him uniquely suited for hunting him down.

Swedish actor Adam Pålsson has been tapped by Netflix to star as Henning Mankell’s renowned detective protagonist, Kurt Wallander, in a six-episode English-language series due out next year. A prequel series of sorts, the "young Wallender" tells the story of detective Kurt Wallander’s first case when he is in his 20s working as a uniformed police officer. The cast also includes Richard Dillane as Police Commissioner Hemberg, Leanne Best as Frida Rask, and Ellise Chappell as Mona Wallander. The streaming network is hoping for the same success that has made a hit of Shaun Evans’ Inspector Morse prequel, Endeavour.

Ken Watanabe has signed on to executive produce and also star opposite Ansel Elgort in Tokyo Vice, a drama series for HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming platform. Based on the book by Jake Adelstein with a script by Tony-winning playwright J.T. Rogers, the project is based on Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police vice squad where an American journalist embeds himself to reveal corruption.

Game of Thrones star Richard Dormer is set to lead the cast in BBC America’s The Watch, based on Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Dormer stars as Sam Vimes, Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing. The eight-part series, set in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork where crime has been legalized, follows a group of misfit cops who rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe.

Victoria’s Jenna Coleman, Dunkirk’s Billy Howle and Nocturnal Animals’ Ellie Bamber will topline the BBC/Netflix drama, The Serpent. The trio join Tahar Rahim, who plays Charles Sobhraj, one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century. Sobhraj was the chief suspect in the unsolved murders of up to 20 young Western travelers across India, Thailand, and Nepal’s "Hippie Trail" in 1975 and 1976. A psychopath, con man, thief, and master of disguise, he slipped repeatedly from the grasp of authorities worldwide and had arrest warrants on three different continents.

Chernobyl’s Emily Watson will star in the psychological thriller, Too Close, for British broadcaster ITV. Written by actress and author, Clara Salaman, the three-part drama is based on the novel of the same title under the pseudonym Natalie Daniels. Watson plays a forensic psychiatrist assigned to work with a woman accused of a heinous crime but who claims she can’t remember a thing.

Mitch Silpa, perhaps best known for his comedic work in Bridesmaids, is taking on a dramatic role in CBS’s new legal drama series, All Rise. The series follows the lives of judges, prosecutors, and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, and cops to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal system. Silpa will play DDA Clayton Baker, a shrewd Deputy District Attorney who is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead.

Amanda Peet (The Romanoffs) and Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) are set to headline the second season of USA Network's anthology series, Dirty John. Like the first installment, which aired on Bravo and starred Connie Britton and Eric Bana, the second will be based on a true crime story featuring an epic tale of love gone wrong. Season 2, titled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, focuses on convicted murderer Betty Broderick (Peet) and her ex-husband (Slater) that spans the 1960s to the ’80s and chronicles the breakdown of their marriage that Oprah deemed one of "America’s messiest divorces" even before it ended in double homicide.

Liv Tyler is set to star opposite Rob Lowe in Fox’s spinoff series 9-1-1: Lone Star. Set in Austin, it follows Owen (Lowe), a sophisticated New York firefighter who, along with his son, relocates to the Texas capital and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life. Tyler will play Chief Paramedic Michelle Blake, the only one who can match wits with Owen in the station, where she often will put him in his place.

Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, Hope Davis, is set as a series regular opposite Michael Stuhlbarg in Your Honor, Showtime’s limited-run project starring Bryan Cranston and based on the popular Israeli drama, Kvodo. Lilli Kay (Chambers) has also come aboard the project and will recur in multiple episodes. The 10-episode legal thriller hails from Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice) and The Good Wife's Robert and Michelle King and features Davis as Gina, who might be even more dangerous than her husband, the feared crime boss Tommy (Stuhlbarg). Kay plays their daughter, Fia, whose relationship with her new boyfriend might threaten her family.

Emmy winner Uzo Aduba has signed on for a lead role, and Corey Hendrix and newcomer Matthew Elam have also been cast as regulars, opposite Chris Rock on the upcoming fourth season of FX’s Fargo. Set in Kansas City in 1950, the city serves as the crossroads and collision point of two migrations, Italian emigrants versus African Americans fleeing the south to escape Jim Crow, both fighting for a piece of the American dream as two controlling crime syndicates.

Dermot Mulroney, Anthony Welsh, Severine Howell-Meri, Cherelle Skeete, and newcomer Gianna Kiehl have all joined the season 2 cast of Amazon’s Hanna. They join Esmé Creed-Miles, who returns for the second season in the title role, along with Mireille Enos, who reprises her role as CIA operative Marissa Wiegler. Written by David Farr (The Night Manager), Hanna is equal parts high-concept thriller and coming-of-age drama, which follows the journey of an extraordinary teenage girl determined to escape from the grasp of the shadowy Utrax organization and its ruthless agenda.

Starz has set the premiere date for the European crime drama, Dublin Murders, for Sunday, November 10, and unveiled the first trailer. Based on the novel by Tana French, the psychological drama follows Rob Reilly (Killian Scott), a smart-suited detective whose English accent marks him as an outsider when he's tasked with investigating the murder of a young girl on the outskirts of Dublin. He's aided by his partner, Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene), who has his back when's pulled into another case of missing children and forced to confront his own darkness.

Apple TV is cranking up its new service and programming, and you can find a handy guide of current and upcoming shows here, which include Defending Jacob, based on William Landay’s best-selling legal thriller; an untitled series starring Brie Larson as a CIA agent in a new drama that’s said to be based on the real-life experiences of CIA undercover operative Amaryllis Fox; and another untitled series, this one a mystery, that follows a girl who moves to a small town where she gets involved in uncovering a cold case the community has tried to bury.

If you want a chronological listing of new and returning shows to be on the lookout for, the New York Times has you covered (free subscription required).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

On the latest edition of Kansas Public Radio's Conversations, T. Jefferson Parker talks about his latest novel, The Last Good Guy, the third to feature private investigator Roland Ford.

This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Tony Knighton, a lieutenant with the Philadelphia Fire Department, whose new crime novel is titled Three Hours Past Midnight.

Read or Dead's Rincey Abraham was joined by guest co-host Liberty Hardy to talk about the trailer for the Tana French TV adaptation; Emily St. John Mandel's new mystery book; and World War I mysteries.

The latest Criminal Mischief podcast, hosted by Dr. D.P. Lyle, focused on how investigators narrow their suspect list and completely exonerate some suspects by using the population distribution information for the four ABO blood types.

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up with the first chapter of Spirit Wind by Marilyn Meredith, read by actor Julia Reimer.

The Mystery People podcast honored the 20th anniversary of Stark House Press with a discussion on hard boiled crime fiction, featuring a great collection of historians, editors, and authors including Jeff Vorzimmer, Rick Ollerman, Tim Bryant, Josh Stallings, and Joe R. Lansdale.

Adam Hall received the Spybrary treatment on episode 85, with guest host Jeff Quest starting off a two-parter on Hall's Quiller spy books.

This week, the Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, discussed "Career-Long Fitness, Amateur Sleuths, and the Future of Policing."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club focused on the factual side of mysteries with an interview of Rich Cohen and his latest historical true crime, The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation.

The Crime Time podcast reviewed books by Gilly MacMillan & C.J. Tudor and took at look at Stephen King’s 80’s masterpiece, Christine.

THEATRE

Buffalo Theatre Center near Chicago is presenting Holmes and Watson through October 13. Three years following the mysterious "death" of Sherlock Holmes at Richenbach, there have been many who’ve claimed to be Holmes, all de-bunked as imposters by the faithful partner of the sleuth, Watson. But now three separate men insist that they are the infamous detective, having survived that encounter at the Falls. Full of twists and turns, this is "a riveting and clever adventure" from award-winning playwright Jeffrey Hatcher.

Chicago's Lifeline Theatre is staging a production of Whose Body, based on the book by Dorothy L. Sayers, with a run through October 27. When a dead body turns up in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez glasses, amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey assigns himself to the case. However, when the mystery becomes labyrinthine, he enlists the help of close friend Inspector Parker to follow his only lead, a teaching hospital near the scene of the crime. Could it be a harmless prank by a medical student or something more sinister?

Coming soon to the Theatre Royal Plymouth, UK, is the Agatha Christie play, A Murder is Announced. Starting September 23 with a run through the 28th, the story follows residents of Chipping Cleghorn who are astonished to read an advert in the local newspaper that a murder will take place this coming Friday at Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock. Unable to resist, the group gather at the house at the appointed time, when the lights go out and a gun is fired. Enter Miss Marple, who must unravel a complex series of relationships and events to solve the mystery of the killer.

Agatha Christie’s mystery play, The Mousetrap, the longest continuously running play in the world, is coming to the Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso. The play, about a group of strangers stranded in a boarding house during a snowstorm who must figure out which one of them is a murderer, will have performance dates of Sept. 27-29, Oct. 4-6, and Oct. 11-13.

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

Paramount Pictures has acquired Brilliance, and will turn the Marcus Sakey novel adaptation into a vehicle for Will Smith to star and Akiva Goldsman to write. The story is set in a future where non-neurotypical people ("Brilliants") are demonized by society who fear they will threaten the status quo of the "normal" population with their unique gifts. Smith will play the book series hero, Nick Cooper, a federal agent who works for the Department of Analysis and Response and whose job it is to track down and terminate criminal abnorms who use their gifts for ill. 

New Line Cinema has won an auction for Shut In, a spec script by first-time scribe Melanie Toast. The story is an edgy thriller centered on a single mother who is held captive by her violent ex, leaving her two young children at risk - and she must do everything to protect them and survive.

Saban Films has taken U.S. rights to the Aaron Eckhart action thriller, Line of Duty, from director Steven C. Miller. The pic follows Eckhart as a disgraced cop who finds himself in a race against time to find a kidnap victim whose abductor he accidentally killed. The film will be receiving a November theatrical release.

Vikings star, Katheryn Winnick, and Narcos star, Juan Pablo Raba, have joined the cast of The Minuteman, the action thriller starring Liam Neeson that begins production next week in New Mexico and Ohio. The project follows a rancher (Neeson) on the Arizona border who becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy desperately fleeing the cartel assassins (led by Raba) who’ve pursued him into the U.S.

Marvel veteran Hayley Atwell as been cast alongside Tom Cruise in the new Mission: Impossible movie, the seventh in the franchise and the first of two being directed back-to-back by Christopher McQuarrie. However, there is no word yet on the role that Atwell will play.

An upcoming Matt Damon thriller has been given a 2020 awards season release date with a limited release on November 6, 2020, before going wide on November 13. The untitled film follows Damon as Bill, an "oil-rig roughneck," who leaves his familiar Oklahoman environs to be with his daughter, who has been studying in France but was recently imprisoned for a murder she claims she didn't commit. In addition to Damon, the film also stars Abigail Breslin and Camille Cottin.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Fox has put in development The Perfect Couple, a one-hour mystery drama based on Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel. The story centers around wedding season on Nantucket, where one lavish wedding ends in disaster before it can even begin when a body is discovered hours before the ceremony. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash digs into the backgrounds of the bride, the groom, the groom’s famous mystery novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, Kapenash discovers every wedding is a minefield – and no couple is perfect.

Monk creator and executive producer, Andy Breckman, has re-teamed with the series’ director, Randy Zisk, for another hour-long procedural that CBS has put in development. Titled Einstein (and based on the German series), the action follows the brilliant but directionless great-grandson of Albert Einstein, who spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor. That is, until his bad boy antics land him in trouble with the law, and he's pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases.

Black Ops producer World Media Rights is developing a true crime series with the real-life inspiration for Amazon’s Bosch after securing access to two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Cold Case Unit veterans. The ten-part documentary series, Catching the Cold Killers, will follow officers Rick Jackson and Adam Bercovici as they re-open cold cases from LA’s law enforcement community. Jackson, who is a founding member of the LAPD cold case unit, was the inspiration for Michael Connelly’s fictional character, Harry Bosch, which was adapted into the eponymous Amazon cop drama.

Hulu has opted not to proceed with an ambitious two-series drama project based on two of John Grisham’s novels, 1995's The Rainmaker and 2015's Rogue Lawyer. Deadline reported that there is interest from other potential buyers in the project, which had been envisioned as the first chapter in a larger franchise, tentatively titled The Grisham Universe.

Oscar-winning actor Christoph Waltz is set to co-star opposite Liam Hemsworth in the untitled action thriller from Scorpion creator Nick Santora, producer Gordon Gray, Silver Reel Pictures, and CBS Television Studios. In the series, desperate to take care of his pregnant wife before a terminal illness can take his life, Dodge Maynard (Hemsworth) accepts an offer to participate in a deadly game where he soon discovers that he’s not the hunter…but the prey. The action-thriller explores the limits of how far someone would go to fight for their life and their family

Glynn Turman (Mr. Mercedes) is set for a recurring role opposite Chris Rock on the upcoming fourth season of FX’s Fargo, which will be set in Kansas City in 1950. The city will serve as the crossroads and collision point of two migrations, Italians coming from Italy and African Americans fleeing the south to escape Jim Crow, both fighting for a piece of the American dream as two controlling crime syndicates. Rock plays the head of one family, while Turman will recur as Doctor Senator.

Amazon has set the return date for John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan. The series, based on the CIA officer from Tom Clancy’s books, will premiere its second season on Nov. 1. Amazon also released the full-length trailer for the upcoming season,

The first trailer for Netflix's new procedural drama, Criminal, is out, with David Tennant and Hayley Atwell starring as uncooperative suspects in the "innovative" police procedural anthology series. Set entirely in the confines of a police interview suite, the show features 12 distinct stories that take place in four countries: the UK, France, Germany, and Spain.

Facebook Watch has dropped the first trailer for Limetown, its adaptation of the hit podcast starring and exec produced by Jessica Biel. Limetown follows Lia Haddock, played by Biel, a journalist for American Public Radio, as she unravels the mystery behind the disappearance of over 300 people at a neuroscience research community in Tennessee.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Crime author Walter Mosley spoke with WBUR in Boston about his new reference work, Elements of Fiction.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed author Sherri Leigh James to discuss her series featuring interior decorator Cissy Huntington, the protagonist in Blood Red and Iced Blue.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, a podcast hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, discussed "Exigent Circumstances, Becoming a PI, and Confidential Informants."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Bookclub chatted with Ann Aguirre, an American author of speculative fiction, about her new crime novel, The Third Mrs. Durst.

THEATER

The Vertigo Theatre Mystery Series in Calgary, Canada, will present Strangers on a Train, September 15 - October 13, 2019. The thriller play, by Craig Warner that's based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, was made famous by the classic Alfred Hitchcock film.

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

Colin Farrell is teaming up with producer Lee Magiday (The Favourite) and Hopscotch Features on a screen adaptation of the Irish crime novel, The Ruin. Irish writer Dervla McTiernan’s thriller, set in Galway, follows detective Cormac Reilly as he is thrown back into a case from 20 years before involving two children whose mother died of an overdose. Through the eyes of the detective, we see into dark corners of Ireland including police corruption and abuses in the church.

Morgan Freeman and Frank Grillo will star in Daniel Adams’ action film, Panama, inspired by true events. Set in 1989, the film follows James Becker (Grillo), a rugged ex-marine who is sent undercover by his former commander (Freeman) to execute a high-value deal. He must navigate through the local civil war to fight assassins and court femme fatales.

Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 has added Frank Langella to the cast and is also in negotiations with Mark Rylance. Langella joins the cast as U.S. District Court Judge Julius Hoffman, and Rylance would play the defense lawyer for the Chicago 7, William Kuntsler. They join a previously announced cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jonathan Majors and Alex Sharp. Based on Sorkin’s screenplay, the film is based on the infamous 1969 trial of seven defendants charged by the federal government with conspiracy and more after they were arrested during the countercultural protests in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton are in talks to star in the untitled body-swapping thriller that Chris Landon (Happy Death Day) is directing. The film follows a teenager (Newton) who, after swapping bodies with a deranged serial killer (Vaughn), discovers she has less than 24 hours before the change becomes permanent.

Simon Pegg and Oscar winner J.K. Simmons have been set to star in My Only Sunshine, a comedy heist thriller being directed by Mark Palansky. The film, written by J.T. Petty and K. Reed Petty, revolves around a passionately dysfunctional couple who orchestrate a bank robbery as an unconventional act of bloodthirsty marriage counseling. They try to make peace with the shocking mystery of their relationship throughout the violent hostage situation, discovered by a cop hostage negotiator who previously investigated a past related crime.

Anna Kendrick is set to star in Unsound, a new crime thriller film to be directed by Bharat Nalluri from a screenplay by Matthew Ross and Christopher Edwards. The Oscar-nominated Kendrick will play a New England state trooper, privately struggling with irreversible hearing loss, who’s tasked with investigating the prison break of a notorious gang leader. As she digs deeper into the most dangerous case of her career, she uncovers a vast conspiracy that, coupled with her deteriorating condition, threatens to end her career — and her life.

Shailene Woodley has signed to star alongside Robert De Niro and Shia LaBeouf in After Exile, the Joshua Michael Stern-directed drama. Anthony Thorne and Michael Tovo wrote the script, based on true events from Tovo's life. After Exile is the story of Mike Delaney (LaBeouf) who, after being released from prison for killing an innocent man after a violent robbery, must re-enter his old life where he and his ex-criminal father (De Niro) attempt to save his younger brother from a dead end future of drugs and crime. Woodley will play Dana, a woman who has a shared past with Delaney and is seeking her own redemption.

Martin Scorsese's mob drama, The Irishman, has been given its release date, hitting select theaters on November 1 before heading to Netflix on November 27. Based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, the film stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. It was also revealed that the runtime will be 210 minutes (well over three hours).

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

ITV-backed producer Silverprint Pictures is to adapt the crime novel, The Long Call, from the creator of Vera and Shetland, for television. The book is the first novel in Ann Cleeves’ Two Rivers series featuring the reserved and complex Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and evoking the stark beauty of the North Devon coastline and a community where murder and intrigue bubble just beneath the surface.

Emily St John Mandel’s upcoming mystery thriller novel, The Glass Hotel, will be turned into a television series by NBCUniversal International Studios. Mandel will write the pilot, her first television screenplay, about the disappearance of a woman from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania. This mysterious, but seemingly isolated, incident opens a window into a massive ponzi scheme which implodes in New York, destroying countless fortunes and lives with it.

Sophie Rundle (Gentleman Jack) and Martin Compston (Line of Duty) are set to headline BBC One’s forthcoming five-part thriller, The Nest. They play a couple who've been trying to have a baby for years and meet Kaya (Mack), an 18-year-old who agrees to carry their baby. It feels like they were meant to meet, but was it really by chance? Who is Kaya and what has brought her to this couple?

Naomie Harris (Moonlight) will star opposite Jude Law in the HBO and Sky mystery drama, The Third Day, a story told over six episodes and in two distinct halves. The first, "Summer," sees Sam (Law), a man drawn to a mysterious island off the British coast where he encounters a group of islanders set on preserving their traditions at any cost. The second, "Winter," follows Helen (Harris), a strong-willed outsider who comes to the island seeking answers, but whose arrival precipitates a fractious battle to decide its fate.

Abby Brammell (9-1-1, The Unit) has booked a recurring role on the upcoming sixth season of Amazon’s Bosch, the series based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels. Bosch stars Titus Welliver as homicide Detective Harry Bosch, Jamie Hector as Jerry Edgar, Amy Aquino as Lt. Grace Billets, Madison Lintz as Maddie Bosch and Lance Reddick as Deputy Chief Irvin Irving. Brammell will play Heather Strout, a tough, smart, blue-collar woman who may or may not be mixed up in some of her husband’s issues.

ABC has posted the first nine minutes of supernatural drama, Emergence, online. Emergence follows Jo (Allison Tolman), a police chief who takes in a young child (Alexa Swinton) she discovers near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened. The investigation draws Jo into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all.

A trailer was released for Netflix's upcoming thriller, The Spy, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen in a dramatic role playing real-life Israeli spy Eli Cohen. Cohen was an Israeli clerk who was recruited as a Mossad agent and, in the early 1960s, tasked with infiltrating the Syrian regime.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

A new episode of the Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features the mystery short story "Murderous Lies" by Peter DiChellis, read by actor Rene A. Ponce.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Tony Knighton on the Crime Cafe podcast about his writing, including the novella, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties.

On the latest Read or Dead podcast, hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about some interesting adaptations coming soon; survivalist thrillers; and their love (or lack thereof) for the outdoors.

Dr. DP Lyle's latest Criminal Mischief episode looked at "Storytelling In Dixie."

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the topics of "Victim Visas, One-Way Mirrors, and HIDTA."

The featured guest on It Was a Dark & Stormy Book Club was Edwin Hill, discussing his latest novel, The Missing Ones, featuring missing-persons expert, Hester Thursby.

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

Lionsgate has acquired rights to Deon Taylor’s psychological thriller, Fatale, written and produced by David Loughery, and starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy, Mike Colter, and Tyrin Turner. Fatale centers on a married man who finds himself living a nightmare as he is relentlessly compromised, out-witted and morally manipulated by a mysterious woman with whom he had a wild one-night stand. How far will he go to save his marriage from his mistake?

The Warner Brothers sequel to 2017's Murder on the Orient Express is lining up an impressive creative team. Like the first film, Death on the Nile will be directed by Kenneth Branagh who will also reprise his role as Hercule Poirot. Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer have also signed on to the cast, with Russell Brand currently circling a role in the film, as well. Michael Green, who also worked on Logan, Blade Runner 2049, and Alien: Covenant, is writing the script. Death on the Nile follows vacationing Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who must set aside his leisure time to solve the murder of a young heiress.

Emmy nominee Rupert Friend (Homeland) and rapper-turned-actor Cliff "Method Man" Smith have joined Waldo, the Tim Kirkby-directed film based on the novel Last Looks by Howard Michael Gould. Mel Gibson and Charlie Hunnam star in the pic, about a disgraced LAPD detective (Hunnam) who’s spent the past three years living off the grid. He’s reluctantly pulled back into his old life by a former lover in order to solve the murder of an eccentric celebrity’s wife.

Aidan Quinn, who co-starred in all seven seasons of the CBS drama Elementary, has signed on to star in Spiked, an indie drama inspired by the real-life events surrounding Arizona based newspaper-publisher Joseph Soldwedel. Juan Martinez Vera wrote the screenplay and is directing the film, which centers on a migrant worker's murder that leads to a feud and a dirty fight for justice between a newspaper owner and the chief of police. Deirdre Lovejoy (Blacklist, The Wire), Danay Garcia (Prison Break), and Carlos Gomez (Law & Order True Crime) round out the cast.

Liam Neeson is set to star in The Ice Road, an action adventure film written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh. Neeson will play a big-rig ice road driver who, after a remote diamond mine collapses in the far northern regions of Canada, must lead an impossible rescue mission over a frozen ocean to save the trapped miners. Contending with thawing waters and a massive storm, they discover the real threat is one they never saw coming.

Michael Rooker, who played Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy, has joined the cast of Universal’s Fast & Furious 9, playing a character named Buddy in the action sequel. He joins fellow newcomer to the franchise John Cena, as well as returning stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris.

Bond 25 finally has an official title, No Time To Die. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and once again starring Daniel Craig in his final outing as James Bond, No Time To Die finds Bond having left active service and enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.

Universal has set a January 15, 2021 release date for 355, the ensemble spy thriller directed and co-written by Simon Kinberg and starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, and Fan Bingbing. The hope is to launch a franchise based on an idea by Chastain of a Bourne Identity-like thriller focused on female spies from agencies around the world.

A trailer was released for Motherless Brooklyn, starring Edward Norton as a P.I. with Tourette syndrome trying to solve his mentor's murder.

A trailer dropped for Villains, starring Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe as two burglars on the lam who break into the house of a wealthy couple (Jeffrey Donovan and Kyra Sedgwick), only to find out they’re not the bad guys in this story. As they explore the house, they discover a young girl chained up in the basement, and once the home’s owners realize they know their secret, they fight back and make Skarsgård and Monroe their prisoners.

There's also a new trailer for The Report, starring Adam Driver as Daniel J. Jones who uncovers the lengths to which the nation’s top intelligence agency went to destroy evidence, subvert the law, and hide a brutal secret from the American public.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Netflix is teaming with Tony Ayres (The Slap) and producer David Heyman for the thriller, Clickbait. The eight-episode series, to be shot in Melbourne, "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."

Walter Presents is launching another French crime show this autumn, the fast-paced procedural Cain, which will stream on All 4. The series stars Bruno Debrandt as a disabled detective in sunny Marseilles who wheels his way through tough investigations with wit, charm and a bit of rule-breaking.

USA Network has put in development Philly Reign, a 1980s drama executive produced by Mary J. Blige, who will not star in the title role, although she may have a supporting/recurring role. Written by JaNeika & JaSheika James, Philly Reign is inspired by the life of Thelma Wright and her self-published memoir that follows her journey from suburban housewife to drug queenpin in under five years after the death of Wright’s husband left her two choices: let her family starve—or take over the family business. With equal parts grit and grace, she forces her way to the top of the international drug game to build one of the largest cocaine and heroin operations of the 1980s.

House and The Night Manager star Hugh Laurie will play a British politician in the four-part thriller drama for the BBC, Roadkill. The project is about self-made, forceful and charismatic politician Peter Laurence (Laurie), whose public and private life seems to be falling apart—or rather is being picked apart by his enemies. As the personal revelations spiral, he is shamelessly untroubled by guilt or remorse, expertly walking a high wire between glory and catastrophe as he seeks to further his own agenda while others plot to bring him down.

Carter MacIntyre (Benched), Adam J. Harrington (Dirty John) and Terrence Terrell (Giants) are set for a recurring roles on the upcoming sixth season of Amazon’s Bosch. Based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels, Bosch stars Titus Welliver, as homicide Detective Harry Bosch, as well as Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino, Madison Lintz, and Lance Reddick. Both MacIntyre and Harrington will play FBI agents working murder investigations on Bosch’s turf. Terrell will play Marvel, a Jamaican gangster.

BBC One has unveiled its latest programming slate including Inside Man, a death row drama from Sherlock writer Steven Moffat, and the period thriller, Ridley Road, from Barry writer Sarah Solemani. Inside Man is a four-part mini-series where a prisoner on death row in the U.S. and a woman trapped in a cellar under an English vicarage cross paths in the most unexpected way. Ridley Road is a four-part thriller adapted from Jo Bloom’s novel, Shindler, that tells the story of the rise of fascism in 1960s London and one young woman who risked everything to fight it.

Netflix has given a series order to Agent King, an adult animated comedy series. Co-created by Priscilla Presley and John Eddie, Agent King's version of Elvis Presley sees the singer trading in his white jumpsuit for a jet pack when he is covertly inducted into a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country he loves—all while holding down his day job as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Slate's Studio 360 with host Kurt Andersen toured Edgar Allan Poe’s Baltimore With Laura Lippman, who explained her fascination with Poe and why Baltimore is a "good noir town."

On the latest episode of The Cracked podcast, Alex Schmidt was joined by writer, investigator, and podcast co-host Billy Jensen to talk about how one true crime writer started solving murders.

KPPS Midday Edition welcomed T. Jefferson Parker to talk about his new thriller, which is a timely tale of terrorist plots and white supremacy.

On the latest Writers Detective Bureau podcast, host and veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson took on the topics of "U.S. Marshals, the CIA, and Being Taken Downtown."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed author Hank Phillippi Ryan to discuss her latest standalone thriller, The Murder List.

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

A spec script for the psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, which will be directed by and starring Olivia Wilde, has sold to New Line after a hefty auction in which 18 different studios bid on the project. Wilde is reteaming on the project with the writer for Booksmart, Katie Silberman, who will rewrite the original script from Shane and Carey Van Dyke. Don’t Worry Darling is a psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing truth underneath.

District 9 writer/director Neill Blomkamp has parted ways with the Robocop sequel, Robocop Returns. MGM, the studio behind the project, still intends to proceed with the sequel, although details are sketchy at this time, including any news on a potential replacement director, writer, or any cast. Blomkamp announced his departure as being due to his shooting a new horror/thriller, adding that MGM couldn't wait and needed to start filming sooner.

Robert De Niro and Shia LaBeouf have committed to star in After Exile, with Joshua Michael Stern directing from a script by Anthony Thorne and Michael Tovo, based on true events from Tovo's life. After Exile is the story of Mike Delaney (LaBeouf) who, after being released from prison for killing an innocent man after a violent robbery, must re-enter his old life where he and his ex-criminal father (De Niro) attempt to save his younger brother from a life of drugs and crime.

Tommy Lee Jones has joined Katheryn Winnick, Aaron Eckhart, and Heather Graham in April Mullen’s conspiracy thriller, Wander. The film follows Arthur Bretnik (Eckhart), a mentally unstable private investigator, who, after being hired to probe a suspicious death in the town of Wander, becomes convinced the case is linked to the same conspiracy cover-up that caused the death of his daughter. Jones will play eccentric conspiracy theorist, Jimmy Cleats, with Graham set to play Shelley Luscomb, an attorney and close friend of Arthur. Winnick plays Elsa Viceroy, a mysterious authority figure who catches Bretnik’s attention as the investigation deepens.

Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding is in early talks to star in the G.I. Joe spinoff, Snake Eyes, with Robert Schwentke set to direct. Snake Eyes is a silent ninja commando who dresses in all black, never reveals his face and doesn’t speak. He stands out among the other members of his military anti-terrorist group and forms a special relationship with Scarlett, the team’s one-time only female member, while sometimes carrying out solo missions with his pet wolf, Timber. His archenemy is Storm Shadow, a ninja who is also his blood brother.

John Swab’s opioid-epidemic crime thriller, Body Brokers, has added Jessica Rothe, Owen Campbell, Thomas Dekker, Peter Greene, and Sam Quartin to the ensemble cast that includes the previously announced stars Melissa Leo, Michael K. Williams, Frank Grillo, Alice Englert and Jack Kilmer. Body Brokers is the true and untold story of the multibillion-dollar drug and alcohol treatment scheme where former drug addicts and dealers become millionaires as fly-by-night "body brokers," recruiting other addicts to seek treatment and selling these patients off to facilities paying the highest price.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The upcoming snowboarding thriller, Shiver, is being adapted for television after Firebird Pictures, the indie set up by Bodyguard executive producer Elizabeth Kilgarriff, snapped up the rights to Allie Reynolds’s debut novel. The book is set in the French Alps and follows five friends who reunite years after taking part in a snowboarding competition, where their friend Saskia disappeared. While in a deserted lodge on top of a mountain, the secrets of the past come to light.

Amazon Studios has acquired the worldwide rights to the dark thriller, Blow the Man Down, from first-time feature filmmakers Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole. The film is set to make its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month after having its premiere at Tribeca in April, where it won Best Screenplay. Sophie Lowe, Morgan Saylor, June Squibb, and Marceline Hugot star in the film that is set in a salty fishing village on Maine’s rocky coast and involves a stew of murder, sex, and small-town secrets.

NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming service has given a pilot order to One of Us Is Lying, based on Karen M. McManus’s bestselling young-adult mystery-thriller novel. The project is described as "The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars" and tells the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

CBS has opted not to pick up the crime drama, Instinct, for a third season, joining three other mid-season dramas at the network that are not going forward, including The Code, The Red Line, and Ransom. Based on the James Patterson novel, Instinct stars Alan Cumming as a former CIA operative who is lured back to his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer. Novakovic, Daniel Ings, Naveen Andrews and Sharon Leal co-star.

Netflix and A+E Networks’s Crime & Investigation have renewed the true crime documentary series, I Am A Killer, for a second season of ten episodes. It features in-depth interviews with some of the longest serving death row prisoners in America and looks at how they are treated in the prison system as well as the impact of their crimes on their communities and families.

BET Networks’s new streaming service, BET+, is ramping up production on its original content. Paula Patton is set to star in Sacrifice, a new original movie written, executive produced, and directed by Chris Stokes. Set in Los Angeles, the legal thriller stars Patton as Daniella Hernandez, a highly sought after entertainment lawyer as she navigates the nefarious lives of her rich and famous clients.

Better Call Saul alumna, Julie Ann Emery, is set for a recurring role on the upcoming sixth season of Amazon’s Bosch. Based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels, Bosch stars Titus Welliver as homicide Detective Harry Bosch, Jamie Hector as Jerry Edgar, Amy Aquino as Lt. Grace Billets, Madison Lintz as Maddie Bosch, and Lance Reddick as Deputy Chief Irvin Irving. Emery will play Sylvia Reece, one of the FBI agents brought in to investigate a murder on Bosch’s turf.

Arrow actress Katrina Law is heading to Hawaii Five-0 as a regular for Season 10 of the long-running CBS series. Law will play Quinn Liu, "a former Staff Sergeant with Army CID who was recently demoted for insubordination. After an explosive collision with Five-0 during a case involving veterans, Quinn becomes a loyal ally to the team. Sharp-tongued in several languages, she has a deep understanding of military culture, a mysterious past, and a deft ability to match wits with McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin)."

Jessica Hecht (Special), Parisa Fitz-Henley (Jessica Jones), and Eddie Martinez (Orange Is the New Black) are set as leads opposite Bill Pullman, Matt Bomer, and Chris Messina on the upcoming third season of USA Network’s anthology crime thriller series, The Sinner. Season 3 follows Detective Harry Ambrose (Pullman) as he begins a routine investigation of a tragic car accident that uncovers a hidden crime pulling him into the most dangerous and disturbing case of his career.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Robert Crais on the Crime Cafe podcast about his latest novel, A Dangerous Man, the 18th book in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. She also chatted with crime writer Bill Brier, who spent twenty-​five years in the movie business as a cameraman, film editor, and general manager before turning his hand to writing crime fiction.

Criminal Mischief Episode #25 included "A Stroll Through Forensic Science History" with host Dr. D.P. Lyle.

The new Mysteryrat's Maze podcast featured an excerpt from A High-End Finish, the first Fixer-Upper Mystery by Kate Carlisle, as read by actor Casey Ballard.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste talked about the fact there is no book news; US tours; and general "meandering nonsense."

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about the Tiny Pretty Things adaptation; Tana French in the New Yorker; the real-life Where the Crawdads Sing mystery; and they celebrated Women in Translation month.

The latest Meet the Thriller Author podcast welcomed Vince Milam, who has lived all over the world, traipsing through the Amazon, Congo, and Papua New Guinea – all the while capturing sights, experiences, and personalities that are incorporated into his writing.

On this week's Writers Detective Bureau, host and veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson took on the topics of "Being Held Without Charges, Stalking, and Desk Pops?"

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Samantha Downing, author of the USA Today and #1 International Best Seller, My Lovely Wife.

THEATER

The Marlowe Theater in the UK is the next stop for the adaptation of Paula Hawkins's psychological thriller, Girl on a Train, with a run of August 20-24.

The Milton Keynes Theatre in the UK is presenting Agatha Christie's classic play, The Mousetrap, August 19-24. The story is set during a snowstorm that traps a group of strangers with an unknown killer in their midst.

The Theatre Royal Nottingham is staging Dangerous Obsession from August 20-24. When John Barrett unexpectedly appears at the home of Sally and Mark Driscoll, it is clear he is looking for someone to take the blame for his wife’s fatal accident. Dangerously obsessed and determined to seek retribution, Barrett strips away the conflicting secrets of the Driscoll’s apparently perfect lives, until his twisted revenge climaxes in the devastating conclusion of this compulsive psycho-thriller.