In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

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

AWARDS

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) unveiled the winners of their annual SAG Awards for both movies and television last night. Among the crime drama honorees were The Trial of the Chicago 7 which won the award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture (the equivalent of Best Picture), and Daniel Kaluuya won the Best Actor in a Motion Picture prize for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah. On the TV side, Jason Bateman was named Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Ozark.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Netflix will buy the rights to produce two sequels to Knives Out, with director, Rian Johnson, and star, Daniel Craig, set to return to the franchise. The Knives Out sequels have casting underway, and the production team hopes to begin filming in Greece in late June. The original Knives Out was a murder mystery that starred Craig as detective Benoit Blanc investigating the death of the wealthy author, Harlan Thrombey (played by the late Christopher Plummer in one of his last roles).

Salma Hayek has joined the cast of House of Gucci, Ridley Scott’s next film that also stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Jack Huston, and Jared Leto. The film tells the story of how Gaga’s character, Patrizia Reggiani, infamously carried out a hit on her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, after he sold the Gucci fashion empire to an investment group. Hayek will play Pina Auriemma, a friend of Reggiani and a clairvoyant who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for allegedly organizing the killing for a fee.

Armie Hammer has been dropped from another film following accusations of sexual assault against him, this time the Cold War thriller, The Billion Dollar Spy. Based on a real-life story, The Billion Dollar Spy was to have starred Hammer as Brad Reid, a fresh arrival at the Moscow station of the CIA, where he’s approached by Soviet engineer, Adolf Tolkachev (Mads Mikkelsen). No re-casting details have been released just yet.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has given a formal order for the revival series, CSI: Vegas, the first new installment in the "CSI" franchise since CSI: Cyber was canceled in 2016. "Vegas" will see original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation stars Wallace Langham, William Petersen, and Jorja Fox reprise their roles alongside new cast members Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez, and Mandeep Dhillon. Per CBS, the new series "opens a brand new chapter in Las Vegas, the city where it all began. Facing an existential threat that could bring down the Crime Lab, a brilliant new team of forensic investigators must welcome back old friends and deploy new techniques to preserve and serve justice in Sin City."

HBO Max is adapting the true-crime docuseries, The Staircase, into a limited scripted series that will star Colin Firth as American novelist, Michael Peterson, who was on trial in 2001 for killing his wife. The writer claimed his wife died at their home after falling down the stairs, but a medical examiner determined she'd been bludgeoned to death. Peterson was convicted in 2003 for the murder and spent eight years in prison. In 2011, he was granted a new trial, but before it could start, he submitted to an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time served and set free.

Nicky Torchia, Michael Rivera, and Ibrahim Renno are set for recurring roles opposite Christopher Meloni, Dylan McDermott, Tamara Taylor, and Danielle Moné Truitt in NBC’s Law & Order: SVU spinoff series, Law & Order: Organized Crime. The new series follows Elliot Stabler's (Meloni) return to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss. Stabler will aim to rebuild his life as part of a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.

Netflix revealed that Lucifer will return in May for the second half of Season 5. The supernatural procedural series, which initially aired on Fox for three seasons before moving to Netflix, follows Tom Ellis’s Lucifer, who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell. He resigns his throne and abandons his kingdom for Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping LAPD detective, Chloe Decker. Lucifer began airing season 5 in August and will come to an end with an upcoming sixth season.

Shout! Studios has acquired worldwide rights to Emmy-winning director Nancy Buirski’s documentary, A Crime on the Bayou, the third in her trilogy of films that explore vital stories from the Civil Rights era. The project revisits the case of Gary Duncan, who as a Black teenager in 1966 was arrested in Louisiana in a racially-charged incident. Duncan’s "crime" was to break up a fight between white and Black youths outside a newly-integrated school, during which he "gently [laid] his hand on a white boy’s arm," setting in motion a prosecution for assault on a minor. Duncan was defended by Richard Sobol, a young Jewish attorney, and the two developed a friendship as they took their fight for Duncan’s exoneration all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer, Daniella Bernett, on the Crime Cafe podcast, discussing Bernett's latest novel, Old Sins Never Die.

Writer Types welcomed Peter Robinson, author of the long-running DCI Banks novels series, and also spoke with debut author, Robyn Gigl (By Way Of Sorrow), and French author, Johana Gustawsson (Blood Song).

The latest Mysteryrats Maze podcast featured the mystery short story, "Sweet Tea and Deviled Eggs" by Sandra Murphy, as read by actor, Donna Beavers.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with bestselling author Peter May, who was born in Glasgow, but now lives in France. His latest book, The Night Gate, brings back forensics expert, Enzo Macleod, and spans two murders across three generations: from war-torn London to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020, the coronavirus. And Enzo's investigations reveal an unexpected link between the murders - the Mona Lisa.

Wrong Place, Write Crime had a Q&A with Michael Poo‪l‬, talking about his episode of A Grifter's Song, "Rocky Mountain Lie."

Karen Dionne was the latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories. Karen is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novel, The Marsh King’s Daughter.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club celebrated Woman's History Month by featuring four fiction books that include real women of history.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Marco Carocari, who grew up in Switzerland and worked in a hardware store before traveling the globe working for the airlines and later as an internationally published photographer. His debut crime novel is Blackout.

Lynda LaPlante's Listening to the Dead forensic podcast tackled the topic, "Cause of Death – Poisoning."

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page looks to have found his first major starring role since his breakout part in the Netflix series. He's been tapped to executive produce and star in a "new, reimagined version" of The Saint for Paramount Pictures. Based in part on Leslie Charteris’s 1920s book series and subsequent 1960s UK TV series starring Roger Moore, The Saint follows Simon Templar, better known as "The Saint," a Robin Hood-esque criminal and thief-for-hire who goes on a globetrotting adventure. While plot details for this pic are being kept under wraps, insiders say this will be a completely new take that reimagines the character and world around him.

Searchlight Pictures has titled its previously untitled murder mystery as See How They Run, and released its first image from the project with stars Saoirse Ronan and Sam Rockwell. Besides Ronan and Rockwell, the all-star ensemble includes David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, and Ruth Wilson, with Tom George directing. The film is set in the West End of 1950s London, where plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) take on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

Alexis Ostrander, who has directed episodes of the M. Night Shyamalan series, Servant, is set to direct Screen Gems’s Delilah, from the writing team of Harrison Query and Tommy Wallach. The psychological thriller is said to be in the spirit of Gone Girl, with Movie Insider adding the tagline, "To escape her violent past, a young woman takes on the identity of a family's long-lost daughter, only to discover the dangerous truth behind the girl's disappearance."

MGM has unveiled the first official trailer for House of Gucci, an anticipated crime pic from director Ridley Scott, which United Artists will release in the U.S. on November 24. The film stars Lady Gaga and Adam Driver and tells the story of how Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga), the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci (Driver), plotted to kill her husband, the grandson of renowned fashion designer Guccio Gucci. The script is based on the book, The House Of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden. The all-star cast also includes Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, and "an unrecognizable" Jared Leto. (On a side note, Leto has long been associated with the Guccis, having featured in a number of their ad campaigns, starting in 2016.)

Focus Features released the trailer for The Card Counter, the latest from writer-director Paul Schrader. Oscar Issac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, and Willem Dafoe star in the revenge thriller, which hits theaters September 10. The story follows William Tell (Isaac), a military interrogator-turned-card player haunted by his past. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Sheridan), a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel (Dafoe) from both of their pasts.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

Producers Heather Mitchell and Jenna Bans have boarded a one-hour drama in the works at Fox based on Joshilyn Jackson’s bestselling suspense novel, Never Have I Ever. The project, from Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson’s Appian Way and Universal Television, centers on Amy Whey, who is living the life of an average-if-unfulfilled housewife in suburban Florida when a female grifter named Roux drifts into town…and wastes no time infiltrating the network of local women. As Deadline notes, "When Roux learns that Amy’s the Big Fish she needs for her last big score, the hustler and her mark become locked in a deadly battle: How far is Amy willing to go, to keep her secrets hidden in the past? How dangerous is Roux when she zeroes in on her prey? And how could either of these women ever have known that this swindler picked the wrong suburban housewife to mess with."

Disney+ has greenlit the genre-busting marriage murder series, Wedding Season. The project is penned by Oliver Lyttelton, the breakout writer behind BBC Studios’ upcoming short-form scripted series Cheaters, and centers on Katie, a beautiful bride whom we meet on her wedding day surrounded by the dead bodies of her new husband and every member of his family. The police think Katie’s lover Stefan did it. Stefan thinks Katie did it. Katie thinks her ex-husband did it. No one knows what the truth is.

Anonymous Content is partnering with Robert Baer to develop a Cold War series based on research by the author, himself a former CIA case officer. Baer is known for penning See No Evil, the 2002 book which was later adapted into Syriana. That geopolitical thriller from director Stephen Gaghan starred George Clooney, Matt Damon and more, winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Clooney), among other accolades.

Jai Courtney is set for a key recurring role opposite Chris Pratt on Amazon’s conspiracy-thriller series, The Terminal List, based on Jack Carr’s bestselling novel. Riley Keough, Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, and Jeanne Tripplehorn also star in the series. The Terminal List follows James Reece (Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.

Matt Bomer is set as a male lead opposite Michelle Monaghan in Echoes, Netflix’s limited series from 13 Reasons Why showrunner, Brian Yorkey. Echoes is a mystery thriller about identical twins Leni and Gina, both portrayed by Monaghan, who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina have swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: They share two homes, two husbands and a child, but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing. Bomer will play Jack Beck, Leni’s husband. When his wife disappears mysteriously, it’s Jack who has the most to lose as her secret life comes to the surface.

Bodyguard and Line Of Duty star Keeley Hawes has been set to headline and executive produce Crossfire, a major BBC One miniseries about a hotel shooting from the producer behind The Salisbury Poisonings. The three-part series is set in a luxurious resort in the Canary Islands and centers on Jo (Hawes), who is enjoying a dream vacation with her family and friends. Sunbathing on her balcony, the tranquility is thrown into turmoil when shots ring out across the complex from gunmen wreaking revenge. With the unsuspecting and vulnerable holidaymakers and hotel staff forced to make split-second life or death decisions, regrets will linger long after the final shots are fired.

Dylan McDermott has closed a deal to reprise his role in a major recurring arc in the upcoming second season of Dick Wolf’s crime drama, Law & Order: Organized Crime, which is headlined by Law & Order: SVU alum Chris Meloni. McDermott originally signed on as a series regular with a one-year deal to play Stabler’s (Meloni) Season 1 nemesis. McDermott’s Richard Wheatley is a businessman with close ties to the Mafia. In the Season 1 finale, Wheatley is last seen being taken into custody to await trial for the murder of Stabler’s wife, Kathy.

Joe Cobden is set for a recurring role opposite Bill Pullman and Jessica Hecht on the fourth season of USA Network’s crime anthology series, The Sinner. In Season 4, still reeling from the trauma of a previous case a year ago, the now-retired Harry Ambrose (Pullman) travels to Hanover Island in Northern Maine for a recuperative getaway with his partner, Sonya (Hecht). When an unexpected tragedy occurs involving the daughter of a prominent island family, Ambrose is recruited to help the investigation, only to be thrown into a mystery of mounting paranoia that will turn this sleepy tourist island, and Ambrose’s life, upside down. Cobden will play Lou Raskin, the beloved Chief of Police on Hanover Island who enjoys the simple life and knows most residents by name.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features the mystery short story, "Killer Clue," written by Guy Belleranti and read by actor Paddy Myers

Read or Dead looked at mystery reads for Disability Pride Month.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Eva Lesko Natiello, the award-winning author of The Memory Box.

Queer Writers of Crime welcomed Garrick Jones, a former opera singer turned author of a crime series featuring private eye, Clyde Smith.

My Favorite Detective Stories spoke with Mark Edward Langley, whose novel, When Silence Screams, the third installment in the Arthur Nakai Mystery Series, will be released in August of 2021

On CrimeTime FM, Chris Whitaker (We Begin at the End) & Dominic Nolan (After Dark) discussed creating strong characters, getting dialogue right, and the importance of place.

The CozyInk podcast featured an interview with mystery author Martha Geaney, discussing her Star O’Brien cozy mystery series.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

A sequel to the 1996 TV movie, Gotti, about mobster John Gotti, is in the works, with Nick Vallelonga and George Gallo signed on to write the script. Armand Assante, who won an Emmy for a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for his portrayal in the original, is set to reprise his title role in Gotti 2: The Final Chapter, Facts Undisputed. (FYI, the 1996 film Gotti is not to be confused with the 2018 John Travolta film of the same name which famously scored a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and stands as one of the review aggregator's worst reviewed movies of all time.)

Cory Hardrict is set to star in the indie thriller, Die Like a Man. Eric Nazarian is writing and directing the pic which is the first part of a street trilogy revolving around themes of masculinity, violence, and gentrification in 21st century America. Hardrict portrays a recently paroled west side gangster who, after serving a decade behind bars, returns to his old west LA neighborhood, now gentrified and redeveloped. All his friends are dead or have moved on, and his only anchor is training his best friend’s son in the ill-fated codes of masculinity on the street that lead to devastating consequences.

Succession star, Brian Cox, is set to star opposite Kate Beckinsale in the Catherine Hardwicke-helmed family drama, Prisoner’s Daughter. The film tells the story of a tough but proud ex-con who’s struggling to find a way to reconnect with his only daughter and grandson; once he begins an attempt at reconciliation, his violent past once again catches up to him.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

Netflix has greenlighted The Night Agent, a political conspiracy thriller series based on author Matthew Quirk’s 2019 New York Times bestseller. The Night Agent is described as "a sophisticated, character-based action-thriller" centering on a low-level FBI agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office.

Natalie Chaidez (The Flight Attendant; Queen of the South) has acquired the film and TV rights to Oscar "Zeta" Acosta's novels, Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and The Revolt of the Cockroach People, and will executive produce and supervise writing for an upcoming TV series. Acosta was a Mexican-American attorney, politician, novelist, and activist in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement who disappeared in Mexico in 1974—a year after his second novel was released—and is presumed dead. He's also famously known for his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized Acosta as being like "Samoan attorney Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

Michelle Monaghan has been cast in the dual lead role in Netflix's upcoming thriller series, Echoes. Described as a mystery thriller, the seven-episode series centers on two identical twins, Leni and Gina, who have secretly swapped lives since they were children. They share two homes, two husbands, and a child but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing.

Danielle Deadwyler and Whoopi Goldberg are set to star in Till, a drama about the aftermath of the murder of Emmett Till, from Clemency director Chinonye Chukwu. Till centers on Mamie Till-Mobley, who led a pursuit for justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till, choosing to have an open casket at her son's funeral following his gruesome murder in 1955 after he was accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store. Mamie chose to have Jet magazine publish the horrific photos at the funeral, which became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. Deadwyler in the film will play Mamie, while Goldberg will portray Emmett's grandmother, Alma Carthan.

Emmy Award nominee Phillipa Soo has joined the cast of the AppleTV+ time traveling murder mystery series, Shining Girls, based on the 2013 best-selling novel by Lauren Beukes. Soo will portray the intelligent and sure-footed Jin-Sook who works in the research department at the Adler planetarium. She will star opposite Elisabeth Moss, who portrays a Chicago reporter who survived a brutal assault only to find her reality shifting as she hunts down her attacker. The star-studded cast also includes Wagner Moura (Narcos) as a veteran journalist breaking the widening story of a copycat attack, and Jamie Bell as a mysterious loner with a surprising connection to Kirby.

Michael Chernus is set as a lead opposite Rachel Weisz in Amazon’s Dead Ringers series, a reimagining with a gender swap of David Cronenberg’s cult classic 1980s film. Dead Ringers is a modern take on Cronenberg’s thriller (which starred Jeremy Irons), featuring Weisz playing the double lead role of Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twins who share everything: drugs, lovers, and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes, including pushing the boundaries on medical ethics in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s healthcare to the forefront. Chernus will play the series regular role of Tom, a brilliant scientist, working with Elliot (Weisz) on a groundbreaking but perilous new project.

ITV’s adaptation of Louise Candlish’s Sunday Times best-selling novel, Our House, has cast Martin Compston (Line Of Duty), Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey), and Rupert Penry-Jones (The Drowning) in headline roles. Our House tells the four-part story of Fi Lawson (Middleton), who arrives home one day to find a family of strangers moving into her house and her husband, Bram (Compston), has vanished. As the nightmare takes grip, both Bram and Fi try to make sense of the events that led to a devastating crime and how they each are going to survive the chilling truth.

Corbin Bernsen and Alexis Valdés have been tapped for roles opposite Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits Watergate, one of the biggest political scandals in American history. White House Plumbers is based in part on public records and the book, Integrity, by Egil "Bud" Krogh and Matthew Krogh. It tells the true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect. Bernsen will play Richard Kleindienst, the Harvard-educated attorney general that is tainted by the ITT scandal and a contentious confirmation process. He refuses to use his power to shield the Plumbers from investigators. Valdés plays Felipe De Diego, a Cuban-American real estate broker and yachtsman who participates in every Plumbers operation except the one which ends in their arrest.

German actress Christiane Paul (Counterpart) and Carter Redwood (The Long Road Home) round out the series regular cast of FBI: International, the upcoming third series in Dick Wolf’s hit FBI drama franchise on CBS. FBI: International follows the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. Headquartered in Budapest, they travel the world with the mission of tracking and neutralizing threats against American citizens wherever they may be. Not allowed to carry guns, the Fly Team relies on intelligence, quick thinking and pure brawn as they put their lives on the line to protect the U.S. and its people. Paul will play a Europol agent, while Redwood plays a member of the FBI Fly Team in Budapest.

CBS has dropped a first-look teaser for CSI: Vegas, a sequel to the mothership CSI series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The sequel features returning CSI stars William Petersen, Jorja Fox, and Wallace Langham, who are joined by new series regulars Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez and Mandeep Dhillon. CSI: Vegas opens a new chapter in the city where it all began. Facing an existential threat that could bring down the Crime Lab, a brilliant team of forensic investigators must welcome back old friends and deploy new techniques to preserve and serve justice in Sin City.

Showtime has released the first trailer for American Rust, the upcoming series adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Philipp Meyer starring Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney. Set to premiere on Sept. 12, the series is described as a "story of survival and transcendence" centered on Del Harris (Daniels), the chief of police of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town. When news of a murder rips through the town, Harris must decide what lengths he is willing to take to protect the son of the woman he loves. Tierney stars opposite Daniels as Grace Poe, whose son is accused of murder. The cast also includes Bill Camp, David Alvarez, Alex Neustaedter, Julia Mayorga, Mark Pellegrino, and Rob Yang.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, chatted with mega-bestsellers Karin Slaughter (False Witness), Brad Parks (Unthinkable), and Glen Erik Hamilton (Island of Thieves).

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed M. J. Polelle, who is a Harvard Law School graduate, an emeritus professor of the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, and an award-winning legal writer. The Mithras Conspiracy was his first novel, and his latest, American Conspiracy, will be published on July 27.

The latest guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Chris Holcombe, an author of LGBTQ+ historical crime fiction. The Double Vice is the first novel in his Hidden Gotham series, which showcases New York’s lively but criminally under-represented queer world of the 1920s.

Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled the topics of who investigates money laundering and gun trafficking; proving your main character's innocence; and the parallels between the courtroom and show business.

In the latest episode of Red Hot Chili Writers, Vaseem Khan discussed his new book, The Dying Day; there was a discussion of racism in sports films; and Tracy Fenton of TBC (The Book Club) talked about her favorite novels of the year so far.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

John Slattery, Ayden Mayeri, Lorenza Izzo, and Annie Mumolo have joined the cast of Confess, Fletch, starring Jon Hamm. The reboot closely follows the plot of the classic Gregory McDonald mystery novel series that inspired the 1980’s Chevy Chase films. Hamm stars as I.M.Fletcher, the hotshot investigative reporter played by Chase in the 1985 neo-noir comedy of the same name. Mcdonald’s eleven mystery books, the first of which was published in 1974, center on Fletcher as he juggles writing exposés while avoiding headaches caused by his two ex-wives.

Oscar nominee, Anna Kendrick, is reteaming with Lionsgate for the psychological thriller, Alice, Darling, currently in production in Canada. The project sees the feature directorial debut of Mary Nighy and follows Alice (Kendrick) who is behaving strangely and keeping secrets about her mercurial boyfriend (Charlie Carrick) from her two best friends (Wunmi Mosaku and Kaniehtiio Horn). When the three friends take a girl’s trip out of town, all secrets are revealed when a local girl goes missing and Alice’s boyfriend arrives unannounced.

Ian McShane is set to reprise his role as Winston opposite Keanu Reeves in the Chad Stahelski-directed John Wick: Chapter 4. Marko Zaror is also in negotiations to play one of the film's villains, joining the ensemble cast of Donnie Yen, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Lance Reddick, and Shamier Anderson.

Chris Gray is set to play young Ray in Showtime’s follow-up feature-length movie, Ray Donovan. The film picks up where Season 7 of the popular series left off following its surprise cancellation last year, with Mickey (Jon Voight) in the wind and Ray (Liev Schreiber) determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more carnage. Gray plays the younger version of Schreiber’s Ray Donovan, and like his older self, he is a physically imposing young man who can convey much with only a few words and is decisive and calm in times of crisis.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

The recently announced Emmy Award nominees were fairly bereft of crime drama nods but did have a couple for Perry Mason, including Matthew Rhys for Lead Actor and John Lithgow for Best Supporting Actor. Mare of Easttown was also nominated for Best Limited Series; Best Actress, Limited Series (Kate Winslet); Supporting Actress, Limited Series (Julianne Nicholson and Jean Smart); and Best Supporting Actor, Limited Series (Evan Peter). Hugh Grant (The Undoing) was also nominated for Lead Actor, Limited Series, Movie or Anthology. For all the nominees, follow this link.

AMC Networks has greenlighted the Western noir thriller series, Dark Winds, based on the popular Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman. Created and executive produced by Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan), the series stars Zahn McClarnon (Westworld) and Kiowa Gordon (Roswell, New Mexico) as Navajo Tribal Police Officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, respectively. Dark Winds, which has received a six-episode order, is a psychological thriller that follows the two officers in the 1970s Southwest as their search for clues in a grisly double murder case forces them to challenge their own spiritual beliefs and come to terms with the trauma of their pasts.

The Last Police, an adaptation of Ben Winters’ sci-fi mystery novel The Last Policeman, has received a pilot order at Fox. The hour-long project, which has a slightly different title from the book, will be written, directed, and executive produced by Kyle Killen (Lone Star). The Last Police follows a small-town police detective, who, as an asteroid races toward an apocalyptic collision with Earth, believes she’s been chosen to save humanity, while her cynical partner can’t decide what he’ll enjoy more: her delusional failure, or the end of the world itself. The book was first published in 2012 and won the Edgar Award in the category of best original paperback before being followed up by two subsequent books – Countdown City and World of Trouble.

Law & Order: For the Defense, which had been slated for a fall 2021 launch with a straight-to-series order, has been scrapped by NBC. The legal drama, which was supposed to be part of an all-Law & Order Thursday lineup alongside Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime, will be replaced on the schedule by veteran The Blacklist, which will relocate from Fridays to the Thursday 8 PM berth for its ninth season. For the Defense, which took an inside look at a criminal defense firm, had progressed to the casting stage, with offers made to name actors over the past two months.

Starz has found its lead director for the upcoming TV spinoff of John Wick, titled The Continental. Albert Hughes will direct the first and third episodes of the drama, which focuses on the origin of the hotel for assassins from the Keanu Reeves-led film franchise. Starz had initially developed the project as an ongoing series, but it was recently reported that it will now be a three-part TV event across three nights.

Amazon’s Tiger King series, which would have starred Nicolas Cage as Joe Exotic (based on the story of Joe Schreibvogel), has been scrapped. The series was one of two scripted takes on the subject, the other set at Peacock starring Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell, which is still moving forward. In an interview with Variety, Cage expanded on the decision: "I read two excellent scripts... but I think Amazon ultimately felt that it was material that had become past tense because it took so long for it come together. They felt at one point that it was lighting in the bottle, but that point has since faded into the distance and it’s no longer relevant."

Alexa Davalos has been tapped as a lead opposite Julian McMahon on CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted for the show’s upcoming third season. As a new series regular, she will play an FBI agent who joins Jess’s (McMahon’s) team. From Dick Wolf and the rest of the team behind FBI, spinoff FBI: Most Wanted focuses on the Fugitive Task Force, an elite unit that relentlessly pursues and captures the notorious criminals on the Bureau’s Most Wanted list. In addition to McMahon, Davalos joins fellow series regulars Kellan Lutz, Roxy Sternberg, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Miguel Gomez.

Oliver Hudson has been tapped as a male lead opposite Elodie Yung in Fox’s new drama series, The Cleaning Lady. Hudson is joining as a new series regular in a recasting that also involved a role redevelopment. He will play FBI Agent Garrett Miller, a newly created character that will replace FBI Special Agent Gavin Ross.

The Wrap posted a list of the premiere dates for broadcast TV’s new and returning fall shows. They include the NCIS franchise series (minus the Louisiana version but with the added new Hawaii version); the FBI franchise series (with the added FBI: International); S.W.A.T.; Magnum P.I.; The Equalizer; and SEAL Team.

NBC announced its fall lineup, which includes many of the same returning crime dramas such as the "Chicago" and "Law and Order" franchises.

The new season of Britbox's modern cozy mystery series, McDonald & Dodds, premieres on August 3rd. The series follows newly promoted DCI McDonald and veteran sergeant Dodds as they investigate complex mysteries with a web of clues that has everyone guessing who are the real victims and villains. Ahead of the new season, Britbox dropped a trailer, which you can view here.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Haunting Dreams by Jan Christensen, read by actor Ariel Linn

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Jeff Abbott about his aptly-named new crime fiction novel, An Ambush of Widows, (ambush is the collective noun for widows), in which two men with no apparent connection to each other are shot and killed in a warehouse in Austin, Texas.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with former Hollywood finance exec Lorraine Evanoff about her new thriller, Pinot Noir.

Queer Writers of Crime welcomed Meredith Doench, author of the Luce Hansen thriller series.

Chris Racknor, who has a Ph.D. in physics, was the latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories. Racknor is author of a series with disgraced physicist turned private eye, Shawn Ronin.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured a Beach Reads Roundup.


THEATRE

The Gloucester Stage in Worchester, MA, is presenting an outdoor staging of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. In the fast-paced comedy, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must crack the mystery of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" before a family curse dooms its newest heir. The timeless duo investigate a dizzying web of clues along with three actors who deftly portray more than 40 characters. Performances run through July 25.

The Ivoryton Playhouse in the town of Essex, Connecticut (believed to be the first continuously operating, self-supporting summer theatre in the United States and listed in the National Register of Historic Places), is staging Murder for Two, a spoof by Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian, through August 1. The show features one piano, one wannabe detective, one murder (until it’s two), two gifted actors and a lucky baker’s dozen of suspects.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Judas and the Black Messiah's director-producer and co-scribe Shaka King, along with producers Ryan Coogler and Charles D. King and star Lil Rel Howery, are collaborating on an untitled original movie centering around an American political insurrection. Details are being kept secret although Shaka King will be part of the writing team that he's currently assembling. Judas and the Black Messiah received six Oscar noms including Best Picture, and won for Daniel Kaluuya’s turn as Black Panthers chairman, Fred Hampton

Working Title has optioned rights to best-selling author Ruth Ware’s suspense thriller, The Turn of the Key. Max Minghella (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Jamie Bell (Rocketman) have signed on to write the screen adaptation of the novel, which tells the story of a young woman who stumbles across an ad to take on a position as a live-in nanny at a high-tech "smart" house in the Scottish Highlands. In spite of the extremely generous salary, a beautiful location, an incredible home and the seemingly picture-perfect family, it soon becomes clear that all is not what it seems.

Nell Tiger Free (Servant), Thomas Doherty (Gossip Girl) and Lorenza Izzo (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) will lead the cast of Fall Into Darkness, an English-language remake of Spanish thriller, La Cueva. Billed as a "Lord of the Flies survival tale," the story follows two American travelers in the Dominican Republic as they join a backpacking trip with experienced locals. When the hike takes them into the disorienting depths of a vast cave system, desperation for survival drives them to make choices that will change them forever.

Lionsgate has reportedly closed a deal for Lance Reddick to reprise his role as Charon, the concierge of New York’s Continental Hotel, in the John Wick franchise. He’s the guy who helps out Keanu Reeves’s title character whether he’s fending off bad guys or looking after Wick’s dog. Reddick joins the previously announced cast of Reeves, Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rina Sawayama, and Shamier Anderson in the Chad Stahelski-directed sequel.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

Apple is set to produce a series adaptation of the Garth Risk Hallberg novel, City on Fire. The project is being developed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who are writing the series and will all serve as showrunners and executive producers. In City on Fire, Samantha Cicciaro, an NYU student is shot in Central Park on the 4th of July with no witnesses and very little physical evidence. As the crime against Samantha is investigated, she’s revealed to be the crucial connection between a series of mysterious city-wide fires, the downtown music scene, and a wealthy uptown real estate family fraying under the strain of the many secrets they keep.

Kyle MacLachlan is set for a key role opposite Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell in Joe Exotic (working title), Peacock’s limited series based on the Wondery podcast. The project centers on Carole Baskin (McKinnon), a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe "Exotic" Schreibvogel (Mitchell) is breeding and using his big cats for profit. She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy. MacLachlan will play Howard Baskin, Carole’s (McKinnon) even-keeled husband who supports her throughout the endeavor with Joe (Mitchell). 

Lily Rabe is set as a lead alongside Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, and Patrick Fugit in HBO Max’s Love and Death, a limited series about the true story of Texas housewife Candy Montgomery’s murder of Betty Gore in 1980. Rabe will portray Gore opposite Olsen’s Montgomery in the series from David E. Kelley, Nicole Kidman, and Lionsgate Television. Love and Death is inspired by the book, Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs and a collection of articles from Texas Monthly. The series revolves around two churchgoing couples enjoying small-town family life in Wylie, until somebody picks up an ax. 

Kaley Cuoco is in negotiations to star in and produce the "high concept" thriller, Role Play, which follows a young married couple whose life turns upside down after secrets are revealed about each other’s past. The screenplay is from Seth Owen, also wrote the 2015 Ridley Scott produced sci-fi thriller Morgan, and is said to have "a franchise-able hook." 

Virgin River‘s Benjamin Hollingsworth is set for a recurring role in Joe Pickett, the Spectrum Originals drama based on C.J Box’s novels. The ten-part series will be headlined by Michael Dorman and also features David Alan Grier, Julianna Guill, Sharon Lawrence, Mustafa Speaks, Paul Sparks, Skywalker Hughes, and Kamryn Pliva. Joe Pickett follows a game warden (Dorman) and his family as they navigate the changing political and socio-economic climate in a small rural town in Wyoming. Surrounded by rich history and vast wildlife, the township hides decades of schemes and secrets that are yet to be uncovered. Hollingsworth will portray Ote Keeley, a big game poacher whose brazen and unpredictable behavior makes him both intimidating and a bit scary.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! released a 2021 preview video on YouTube. This year's programs include Unforgotten Season 4 with a July 11 premiere (6 episodes); Guilt, with a September 5 premiere (packaged as two, 2-hour episodes); Grantchester Season 6, with an October 3 premiere (8 episodes); and Baptiste Season 2, premiering on October 17 (6 episodes).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On CrimeTime FM, Laura Lippman talked to Paul Burke about her new novel, Dream Girl; Baltimore; #Me TOO and racism; and why being a writer is a little like playing for a living.

The latest edition of Writer Types featured authors turned co-writers Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver talking about their new collaboration, Choose Me; Willa C Richards discussing her debut novel, The Comfort of Monsters; and there was a panel with Palm Springs Noir contributing authors Tod Goldberg, Janet Fitch, and Barbara DeMarco-Barrett.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Susan Elia MacNeal to talk about The Hollywood Spy, the tenth installment in MacNeal’s World War Two-era series featuring Maggie Hope, a code breaker and bomb defuser.

The feature guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Christopher Murphy, an activist, artist, and author of the breakout thriller, Where The Boys Are.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime fiction writer, Richard Meredith, for the Crime Cafe podcast.

The Suspense Magazine podcast had a Q&A with Author Riley Sager (the pseudonym of a former journalist, editor and graphic designer), as he talked about his latest book, Survive the Night.

The latest guest on Meet the Thriller Author was Jeffrey James Higgins, a former reporter and retired supervisory special agent who writes thriller novels, creative nonfiction, short stories, and essays.

The Red Hot Chili Writers chatted with regular contributor, Amit Dhand, about his new book, The Blood Divide, and with Tariq Ashkanani about his thriller, Welcome to Cooper. Tariq also told us about the Capital Crime New Voices Award, which is open to anyone who wants to write a crime novel.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Scott Adkins is in negotiations to join the cast of Lionsgate’s John Wick 4, with Keanu Reeves reprising the role of Wick. Donnie Yen, Rina Sawayama, and Shamier Anderson are also joining the cast, with Chad Stahelski returning as director. The film, written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, is set for theatrical release on May 27, 2022.

Inbar Lavi and Jack Kesy have signed on to star in Vronika, a psychological thriller from writer/director Geert Heetebrij. Heetebrij’s debut feature centers on strong-willed Roni (Lavi) and her ambitious husband Stephen (Kesy), a stay-at-home crypto-currency day trader who manifests a twin version of his wife named Vronika (also played by Lavi), to assist him in winning trades.

Logan Marshall-Green, Matt Craven, and newcomer Ridley Asha Bateman have joined the cast of Lou. They join previously announced cast members Allison Janney and Jurnee Smollett. In Lou, a young girl is kidnapped, and her mother, with no other option, teams up with the mysterious older woman next door to pursue the kidnapper – a journey into the wilderness that will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from their pasts.

Sarah Goldberg and Jimmy Akingbola have joined the cast of the UK thriller, Freegard. As previously revealed, the cast is led by James Norton, Gemma Arterton, Shazad Latif, Marisa Abela, Edwina Findley, and Julian Barratt. Based on true events, the movie will chart the story of career conman, Robert Freegard, played by Norton, with Gemma Arterton as the woman who brought him down.

The John Leguizamo crime movie, Dark Blood, has been picked up for distribution in North and South America by FilmRise. The film, directed by Colombian filmmaker Harold Trompetero (Diastole systole: Los movimientos del Corazon), follows a father who is imprisoned after committing a brutal revenge crime. During his confinement he must adapt to a new life of abuse, including injury and humiliation by guards and other prisoners. Deadline provided the first trailer for the project.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

John Lithgow is returning to his old Dexter stomping grounds, making a "short but decisive appearance" in the Michael C. Hall-led revival of Dexter on Showtime this fall. Awarded his fifth Emmy for the role as the revered but feared “Trinity Killer” in the fourth season of the series’ original run, Lithgow’s character was soundly bumped off by Dexter Morgan himself in season-finale episode back in late 2009. This of course, raises the question of how Lithgow’s Arthur Mitchell will return, but the writers say they've "concocted a pathway for the Trinity Killer to come back that works within the larger Dexter narrative."

Antonio Banderas is set to play the Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi, who investigated one of the most notorious serial murder cases in Europe alongside American fiction writer Douglas Preston. The limited series project is based on Preston and Spezi’s book, The Monster of Florence: A True Story, the investigation into a serial killer who murdered 14 people between 1974 and 1985 in the Italian province. Preston and Spezi uncovered mistakes made by police in their investigations of the crimes, all of which were tied to young couples killed during romantic rendezvous in the Italian countryside. Preston and Spezi at one point became entangled in the case and accused by police of crimes associated with the murders.

Netflix is developing The Craving, a new thriller drama series from Escape Room director, Adam Robitel, and writer Gavin Heffernan (Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension). The Craving explores "the real-world horrors of addiction through a genre lens" and centers around a female sheriff in a Colorado ski town besieged by an unprecedented new threat.

Lifetime has greenlighted Safe Space, a new original movie thriller starring Nicole Ari Parker and her husband, Boris Kodjoe, who also makes his directorial debut. Drea de Matteo, Nik Sanchez, and Mackenzie Astin also star. Safe Space centers on recently widowed Lila Jackson (Ari Parker) and her 14-year-old, autistic son Ian (Sanchez). Since the death of her husband, Lila is grateful for their kind neighbor Neil Hargrove (Kodjoe), who looks out for them. After Ian accidentally witnesses a break-in at the house across the street and records the horrific murder of the homeowner, Lila becomes embroiled in a deadly struggle to protect her son from intruders Dominic (Astin) and Rocco (De Matteo), who will stop at nothing to retrieve the video evidence of the crime and silence them. Hiding and trapped in a makeshift panic room created by her late husband, Lila and Ian must use all of their strength and intelligence to outsmart the intruders to save themselves.

Janine Nabers, who has written on HBO’s Watchmen and Netflix’s Away, has signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios. The playwright and television writer has also set up her first project in development, a tech drama called Syd. The series follows a powerful Black tech CEO who wakes up one morning to discover that a mysterious entity has hacked its way into his life. In order to regain control, he must follow a series of sinister clues.

William Fichtner has been tapped for a key role opposite Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell in Joe Exotic (working title), Peacock’s limited series based on the Wondery podcast. Fichtner will play Rick Kirkham, Joe’s (Mitchell) reality show producer in a recasting, taking over for Dennis Quaid, who had to exit the project due to a scheduling conflict. The project centers on Carole Baskin (McKinnon), a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe “Exotic” Schreibvogel (Mitchell) is breeding and using his big cats for profit. She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy.

Wunmi Mosaku is set to join the growing ensemble of HBO’s We Own This City limited series, from The Wire’s EP David Simon and producer George Pelecanos. Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles and Jamie Hector are also on board in the cast. The series is based on Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s book, We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption and chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force — and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.

13 Reasons Why showrunner, Brian Yorkey, has inked a new overall deal with Netflix and has set up the limited thriller series, Echoes. The seven-episode series is described as “a mystery thriller about two identical twins, Leni and Gina, who share a dangerous secret." Since they were children, Leni and Gina have secretly swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: they share two homes, two husbands, and a child, but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing.

Allison Tolman, J.C. MacKenzie, Chris Bauer, Hamish Linklater, and Chris Messina are set for recurring roles in Starz’s Watergate drama, Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Based on the first season of the Slate podcast, Slow Burn, Gaslit is a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal — from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates, to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down.

Michael Stuhlbarg is set as a lead in The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited series drama adaptation based on the true-crime docuseries. He joins previously announced Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Odessa Young, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, and Sophie Turner. The eight-episode series, from Christine director Antonio Campos and American Crime Story writer Maggie Cohn, explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette). Stuhlbarg will play David Rudolf, Michael Peterson’s criminal defense attorney.

Telma Hopkins, Linda Park, and Vanessa Marano are set as series regulars opposite Shanola Hampton and Dascha Polanco in the NBC pilot, Dangerous Moms. Written by Janine Sherman Barrois and based on the Spanish series, Señoras del (h)Ampa, Dangerous Moms is an off-center dark dramedy about four diverse mothers who accidentally kill the queen bee of their school’s PTA during the demonstration of a new high-end food processor. The story becomes a female anthem about friendship and family as it tells the story of one completely unprepared group of women who must juggle their everyday lives while their worlds are turned upside down.

Agent Clinton Skye won’t be returning to FBI: Most Wanted. Nathaniel Arcand’s Clinton Skye was introduced in the 18th episode of the first season of the mothership FBI series, which served as the backdoor pilot for the spinoff. He appeared in the first 14 episodes of the 15-episode first season of the spinoff, but only three episodes in Season 2. FBI: Most Wanted is a high-stakes drama that focuses on the Fugitive Task Force, a unit that relentlessly pursues and captures the notorious criminals on the Bureau’s Most Wanted list. The series stars Julian McMahon, Kellan Lutz, Roxy Sternberg, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Miguel Gomez.

ABC has decided not to go forward with the Kevin Costner-executive produced National Parks Investigation. The crime drama, starring Billy Campbell, will be shopped around to other networks.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Author Cate Holahan (Her Three Lives) joined Eric Beetner from the co-host seat on Writer Types as they chatted with guests Tracy Clark (Runner) and Morgan Cry (Thirty-One Bones).

Read or Dead tackled mysteries that work great on audio in celebration of Audiobook Appreciation Month.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Hilary Davidson about her new psychological thriller, Her Last Breath.

This week's guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Ann McMan, author of twelve novels and two collections of short stories. She is a two-time Lambda Literary Award winner, a nine-time winner of Golden Crown Literary Society Awards, a three-time IPPY medalist, a Foreword Indies finalist, and a recipient of the Alice B. Medal for her outstanding body of work

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Mary Keliikoa, author of the Lefty and Agatha award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series and the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner, slated for release in September 2022.

CrimeTime FM featured Sarah Vaughan (Anatomy of a Scandal) and Harriet Tyce (Blood Orange) discussing courtroom dramas, the lure of the wig and gown, and why British writers shouldn’t be talking about the gavel.


A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, this one featuring the mystery short story, "Pig Lickin' Good," by Debra Goldstein as read by actor Ariel Linn. The story takes place on the 4th of July, perfect for your holiday-themed listening.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has a tradition of including work written by writing teams and collaborators. Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet, who have been writing together for more than forty years as Hal Charles, saw their fiction debut in the magazine’s Department of First Stories. In this month’s podcast, Hal Blythe reads “Draw Play” by Hal Charles from the May 2003 issue.

The Criminal Mischief podcast with Dr. D.P. Lyle investigated "Carbon Monoxide Poisoning" and its potentially criminal applications.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

MGM has landed the rights to the novel, The Husbands, from best-selling author, Chandler Baker, with Kristen Wiig attached to star and produce along with Plan B Entertainment. Baker will adapt for the screen, marking her feature screenwriting debut, and also serve as an executive producer on the film. The Husbands follows an overworked mother who, while house hunting in a nice suburban neighborhood, meets a group of high-powered women with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to take on a legal case involving the untimely death of one resident’s husband, she risks exposing not only the secrets at the heart of her own marriage, but the true secret to having-it-all, one worth killing for.

Sam Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin are starring in Matt Nable’s directorial debut, Transfusion. The thriller, which also features Nable, is about a former Special Forces operative thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him. Production began in Sydney earlier this week. The film is already scheduled for a theatrical release through Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand but will be shopped for international sales at Cannes.

Matthew Modine, Embeth Davidtz, and Arian Moayed have boarded the Studiocanal Liam Neeson thriller, Retribution, in key roles. The story follows a banking executive whose life is thrown upside down when a bomb is placed inside his car with himself and his family. The banker’s children are forced to go through the harrowing events with him.

Jessica Henwick, who recently landed one of the leads in the new Matrix movie, has rounded out the cast for the next installment of Knives Out, with Daniel Craig returning to star and Rian Johnson to write and direct. Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Madelyn Cline, and Edward Norton were also recently added to the cast. Plot details are unknown at this time other than Craig returning to solve another mystery involving a large cast of suspects. It is also unknown who Henwick will be playing. Production is set to start this summer in Greece.

AJ Michalka has joined the cast of the upcoming Ray Donovan feature-length film. Michalka will play the younger version of Abby in the film, which will continue Ray’s journey following the hit drama series’ seven-season run on Showtime. Star Liev Schreiber returns in his titular role and is co-writing the script along with series showrunner David Hollander, who also directs. The new film picks up where season seven left off following the series’ surprise cancellation last year, with Mickey (Jon Voight) in the wind and Ray (Schreiber) determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more carnage. It will also weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey’s origin story from 30 years ago.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Apple has unveiled the ensemble cast for Surface, its upcoming psychological thriller series from High Fidelity co-creator and exec producer, Veronica West. Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Stephan James, Ari Graynor, François Arnaud, Marianne Jean Baptiste, and Millie Brady join the previously announced Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the series from Apple Studios and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Additionally, Emmy-nominated Sam Miller (I May Destroy You; Luther) will serve as director and executive producer on the eight-episode first season. Starring Mbatha-Raw as Sophie, Surface is described as "an elevated thriller" about a woman’s quest to rebuild her life after a suicide attempt, and her struggle to remember – and understand – everything that led up to the moment when she jumped.

Megan Boone is leaving The Blacklist at the end of the NBC drama’s currently airing eighth season. She has starred on the series as FBI agent, Elizabeth "Liz" Keen, alongside James Spader as criminal mastermind, Raymond "Red" Reddington, since the show premiered in 2013. Apparently, the decision was mutual between the actress and producers and has been in the works since before The Blacklist was renewed for Season 9 in January, giving the writers time to plot out the end of Liz’s storyline in next week’s Season 8 finale. Along with Boone and Spader, the show also stars Diego Klattenhoff, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq, Laura Sohn and Harry Lennix.

HBO will release a documentary offshoot of Ronan Farrow's book, Catch and Kill. The TV project, titled Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tales, will consist of six half-hour episodes recreating Farrow's "interviews with whistleblowers, journalists, private investigators and other sources as he investigated allegations of sexual misconduct around the now-jailed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, former Today anchor Matt Lauer, and other key media industry figures." Directed by Emmy winners Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the project will debut on HBO with two back-to-back episodes on July 12 and new episodes on subsequent Mondays.

As The Killing Times reported, Channel 4 in the UK has revealed a slate of new crime dramas, including a first-look at the new version of Dalgliesh – based on PD James’s best-selling novels and starring Bertie Carvel – in a new trailer.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Mysterious Bookshop held a virtual Q&A with author James Ellroy that featured a deep dive into his new novel, Widespread Panic.

Read or Dead celebrated Pride Month by talking about books by authors who identify as LGBTQ+ or have written amazing stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

On the Queer Writers of Crime podcast, Shane K Morton was this week's featured guest. Shane has been a playwright and musical theatre actor before turning his hand to LGBTQ+ romance, mystery and YA novels. He also writes darker horror/mystery under the name Sean Azinsalt.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Iron Goddess by Dharma Kelleher, read by actor Casey Ballard. The episode celebrates Pride month as it features a mystery about an LGBTQ+ character written by an LGBTQ+ author.

Writer Types featured an all-Scandinavian episode, as host, Eric Beetner, was joined by Icelandic authors, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Girls Who Lie), Sólveig Pálsdóttir (Silenced), and Quentin Bates, a British author who writes about Iceland (the Officer Gunnhilder series); and from Sweden, Carin Gerhardsen (Black Ice, the Hammarby series) also stopped by.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Laurie R. King about her 17th Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes crime fiction novel, Castle Shade, in which the couple is asked by Queen Marie of Romania to investigate a threat made against her daughter, requiring Russell and Holmes to travel to Castle Bran in Transylvania.

Andy Weir, who took the publishing world by storm with his book, The Martian, stopped by Suspense Radio to talk about his latest novel, Project Hail Mary, which follows an astronaut who has to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery to prevent an extinction-level threat to our species.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Don Bentley, author of the Matt Drake thriller series as well as Target Acquired, a Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Jr. novel.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, was joined by debut novelist Sarah Adlahka; got book recommendations from Shawn Reilly Simmons, Scott Kikkawa, and Carmen Jaramillo; and spoke with film director/writer, DJ Holloway.

John Hoda, host of My Favorite Detective Stories, chatted with Tammy Euliano, MD, a practicing anesthesiologist who has also written award-winning short fiction. The medical thriller, Fatal Intent, is her debut novel.

In the latest Writers Detective Bureau podcast, veteran Police Detective, Adam Richardson, walked through how a detective gets a search warrant; how to obtain phone records in a missing person investigation; and whether police officers get involved in arson investigations in California.

Crime Time FM welcomed authors Sarah Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes) and Alex North (The Whisper Man).


THEATRE

Theatrical productions continue to return, with one of the latest being a staging of Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web at Scottsdale's Desert Stages Theatre Mainstage Friday, June 25 through Sunday, July 11. Directed by Dan Ashlock Jr., the plot sees the Queen of Mystery poking fun at the genre that made her famous. (Note that there will be no show on July 4 due to the Independence Day holiday.)

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Universal Pictures is in pre-production on a drama based on "She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement," by New York Times reporters, Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor. The article included details of hush money paid to cover up the sexual crimes by producer, Harvey Weinstein, and first-person accounts by actresses accusing Weinstein of non-consensual sexual indiscretions. The article would not only lead to Weinstein being sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape but also spurred the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that are still making major impacts across the world while also completely changing the landscape of Hollywood forever.

Harry Melling, best known as Dudley from the Harry Potter franchise, is set to play a young Edgar Allan Poe in the Netflix/Scott Cooper-directed murder mystery, The Pale Blue Eye. The film is a passion project of Cooper, who has tried making it for more then a decade, and also stars Christian Bale as a veteran detective tasked with solving a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Bale’s detective partners with a detail-oriented young cadet (Melling), who will later become the world famous author we all know today.

Madelyn Cline is set to join Daniel Craig in the next installment of Knives Out, along with Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, and Edward Norton, who were also recently added to the cast. Deadline first reported in March that Netflix was closing a deal north of $400 million for the next two installments, an historic deal for streamers. Rian Johnson is back to write and direct the project and Craig will reprise the role of super sleuth, Benoit Blanc.

Eiza González will star in Wolf Country, a thriller that Jennifer Fox will direct from a script by Pete Begler. González plays a young deputy who is shunned by her entire community when she uncovers a large drug haul that leads straight to a ranch belonging to the town’s lauded and beloved sheriff, her father. When he escapes custody and flees into the rugged Colorado wilderness, his daughter must track down the very man who taught her everything about right and wrong to bring him to justice.

Rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Emmy winner, Beau Bridges, have signed on to star opposite Queen Latifah in the Netflix movie, End of the Road. Latifah stars as Brenda, who, after losing her job and being recently widowed, embarks on a cross-country trip with her family to start a new life. But in the New Mexico desert, cut off from help, they must learn to fight back when they become the targets of a mysterious killer.

Emile Hirsch and Liana Liberato have joined Thomas Jane and his daughter Harlow in the cast for the thriller, Dig. The film follows a widowed father and his daughter, who suffers from major hearing loss, as their house is set for demolition. After arriving at the construction site, they are soon taken hostage by a dangerous couple (Hirsch and Liberato), who will stop at nothing to retrieve what lies beneath the property. The father and daughter must work together to outsmart their captors and survive the grueling night.

Hayley Law and Keith Powers have joined Avan Jogia in the neo-noir thriller, Door Mouse. Also starring Famke Janssen and Donal Logue, the story centers on a woman named Mouse (Law) who is stuck in a dead-end job, doing nothing with her life and going nowhere. Mouse works at Mama’s Burlesque Club all night, where her boss Mama (Janssen) encourages her to pursue her real passion of making comics. When a friend from work goes missing and the cops do nothing about it, Mouse and her sidekick, Ugly (Powers), take it upon themselves to find out what happened to her. What they discover is that corruption runs deep, monsters are real, and that sometimes, justice is meant to be taken into your own hands.

A trailer was released for No Sudden Move, a heist thriller set in 1950s Detroit. Steven Soderbergh directs and has assembled a strong cast that includes Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, Kieran Culkin, Noah Jupe, Julia Fox, Frankie Shaw, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, and the late Craig "muMs" Grant. No Sudden Move will make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival as the fest’s centerpiece movie on June 18, and it will be released as an HBO Max exclusive starting on July 1.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Chris Addison is adapting Caimh McDonnell’s The Dublin Trilogy series of novels for television. The books are set in Dublin and follow the adventures of an unlikely crime-solving trio. The first installment, A Man with One of Those Faces, tells the story of what happens to Paul Mulchrone when a simple case of mistaken identity leads him into a complicated web of intrigue in which people keep trying to kill him. The only people willing to help are Brigit Conroy, the crime-obsessed nurse who got him into the mess in the first place, and Bunny McGarry, an unconventional old-school copper with whom he has a complicated personal history.

The BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated team behind Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are set to adapt spy author Dave Hutchinson’s Fractured Europe Sequence novels into a major television series titled Europa. The series is set in a near-future Europe, which has splintered into countless tiny nation-states after being ravaged by a pandemic and economic decay. In the first book, Europe In Autumn, Rudi, a chef based out of a small restaurant in Krakow, Poland, is drawn into a new career with Les Coureurs des Bois, a shadowy organization that will move anything across any state line for a price. Soon, Rudi is in a world of "high-risk smuggling operations, where kidnappings and double-crossings are as natural as a map that constantly redraws itself."

Patrick Schwarzenegger has joined the formidable cast of The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited-series drama adaptation based on the true-crime docuseries. He joins previously announced Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Sophie Turner, and Odessa Young. The eight-episode series, from Christine director, Antonio Campos, and American Crime Story writer, Maggie Cohn, explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette). Schwarzenegger will play Todd Peterson, Michael Peterson’s son.

Will Poulter and Lucy Boynton will lead the cast of Hugh Laurie’s three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? The story follows the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances "Frankie" Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who gasps the cryptic question of the title with his last breath. Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket, these amateur detectives pursue, and are pursued by, the answer to the mystery.

Giovanni Ribisi, Colin Hanks, and Dan Fogler will join Miles Teller and Matthew Goode in Paramount+’s upcoming limited series, The Offer. The project is based on two-time Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s experience of making 1972's iconic The Godfather that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo from Puzo’s bestselling novel. The movie starred Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and Talia Shire. It was nominated for eleven Oscars and won three — including one to Ruddy for Best Picture. 

Leighton Meester is set to star in Netflix’s twisty thriller, The Weekend Away, an adaptation of the novel by Sarah Alderson. The psychological thriller takes place amid a weekend getaway to Croatia that goes awry when a woman is accused of killing her best friend. As she attempts to clear her name and uncover the truth, her efforts unearth a painful secret. Alderson is adapting the screenplay, with Kim Farrant set to direct.

UK-based production company, Hillbilly Films and Television, has optioned the rights to adapt Jules Grant’s 2016 crime thriller novel, We Go Around In The Night And Are Consumed By Fire, as a limited drama series. Georgi Banks-Davies is attached to direct, while Clare McQuillan will serve as lead writer on the adaptation. The story follows Donna, a gangster, street poet, and boss of the all-female Bronte Close Gang, whose illicit profits are made by selling drugs from perfume atomizers in club toilets. Alongside single parent Carla – her best friend, trusted second-in-command and subject of her unrequited love – they carve out an empire on the toughest streets of Manchester. While the gang avoids violent turf warfare, a tragedy soon sees Donna set out to exact a violent retaliation.

Netflix and Jennifer Lopez have signed a massive deal to produce "a slate of films, television series, scripted and unscripted content, with an emphasis on projects that support diverse female actors, writers and filmmakers." The first project announced by the streamer will be Lopez’s action thriller, The Mother, which will be directed by the live-action Mulan helmer, Niki Caro. The film will have Lopez pulling a John Wick, playing a deadly assassin "who comes out of hiding to teach her daughter how to survive." Shooting gets underway this fall, with a late 2022 release on Netflix. The second project will be The Cipher, based on the thriller novel by Isabel Ojeda Maldonado. That adaptation, part of Maldonado’s series centering on her FBI agent character, Nina Guerrera, has the agent tangling with a serial killer from whom she escaped as a teen.

A month ago, Clarice was poised to move from CBS to Paramount+ with the promise of a long run for a premium version of the Silence of the Lambs sequel. Now, prospects for the series appear bleak as negotiations between the ViacomCBS streamer and co-producer MGM have reached a stalemate. Additionally, there is no viable path for Clarice to continue on CBS since the broadcast network already committed to a full slate of series for next season. It would mean the end of the road for the high-profile drama, which had already snagged a Season 2 order.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

James Patterson and Bill Clinton, authors of The President is Missing, appeared on Good Morning America and Live with Kelly and Ryan to chat up their latest co-written thriller, The President's Daughter.

The Reading and Writing podcast welcomed Les Edgerton to talk about his latest novel, Hard Times.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Jean Hanff Korelitz about her psychological thriller, The Plot.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Alma Katsu about her first spy novel, Red Widow, the logical marriage of her love of storytelling with her 30+ year career in intelligence (as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA).

Mia P. Manansala stopped by the Queer Writers of Crime podcast to talk about how she uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture in her debut novel, Arsenic and Adobo.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Cynthia Kuhn to discuss her Lila MacLean academic mysteries and her upcoming bookstore mystery series.

Robert B. McCaw was the latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories, talking about his Koa Kane Series where the islands of Hawaii are central to the themes and concepts.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Sarah Graves's Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle, the fourth in the Death by Chocolate series.

James Wolff joined Crime Time FM to talk about growing up in the Middle East, spy fiction, the meaning of treachery, and his new novel, How to Betray Your Country.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed crime authors Laura Shepherd-Robinson and Will Shaw, and also discussed the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, disappearances from trawlers, and why Truman Capote was jealous of Harper Lee.


THEATRE

Following an award winning run at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2021, Australia's favorite comedy magic psychic detective is back in 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation. Based on an obscure 90-year-old short story by Dashiell Hammett, this genre-smashing play is one of the only stage shows in the world that incorporates magic effects into a story about a bank heist, and is described as "Sam Spade meets Naked Gun meets Penn & Teller." Performances run through Saturday, June 26.

As rehearsals begin this week, Peter James and producer Joshua Andrews have announced full casting for the world premiere stage production of James's best-selling novel, Looking Good Dead, based on the author's series featuring Brighton-based detective, Roy Grace. Harry Long will star as Detective Grace, joined by award-winning EastEnders star, Adam Woodyatt, and actors Gaynor Faye, Kellie Bryce, Ian Houghton, Leon Stewart, Gemma Stroyan, Luke Ward-Wilkinson, Mylo McDonald, and Natalie Boakye. The production is now set to open at the Leicester Curve on July 1, ahead of a major UK tour.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

In a preemptive and very lucrative deal, Sony Pictures and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures have optioned Don Winslow’s upcoming crime trilogy epic, beginning with City On Fire. That first novel, which follows the template of Homer’s Iliad, will be published by William Morrow in September. The follow-up, City of Dreams, will follow a year later, and the third installment, City in Ashes, will be published in September of 2023. The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno will produce the films. The trilogy focuses on two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of Rhode Island and have led a peaceful lucrative co-existence until a modern-day Helen of Troy tears them apart and starts a brutal war. The protagonist, Danny Ryan, is forced to grow from a street soldier into a ruthlessly efficient leader to protect his friends, his family, and the home he loves. Fighting the Mafia, the local cops, and the feds, Danny will build a dynasty or die trying.

Star Trek's Zachary Quinto and Euphoria's Jacob Elordi will star together in He Went That Way, a road trip crime thriller set in the ’60s and based on a true story. Jeffrey Darling, a commercial director, will make his feature film directorial debut. He Went That Way centers on a strange road trip that involves a serial killer, an animal handler, and a TV chimpanzee star named Zippy. The film is inspired by how animal trainer Dave Pitts and the famous TV chimp Spanky (the centerpiece of The Ice Capades in the ’60s), had a fateful three-day encounter with serial killer, Larry Lee Ranes. Quinto will play the animal trainer, and Elordi will take on the role of the serial killer.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's Donnie Yen has signed on to appear in John Wick: Chapter 4. Yen will play an old friend of John’s who "shares his same history and many of the same enemies."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced winners of their annual BAFTA Awards. The crime-themed drama, Save Me Too, won Best Drama Series, and star Michaela Coel won Best Leading Actress for her role in the show. Rakie Ayola also won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Anthony, about the life of a black teenager murdered in a racist attack.

Jamie Lee Curtis’s Comet Pictures and Blumhouse Television have secured the rights to the Kay Scarpetta novels by author Patricia Cornwell and are developing them as an hour-long drama series centered on the eponymous forensic pathologist. The deal marks the latest development in a long-road to screen for Scarpetta, which ten years ago saw Angelina Jolie attached to play her in a feature film from Fox 2000, which never got off the ground. Similarly, in 1992, Columbia Pictures optioned Cruel and Unusual, the fourth book in the series to make as a film with Demi Moore in the lead role. Scarpetta is inspired by former Virginia Chief Medical Examiner, Marcella Farinelli Fierro.

Miramax Television and Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village are teaming to develop a series adaptation of Alex Michaelides’ upcoming novel, The Maidens. British writer-actor Morwenna Banks (Damned) is attached to pen the script. In the book, a brilliant but troubled therapist travels to Cambridge to comfort her niece when the niece's best friend is murdered. But the therapist finds her alma mater has changed, and a cult like group of students led by a new professor has overtaken the culture.

Gerald McRaney, who has recurred on NCIS: Los Angeles since 2014, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming 13th season of the CBS drama series. McRaney plays retired Adm. Hollis Kilbride, who advises and counsels the Los Angeles division of the NCIS Special Projects unit during their undercover operations.

Sophie Turner has joined the cast of the limited-series adaptation of The Staircase at HBO Max. Turner joins Colin Firth and Toni Collette in the project from Antonio Campos (who will direct six of the eight episodes) and Maggie Cohn (who will co-write the series with Campos). Firth stars as Michael Peterson, who was convicted in 2003 of murdering his wife and spent eight years in prison, as documented in the true crime docuseries of the same name by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. Collette plays Peterson’s wife, Kathleen, and Turner will play Margaret Ratliff, one of Michael Peterson’s adopted daughters.

Amazon’s conspiracy thriller series, The Terminal List, added a trio of actors to its cast including LaMonica Garrett, Alexis Louder, and Tom Amandes, who will appear in recurring roles. They join previously announced regulars Chris Pratt, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Constance Wu, Riley Keough, Taylor Kitsch, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Based on Jack Carr’s bestselling novel and written by David DiGilio, The Terminal List follows James Reece (Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.

Tori Anderson and Kian Talan are set as series regulars opposite Vanessa Lachey in the upcoming CBS drama series, NCIS: Hawai’i, the first installment in the NCIS franchise with a female character at the center. Created/executive produced by NCIS: New Orleans executive producers/showrunners Christopher Silber and Jan Nash as well as SEAL Team writer-producer Matt Bosack, NCIS: Hawai’i is set in the Aloha State. It follows Jane Tennant (Lachey), the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor, and her team as they balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security, and the mysteries of the island state itself.

Chris Petrovski (Madam Secretary) has joined the cast of the forthcoming Ray Donovan feature-length film for Showtime. Petrovski will play rising Hollywood star Sean Walker in the movie, which will continue Ray’s journey following the hit drama series’ seven-season run on Showtime. Star Liev Schreiber returns in his titular role and is co-writing the script along with series showrunner David Hollander, who will also direct.

Judy Greer has been tapped for a key role opposite Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history, Watergate. Greer will play Fran Liddy, G. Gordon Liddy’s unflappable wife who has a misplaced faith in her husband’s intelligence and abilities.

Unforgotten, the cold case crime show airing as part of MASTERPIECE Mystery!, will begin airing its new season Sunday, July 11 at 9/8c. Fans can look forward to six new episodes, starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan. To date, very few details have been released about the new season, though an official trailer was released.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Michael Connelly is helming a new documentary podcast series, The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood, which will launch on Amazon’s Audible on July 1, around the 40th anniversary of the horrific crimes. Connelly has created and written the series and will exec produce alongside LAPD homicide veteran, Rick Jackson, as well as Jen Casey, and Nick Gilhool. Named for the street in Laurel Canyon where the murders took place inside the house of a small-time drug gang, it’s a gruesome crime that "reflected its time, disrupted a mythology, and tells a broader story of Los Angeles, the American dream machine, and when justice does – and doesn’t – work."

June is the 3rd anniversary of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast, so this month, there will be more episodes than usual to celebrate. The latest features the first chapter of Sprinkles of Suspicion by Kim Davis, read by actor Karina Balfour

Writer Types welcomed authors David Swinson, Josh Malerman, Joani Elliott, Eli Cranor, and Stephen Mack Jones to the podcast to talk about their latest books.

Read or Dead tackled books that will appeal to readers of true crime.

Robert Justice interviewed Aya de Leon, author of A Spy in the Struggle, for Crime Writers of Color.

This week's guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Lev Raphael, author and co-author of 27 books in a dozen genres from memoir to mystery. His suspense novel, Assault with a Deadly Lie, was a Midwest Book Award finalist.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Kiersten Modglin to chat about her psychological thrillers; her writing process; marketing; indie and trad publishing; and a lot more.

Wrong Place, Write Crime spoke with SA Cosby about his novel, Blacktop Wasteland, and his novella, Ride Like Hell.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed Fatal Intent by Tammy Euliano.

The latest episode of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast has longtime EQMM contributor, Michael Z. Lewin, reading a story featuring his Indianapolis detective Sergeant Leroy Powder.

On CrimeTime FM, Tom Bradby spoke with Paul Burke about his new novel, Triple Cross; his character Kate Henderson; what makes a great modern spy novel; and the relationship between Western democracies and Russia and China that underpin his writing.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Broken English Productions has hired Anthony Nardolillo to direct the heist feature, Shelter, marking their second collaboration after the crime drama, 7th & Union. Shelter centers on the head of a secret organization who assembles a crew to steal back artwork plundered during World War II from a modern day, Neo-Nazi billionaire oligarch. Filming is scheduled to begin this summer in Los Angeles.

After the news broke that Amazon was buying MGM - home of the James Bond franchise - fans were fearful the spy series would move to streaming only. But Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (who co-own rights to the Bond properties) released a statement saying, "We are committed to continuing to make James Bond films for the worldwide theatrical audience."

A trailer was released for Gunpowder Milkshake which sees Karen Gillan (Dr. Who; Guardians of the Galaxy) and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) as badass assassins.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

BritBox is adapting ML Longworth’s crime novels into a limited series titled Murder In Provence and have attached Shelagh Stephenson, whose credits include Downton Abbey, to write the project. Roger Allam (Endeavour) stars as Antoine Verlaque, Investigating Judge in Aix-en Provence, with Nancy Carroll (The Crown) playing his romantic partner, Marine Bonnet. Together, they investigate the murders, mysteries, and dark underbelly of their idyllic home in the south of France. Their efforts are aided by Hélène (Keala Settle), a detective and Antoine’s trusted confidante.

In a preemptive bid, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment has landed the rights to I Don’t Forgive You, the upcoming debut novel of former police reporter, Aggie Blum Thompson. Billed as "a psychological thriller with a female lead," I Don’t Forgive You is about a photographer struggling to fit in among the Mom cliques in her new D.C. suburb when she is framed for a neighbor’s murder and must frantically try to uncover who is destroying her life by impersonating her on social media.

Sony Pictures Television-backed Eleventh Hour Films has optioned Jane Casey’s novel, The Killing Kind, and will adapt it into a limited series. Screenwriters Zara Hayes (Showtrial) and Jonathan Stewart (Meet You In Hell) have been attached to reimagine the book, with the former set to direct. The story centers on a barrister, Ingrid Lewis, who defends John Webster against stalking charges, only to have Webster turn on her. When a colleague is run down on a busy London road, Lewis is sure she was the intended victim, but Webster claims he is the only one who can protect her from the killer.

Parker Posey is set to star alongside Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Juliette Binoche, and Rosemarie DeWitt in The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited series drama adaptation based on the true-crime docuseries. The eight-episode series from Christine director Antonio Campos and American Crime Story writer Maggie Cohn explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette). Posey will play Freda Black, assistant district attorney and prosecutor in the Peterson case.

Director Brandon Cronenberg will adapt author J.G. Ballard’s thriller novel, Super-Cannes, as a limited TV series. Super-Cannes is set in an ultra-modern high tech business park in the hills above the French Riviera city famed for its film festival, where a global elite has gathered to form a closed, uber-capitalist and high-tech community. But beneath the seemingly ideal workers' paradise, all is not well.

Tyner Rushing has booked a recurring guest star role alongside Chris Pratt in the upcoming thriller drama series, The Terminal List, for Amazon Prime Video. Tyner will play James Reece’s (Pratt) close friend Liz Riley, a former Army pilot, who is described as being "equal parts wit and warmth." The Terminal List follows James, a Navy SEAL, after his entire platoon is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. When James returns home, he experiences conflicting memories of the event and questions his own culpability. As new evidence comes to light, he realizes there are dark forces working against him, endangering himself and the people he loves. The series is based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr, who serves as an executive producer alongside Pratt

Michiel Huisman (The Flight Attendant) has been tapped to star alongside Luke Evans in Apple’s action-thriller drama series, Echo 3, from Oscar winner Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Apple Studios, and Keshet Studios. Echo 3 is set in South America and follows Amber Chesborough, a brilliant young scientist, who is the emotional center of a small American family. When she goes missing along the Colombia-Venezuela border, her brother and her husband — two men with deep military experience and complicated pasts — struggle to find her in a layered, personal drama, set against the explosive backdrop of a secret war. Huisman will play Prince, a member of the "Echo 3" team and Amber’s husband

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode from Kings River Life magazine features the first chapter of The Big Dive, written by Bruce Most and read by actor Sean Hopper.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Ashley Weaver, author of the historical mystery, Peculiar Combination, which focuses on a professional safecracker and lockpicker who is asked to ply her trade for Britain’s war effort in WWII.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed bestselling YA author, David Yoon, about his first adult thriller, Version Zero.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Barbara Wilson, author of a series featuring translator-sleuth Cassandra Reilly, which was made into a movie starring Judy Davis and Marcia Gay Hardin. She is a winner of two Lambda Literary awards and the British Crime Writers’ award for best thriller set in Europe.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Craig Faustus Buck about his career writing in television and his novels and short stories.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Timothy Miller's The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle, an entertaining escapade starring some of Victorian literature’s most beloved characters, from Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Jekyll.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed The Thursday Murder Club author and Pointless star, Richard Osman, and also chatted with authors Rahul Raina (How to Kidnap the Rich) and Ajay Chowdhury (The Waiter).

THEATRE

You know things are opening back up and returning somewhat to normal when live theatre events are available once again. The Spoleto Festival USA’s opening weekend will see a staging of The Woman in Black at Festival Hall (formerly Memminger Auditorium). Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of the 1938 thriller novel by Susan Hill runs May 27 through June 13. With a nod to the pandemic, tickets for this performance are being sold in physically-distanced pods of two and four seats. All seats within a pod must be purchased at the same time in the same order, and face masks will be required for all ticket holders.

Likewise, the long-running Mousetrap by Agatha Christie has returned to London at the St. Martin's Theatre as the West End starts to welcome back live audiences. The world's longest-running show returns with two different casts and a host of U.K. stars (and social distancing for the audience).

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Twilight franchise actor, Peter Facinelli, has signed on to direct his third feature film with the crime thriller, Headhunter. The story follows a twisted murder who sends three detectives on a whirlwind investigation revealing dark secrets and turning everyone into a possible suspect. Rich Ronat (Grand Isle) penned the script.

Fresh off his Oscar nomination for his performance as Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami, Leslie Odom Jr. has joined the growing ensemble of Knives Out 2. Daniel Craig returns to star as super sleuth, Benoit Blanc, with Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, and Edward Norton also recently joining the cast. It was also announced just a few days ago that Kate Hudson will be involved with the project, although the plot and therefore all of the various actor roles are still under wraps.

Mel Gibson and Elisha Cuthbert are joining Josh Duhamel in the heist thriller, Bandit. The project is based on author Robert Knuckle’s novel and journalist Ed Arnold’s interviews with Gilbert Galvan Jr., who went by the name Robert Whiteman. Whiteman (to be played by Duhamel) was dubbed the Flying Bandit for successfully pulling off over sixty bank and jewelry heists during a notorious crime spree after he became involved with a lifetime gangster (played by Gibson).

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Synchronicity Films is following up its BBC drama, The Cry, with another Helen Fitzgerald television adaptation, this time based on her 2009 novel, Bloody Women. The production company has signed up Lorna Martin, the co-creator of Women on the Verge alongside Sharon Horgan, to adapt the novel into an eight-part, darkly comedic thriller. Bloody Women tells the story of 33-year-old Cat Marsden, who decides to lay her past to rest before settling down to a new life in Italy with her fiancé. She decides to meet up with her previous partners, but on the morning of her wedding, Cat is arrested for murder - not just one murder, but three, with all of the victims ex-boyfriends who were viciously mutilated. Now she’s in jail, and the woman who is writing her biography has interviewed many people in Cat’s life—but no one is telling the truth

Netflix has given an eight-episode series order to an untitled global spy adventure starring and executive produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first major foray into scripted television. In the series, created by Nick Santora (Jack Reacher; The Fugitive), a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter (Monica Barbaro) learn that they’ve each secretly been working as CIA Operatives for years and realize their entire relationship has been a lie. Forced to team up as partners, the series "tackles universal family dynamics set against a global backdrop of spies, fantastic action, and humor."

ITV is adapting Graham Norton’s novel, Holding, for television. The four-part series will star Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones; Dublin Murders; Vienna Blood) who will take the leading role of local police officer, Sergeant PJ Collins, a gentle mountain of a man, who hides from people and fills his days with comfort food and half-hearted police work. When the body of long-lost local legend Tommy Burke is discovered, PJ is called to solve a serious crime for the first time in his career and has to connect with the village he has tried hard to avoid.

Kathleen Turner has been tapped for a lead role opposite Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, and Domhnall Gleeson in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history, Watergate. Turner will play Dita Beard, a crusty, foul-mouthed lobbyist for the ITT corporation involved in some dirty deals with the Nixon Administration.

Alison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison are back in a new Hallmark mystery titled Murder, She Baked. The stars are reprising their characters from the popular Hallmark Movies & Mysteries franchise based on the Hannah Swensen mystery novels by Joanne Fluke. Sweeney will again play Hannah Swensen, with Mathison returning as Mike Kingston and Barbara Niven as Hannah's mother, Delores Swensen. Production begins this week in Vancouver on the movie, which will premiere this summer on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles, and Jamie Hector have been tapped as the leads of HBO’s We Own This City limited series from The Wire’s EP David Simon and producer George Pelecanos. Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men) is set to direct and executive produce the series, based on Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s book, We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption. The project chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force — and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.

Bruce McGill (Rizzoli & Isles), Maria Sten (Swamp Thing), and Hugh Thompson (Chapelwaite) have been tapped as series regulars opposite Alan Ritchson in the upcoming Amazon original series, Reacher, based on the Jack Reacher character from Lee Child’s international bestselling books. The first season, written and exec produced by Nick Santora (who also serves as showrunner), is based on the first Reacher novel, The Killing Floor, set in Georgia.

Juliette Binoche is set to star alongside Toni Collette, Colin Firth, and Rosemarie DeWitt in The Staircase, HBO Max’s drama adaptation based on the French true-crime documentary series. The eight-episode project from Antonio Campos and American Crime Story writer, Maggie Cohn, explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette).

Alexa Mansour has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s Home Before Dark. Set to return on Friday, June 11, season two of the mystery drama follows reporter, Hilde Lisko (Brooklynn Prince), as she seeks to learn more about a mysterious explosion that hits a local farm. The investigation leads her to fight a powerful and influential corporation, jeopardizing the health of her family and Erie Harbor. Inspired by real-life young investigative journalist Hilde Lysiak, Home Before Dark also stars Abby Miller, Kylie Rogers, Aziza Scott, Michael Weston, Joelle Carter, Jibrail Nantambu, Deric McCabe, and Rio Mangini.

Betty Gabriel (Get Out) has been tapped for a regular role in the upcoming third season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski. Gabriel, who will play Elizabeth Wright, the Chief of Station, replaces Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was originally hired for the part last fall but exited the series over creative differences. Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds the iconic spy (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time when Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and suddenly finds himself a fugitive out in the cold.

The NBCUniversal streaming service, Peacock, has released a trailer for Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. The project (formerly known as Dan Brown's Langdon) follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Ashley Zukerman), who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy. The cast also includes Valorie Curry, Sumalee Montano, Rick Gonzalez, Eddie Izzard, and Beau Knapp.

The BBC released a first-look image for the Martin Freeman drama, The Responder. Freeman stars as Chris, a crisis-stricken, morally compromised, unconventional urgent response officer tackling a series of night shifts on the beat in Liverpool.

Also, CBS released trailers for its new series including NCIS: Hawai'i, FBI: International, and CSI: Vegas.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Ellen Byron joined Eric Beetner as co-host of Writer Types to talk cozy mysteries and help introduce legendary thriller writer, Linwood Barclay (Find You First), and debut author, Mia Manansala (Arsenic and Adobo). Eric and Ellen were also joined by Jennifer J Chow and Olivia Matthews to discuss the origins of the cozy mystery as we know it today.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Alan R. Warren, author of several true crime books and host of the radio show, House of Mystery, now is in its tenth year on NBC in Los Angeles and other stations around the country.

Read or Dead took a look at reads set in the wilderness, particularly national parks.

Suspense Radio welcomed Cate Holahan, formerly an award-winning journalist and lead singer of Leaving Kinzley, an original rock band in NYC, turned bestselling author of domestic suspense novels. Holahan's fifth book, Her Three Lives, was just published in April.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Jeffery Deaver, bestselling author and creator of the Lincoln Rhyme series, about The Final Twist, the latest Colter Shaw novel which was published on May 11th.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Elizabeth Splaine about her various books, including Devil's Grace and the forthcoming, Swan Song.

The latest episode of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine podcast featured James Tipton reading from his series featuring Dr. John Watson, the story "The Beast of Easedale Tarn."

Crime Time FM sat down with Tim Glister to discuss his new novel, Red Corona, and the eight books that set him on the path to becoming a spy writer.