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

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train), Tom Hardy (Venom), and director Cary Fukunaga (No Time To Die) are teaming up for the adaptation of Jo Nesbø's crime thriller, Blood On Snow, with Nesbø scripting the project (and revisions by Ben Power). The story unfolds in 1970’s Oslo and centers on Olav (Taylor-Joynson), a fixer for a high-profile crime kingpin, who falls for the wife of his client, Hoffman (Hardy). When Hoffman orders the wife to be murdered, Olav’s principles clash with his loyalties, and instead of pulling the trigger, he hatches a scheme that makes him Hoffman’s next target. With nowhere safe to turn, Olav forms an uneasy alliance that places him at the heart of Oslo’s deadly gang war. Once a violent enforcer, Olav’s choice makes him an unlikely hero in a world where no good deed goes unpunished.

Nate Mann (Masters of the Air), Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars) and Tony Award winner Andrew Burnap (The Inheritance) have signed on to star in The Up and Comer, a new thriller directed by Chris Long (The Americans). Based on the novel from New York Times bestseller Howard Roughan, who also adapted the screenplay, the film delves into the seemingly perfect life of Philip Randall (Mann), a brilliant attorney poised to become the youngest partner at his prestigious firm. Philip’s idyllic world begins to unravel when a former prep-school classmate (Burnap) threatens to reveal a devastating secret involving another woman (Mitchell). Suddenly caught in a high stakes game of blackmail, murder, and revenge, he’s forced to risk everything, only to face the greatest danger of all — winning.

Radio Silence is producing a feature version of writer-director Colleen McGuinness's Oscar-qualifying short, Loser, which McGuinness will also write and direct. Loser follows Alice, a brilliant but troubled physicist, as she attempts to heal her trauma by using time travel. However, she gets caught in a twisty, cat-and-mouse game of murder and violence in New York City.

Michael B. Jordan, following in the footsteps of Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan, is set to star in and direct a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair for Amazon MGM. The original film starred McQueen as an art thief who falls in love with an insurance investigator, played by Faye Dunaway, hired to track him down. John McTiernan then directed a remake in 1999 starring Brosnan and Rene Russo in the lead roles. Drew Pearce will write the script for the new version from a previous draft by Wes Tooke and Justin Britt-Gibson.

The Third Man returns to U.S. and British movie theaters in September as StudioCanal and Rialto Pictures mark the film’s 75th anniversary. The Carol Reed classic had its world premiere at the Ritz Cinema in Hastings, England, on September 1, 1949. Five months later, The Third Man had its U.S. premiere on February 2, 1950. Directed by Reed and written by Graham Greene, The Third Man stars Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, an American writer of Westerns, who arrives in post-war Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). On arrival, he learns that his friend has been killed in a street accident. Further, military police chief Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) informs him that Lime was a black marketeer wanted by the police.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

The first contemporary television adaptation of Georges Simenon’s beloved novels about the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret is headed to PBS. Maigret will be played by Benjamin Wainwright (Belgravia: The Next Chapter), with Stefanie Martini (Last Kingdom) playing his wife, Madame Louise Maigret. The adaptation reframes Maigret as an unconventional young detective and a rising star in the Police Judiciaire with an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and a matchless knowledge of Paris and its inhabitants. Faithfully and lovingly married to Madame Maigret, Maigret heads the elite police unit known as La Crim, responsible for investigating all serious crime in and around Paris. The previous Maigret TV adaptation aired on ITV for two seasons from 2016, starring Rowan Atkinson.

Michael Harney (Orange is the New Black) has been cast in Prime Video's The Better Sister starring Jessica Beal and Elizabeth Banks. Based on the novel by Alafair Burke, The Better Sister meditates on the terrible things that drive sisters apart and ultimately bring them back together. Biel leads the cast as Chloe, who moves through the world with her handsome lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky (Banks) struggles to stay clean and hustles to make ends meet. When Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, laying bare long-buried secrets.

CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker has been tapped as writer, executive producer, and showrunner for The Quiet Tenant, a limited series adaptation of the suspense debut novel by Clémence Michallon. The Quiet Tenant is a psychological thriller about kidnapper and serial killer, Aidan Thomas, narrated by those closest to him: his 13-year-old daughter, his girlfriend, and the one victim he has spared. It explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life — and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back.

Sad news for Bosch: Legacy fans after the announcement was made that the series will end with its forthcoming third season, set to premiere in March 2025. The drama was based on Michael Connelly's novels and featured Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch, a retired LAPD detective now working as a private investigator, and his daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz), a rookie cop. The show is a sequel to Bosch, which ran for seven seasons on Prime Video. This may not be the last appearance of Bosch, however, as there is another upcoming series starring Maggie Q that's based on Connelly's Detective Renée Ballard series, a spinoff character from the author's Bosch novels.

A new arrival to Netflix is Black Mass, based on Gerard O’Neill’s 2001 book, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob. It stars Johnny Depp in the biographical crime film as Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, the brother of a state senator (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), who became an FBI informant to help take down a rival Italian Mafia family invading his turf. The drama was directed by Scott Cooper (The Pale Blue Eye), and features an ensemble cast that also includes Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Dakota Johnson, Adam Scott, Corey Stoll, David Harbour, Juno Temple, and Bill Camp.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, Abir Mukherjee chatted with Paul Burke about his thriller, Hunted, in which two parents facing catastrophe must find their lost children, who are suspects following a terrorist bombing, before the unthinkable can happen.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with writer Gareth Rubin about his new book, Holmes & Moriarty, and examined innovative literary structures such as Tête-bêche and Mise en Abyme.

The Cops and Writers podcast featured guest Marique Bartoldus, a retired 20-year veteran of the NYPD, who discussed her new book about her experiences and what it's like to be a female detective on the mean streets of New York City.

Pick Your Poison host, Dr. Jen Prosser, looked at a phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of toxicologists; what was in the state poison Athens used for capital punishment; and how people become sick after eating quail.

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

Stephen King’s The Running Man recently got the green light at Paramount Pictures and will start production in November. Set in a dystopian, 2025 America, the story centers on Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a desperate man who participates in violent reality show, "The Running Man," in order to win enough money to treat his gravely ill daughter. The show follows Richards being chased by numerous hunters sent to kill him. King first published the novel under his pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982, and five years later, it was adapted into a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Michael Glaser. According to an insider with knowledge of the project, the new movie is "a more faithful adaptation" of King’s novel.

Liberty Hobbs, an actor who has appeared in The Syndicate and Grey’s Anatomy, has set up a production outfit and is planning an adaptation of J. A. Baker’s thriller novel, The Perfect Parents. The book depicts a seemingly perfect British family hiding a dark secret:  Jackson Hemsworth is an abusive and controlling patriarch, who dies in a joint suicide pact with his wife Lydia; but as the Hemsworth children return to their family home after their parents’ deaths, they must try to make sense of their last act and unravel the grim history of their home, Armett House.

Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel's crime thriller, The Order, based on the 1989 non-fiction book, The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival with a nine-minute ovation. The Order charts how a series of bank robberies and car heists frightened communities in the Pacific Northwest during the 1980s. It centers around a lone FBI agent (Jude Law) who believes the crimes were not the work of financially motivated criminals, but rather a group of dangerous domestic terrorists, namely the white supremacist gang known as "The Order" and its leader (Nicholas Hoult).

Leo Woodall (One Day) and Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) have signed on to star in Tuner, a new crime thriller directed by Oscar winner Daniel Roher (Navalny). Written by Roher and Robert Ramsey, the film tells the story of a talented piano tuner whose life is turned upside down when he discovers his meticulous skills for tuning pianos can equally be applied to cracking safes.

Grammy Award winner Bad Bunny is the latest to join Austin Butler in Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller, Caught Stealing, for Sony Pictures. Aronofsky will direct the feature, which is based on the book by Charlie Huston, who is also writing the script. The film follows Hank Thompson (Butler), a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of '90s New York City. The cast also includes Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, and Will Brill.

Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) has joined the cast of Netflix’s highly anticipated Peaky Blinders feature, joining star Cillian Murphy in the Tom Harper-directed film. Netflix greenlighted the project in June with Oppenheimer Oscar winner Murphy returning to the iconic role of Tommy Shelby, leader of the eponymous Birmingham gangster family, a role he played on the BBC TV series from 2013-2022.

A silent Sherlock Holmes film starring Arthur Conan Doyle’s favorite impersonator of the famous sleuth, Eille Norwood, is to be screened for the first time since its release in 1922, following its extensive restoration by the BFI national archive. Titled The Golden Pince-Nez, it is a classic case of Holmes detection, based on a Conan Doyle short story that was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1904. The Golden Pince-Nez was among 45 episodes – each lasting up to 30 minutes – that Norwood made between 1921 and 1923, as well as two features. The restoration world premiere will be held on October 16 as part of the BFI London film festival.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

A TV series based on Kimberly Belle’s thriller novel, The Paris Widow, is in the works. The adaptation kicks off a first-look deal signed between producers Brittany A. Little and Larissa Bell and Little Bell Productions and Universal Television. The Paris Widow novel centers on a dream vacation that turns deadly when secrets from the past catch up to a married couple in Paris.

Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick franchise, has acquired rights to bestselling author Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger book series through his 87Eleven Entertainment production company to develop for television. The Joe Ledger thriller series consist of 10 novels and various offshoots. Its protagonist, Joe Ledger, is a psychologically fractured Baltimore detective secretly recruited by the government to lead a new task force called the Department of Military Sciences to face off against terrorists using bleeding-edge science weapons. Along with his combat dog Ghost, his team of tier-one special operators, and the resources of the mysterious Mr. Church, Joe faces off against the threats no other team is able to stop.

In a very competitive situation, Hulu has landed the drama, The Spot, starring and executive produced by Oscar and Emmy winner Kate Winslet (Mare of Eastown, Mildred Pierce), with a straight-to-series order. The project comes from Ed Solomon (Full Circle, Men in Black), A24, and 20th Television. Created and written by Solomon, who will serve as showrunner, The Spot follows a successful surgeon (Winslet) and her school teacher husband who suspect she might be responsible for a child’s hit-and-run death. While looking into the matter, dark secrets are revealed that will test their relationship as they confront the possibility of hidden guilt and betrayal.

Eight years after the end of The Good Wife, Robert King and Michelle King are developing another legal drama for CBS. Tentatively titled Cupertino, after the city in California known as the headquarters of Apple, the project is described as a "David vs. Goliath legal show set in Silicon Valley."

Acorn TV and Channel 5 have renewed The Madame Blanc Mysteries for a fourth season. The seven-part series, starring and created by Sally Lindsay, will kick off with a Christmas special at the end of the year. Lindsay returns as Jean White, an antiques expert who moved to France after suspicions arose of how her husband died, and uses her skills to become a PI aiding the local police and simultaneously bonding with the town's popular taxi driver. Steve Edge (Murder They Hope) also stars as Jean's sidekick and potential love interest.

Netflix has canceled Dead Boy Detectives after one season. Based on the comics of the same name by Neil Gaiman and part of The Sandman Universe, Dead Boy Detectives followed Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), "the brains" and "the brawn" behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts…who solve mysteries.

Deadline posted a handy list of premiere dates for new and returning series on broadcast, cable, and streaming in U.S. markets, and Paul Hirons via The Killing Times had a preview of crime dramas coming up in the UK.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Meet the Thriller Writer chatted with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado about their new collaboration, Fatal Intrusion, which pits a Homeland Security investigator and her former quarry against a ruthless ring of serial killers making their way through California.

On Speaking of Mysteries, renowned Sherlockian, Les Klinger, discussed Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell, with author Nicholas Meyer, whose latest novel features an "undiscovered manuscript" by Dr. John H. Watson. The novel follows Sherlock Holmes and Watson as they cross the Atlantic at the height of World War I in pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram.

The Red Hot Chili Writers welcomed mystery writer, Tom Mead, to talk about his latest book, Cabaret Macabre, and his fascination with locked room mysteries; and they also discussed diamond heists and the recently discovered 2,492-carat diamond in Botswana, the world's second largest diamond.

On Crime Time FM, Antonia Senior, a writer, critic, journalist, and podcaster, chatted with Paul Burke about Spymasters, the book and the podcast; the Cambridge Five; and historical fiction.

This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, Catherine Rymsha, about her debut crime novel, Stunning.

The Cops and Writers podcast welcomed Steve Stratton, award-winning author, Green Beret, and former Secret Service Agent, to discuss his newest book, Shadow Sanction.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode is up, featuring the first chapter of Going Home by Sharon Marchisello as read by actor Amelia Ryan.

The Pick Your Poison podcast covered an over-the-counter drug that is lethal to pets; an important toxicology tool that was plotted on a cocktail napkin; and the medical use of a barbiturate coma.

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

Blake Lively and Diablo Cody have teamed up for Lady Killer, a feature adaptation of a graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics. Lively will star and produce while Cody will pen the script. The comic was written by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich, with Jones, who made a splash writing and drawing Catwoman for DC, supplying the art. Jones took inspiration from 1950s advertisements to craft a story set in that period, which focused on a picture-perfect housewife…who just happens to lead a secret life as a deadly killer for hire. The comic first hit shelves in 2015 and even won an Eisner Award for best limited series in 2016.

Universal Pictures has picked up the rights to adapt Reikon’s video game, Ruiner, with Wes Ball attached to direct Michael Arlen Ross’s screenplay. The videogame is an action shooter set in the year 2091 in the cyber metropolis Rengkok. The game follows a wired psychopath who fights against a corrupt system to uncover the truth and retrieve his kidnapped brother. Under the guidance of a mysterious hacker, he battles through a world of brutal violence and cutting-edge technology, inching closer to the dark secrets hidden within the city’s neon-lit streets.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Story) is returning to screens on Netflix, playing the lead role of the murderous Grace Bernard in an adaptation of Bella Mackie’s novel, How to Kill Your Family. The novel follows the story of Grace, the illegitimate daughter of a millionaire who abandoned her and her mother, ignoring her mother’s pleas for help as she was close to dying. Grace vows revenge and decides to kill every member of her father’s family, leaving him for last.

In a competitive situation, Hulu has landed the hostage-recovery drama series, The Envoy, from The Rookie creator, Alexi Hawley, and Lionsgate Television. The Envoy is inspired by journalist and producer Adam Ciralsky’s June 2024 Vanity Fair story about Roger Carstens and his team at the State Department who have brought home 70 American hostages during the past four years.

Gina Rodriguez has come aboard Season 3 of ABC’s Will Trent, based on the novels of Karin Slaughter. The Jane the Virgin star will enter the Ramon Rodríguez-led series as assistant district attorney Marion Alba, who is new to Atlanta. She is described as "charismatic" and "confident," though after her first encounter with Will (Rodriguez) falls flat, the pair is surprised to learn that they must work together to investigate a crime in the world of Atlanta gangs.

Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) and Freddie Highmore (The Good Doctor) are set to star in The Assassin, a thriller series penned by Harry and Jack Williams for Prime Video. Secluded on a remote Greek island, retired assassin Julie (Hawes) has a somewhat thorny reunion with her estranged son, Edward (Highmore), visiting from England. Armed with questions around new information about his paternity, Edward battles to find the right time to speak to his frustratingly distant mother. But when the moment finally presents itself, things take a deadly turn as Julie’s dangerous past catches up with her and they are forced to flee the island and go on the run together in a fight for survival.

Netflix has set Thursday, October 17 for the Season 3 premiere of The Lincoln Lawyer. The new season sees the return of series stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, and Yaya DaCosta, all reprising their roles. The 10-episode third season is based on the fifth book in Michael Connelly’s "Lincoln Lawyer" series, The Gods of Guilt, and will include a flashback sequence that gives us some insight into how Mickey Haller became Mickey Haller — not just the brilliant criminal defense lawyer but the husband, the father, and the man that he would come to be.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to the South Florida-set, female-led crime thriller, M.I.A., from Ozark co-creator Bill Dubuque. In M.I.A., running drugs is a family affair for Etta Tiger Jonze. But when her family is slaughtered before her eyes, Etta sets out to exact justice on those responsible – avenging her blood family. At the same time, she builds her chosen family, igniting her series journey from powerless orphan to South Florida’s most powerful criminal Queenpin.

Emmy Award winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Perry Mason) has joined the cast of Netflix's The Beast in Me, the mystery thriller project, created, written, and executive-produced by Gabe Rotter. He joins previously announced Claire Danes. Following the tragic death of her young son, acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Danes) has receded from public life, unable to write, a ghost of her former self. But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Jarvis (Rhys), a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth – chasing his demons while fleeing her own – in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Karin Slaughter about This Is Why We Lied, the 12th Will Trent mystery.

Ava Glass spoke with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her new thriller, The Trap; Emma Makepeace; meeting her first spy; and the FBI novel to come.

This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Anna Willett, author of several thriller novels, including five books in The Cold Case Mystery series.

On the latest Spybrary Spy Podcast, acclaimed spy authors Joseph Kanon and Paul Vidich sat down for an intriguing discussion that delved deep into the world of writing spy fiction.

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

New Regency and Maximum Effort are teaming on a feature adaptation of Peter Swanson's bestselling novel, Eight Perfect Murders, attaching Harry Bradbeer to direct. Eight Perfect Murders follows Malcolm Kershaw, a bookshop owner who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation when a clever killer begins to use his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders as inspiration. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

Matt Smith (House of the Dragon) and Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan) are the newest additions to the cast of Caught Stealing, Darren Aronofsky’s new crime thriller for Sony Pictures. Details as to the roles they’re playing are currently unknown. Oscar nominee Austin Butler leads the ensemble, with Blink Twice director Zoë Kravitz and Academy Award winner Regina King also on board. Based on the books by Charlie Huston, who adapted the screenplay, Caught Stealing follows Hank Thompson (Butler), a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of 1990s New York City.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

In a recent interview, Titus Welliver, star and executive producer of Bosch: Legacy, updated the release date for season 3 as being sometime in 2025. A direct sequel to the police procedural, Bosch, Welliver reprises the role of Harry Bosch, who starts the show retired from the LAPD and working as a private detective. In the recent Bosch: Legacy season 2 finale, the relationship between Harry and his daughter gets complicated by a potential revelation.  

Lost alum Matthew Fox has signed on to star in The Assassin, a new drama series from writer-producer John Glenn (SEAL Team) in development at Max. Written by Glenn and based on the book series by British novelist Tom Wood, the project centers on a merciless assassin known only as Victor (Fox), who after being betrayed by an anonymous client, finds himself hunted across the globe by multiple enemies, including relentless CIA operatives and a contract killer equally as deadly. To stay alive, Victor must uncover the identity of his betrayer while grappling with a buried spark of humanity that begins to resurface within him and might just be the greatest threat to his survival.

John Slattery (Mad Men) has joined the cast of USA Network's drama series, The Rainmaker, based on the bestselling John Grisham novel and its film adaptation of the same name. In a series regular role, Slattery will portray one of Grisham’s most iconic characters, Leo F. Drummond, a legendary lion of the courtroom and senior partner at Tinley Britt, the powerful firm that Rudy Baylor is up against. Jon Voight played Leo in the Francis Ford Coppola film released in 1997. From writer and executive producer Michael Seitzman, the new series follows Baylor who, fresh out of law school, goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Drummond and his law school girlfriend. Baylor, along with his boss and her disheveled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast with host, Frank Zafiro, featured micro-interviews with different authors attending the Public Safety Writers Association conference.

On Crime Time FM, Michael Robotham chatted with Craig Sisterson about his new thriller, Storm Child; Evie Cormac; writing away from home; the secret award; and German TV adaptations.

The latest episode of The Red Hot Chili Writers featured an interview with Rachel Abbott about her latest novel, The Last Time I Saw Him; restoring Italian monasteries; and poodle-clipping at the Olympics.

The Big Ideas podcast looked at why forensic science is nothing like CSI, as three forensic pathologists spilled the beans on what it's really like to work in the science of death.

The Pick Your Poison podcast looked at a toxicology problem the WHO calls a neglected tropical disease killing more than 100,000 people per year.

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

Josh Duhamel (Shotgun Wedding) and Lukas Gage (Road House) have signed on to star in Full Throttle Mindset, a darkly comedic crime thriller from director Patrick Brice (Creep) and XYZ Films. Based on an article in the St. Louis Riverfront Times by journalist Doyle Murphy, the film tells the wild true story of young burnout, Blake Laubinger (Gage), who’s taken under the wing of a Midwestern tanning salon mogul named Todd Beckman (Duhamel). He soon learns his new mentor’s businesses are a front for a drug empire — one he’s now expected to partake in. Written by Jake Disch, whose scripts The Adults in the Room and Gunfight made the Black List, the film is billed as "a gonzo cautionary tale about deluded American dreams and dark mentors."

Tracy Letts and Moses Ingram have joined the ensemble cast of Kathryn Bigelow's untitled thriller at Netflix, joining the already cast Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Greta Lee, and Gabriel Basso. The film’s title and plot remain under wraps, although Deadline reported that it will be set at the White House as a national crisis unfolds. The project marks Bigelow’s first feature since the 2017 thriller, Detroit, an awards contender produced and distributed by Annapurna Pictures.

Netflix has released the first trailer for Rebel Ridge, the upcoming action movie about a resourceful hero who will do everything in his power to eliminate corruption from his town. Aaron Pierre stars as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who is trying to lead a quiet life until his cousin is imprisoned. Richmond attempts to post bail, but the corrupt local chief of police (Don Johnson) wrongfully seizes Richmond's savings. The former soldier soon uncovers a conspiracy and wages a one-man war on injustice. The cast also includes AnnaSophia Robb, playing a court clerk who will quickly become Terry's ally during his quest to get to the truth.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Lionsgate is expanding its John Wick universe with John Wick: Under The High Table, an action series executive produced by the billion-dollar film franchise’s star, Keanu Reeves, and director, Chad Stahelski. Written by The Old Man co-creator Robert Levine, the story picks up directly after the end of John Wick: Chapter 4. John Wick has left the world of the High Table in a tenuous position, and a collection of new characters will look to make a name for themselves while some of the franchise stalwart characters remain committed to the old-world order.

NBC and Universal TV are developing Keats (working title), a new crime drama series from Bassett Vance Productions, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance‘s production banner. Keats follows Alex Keats, a fourth-generation police officer who walked away from the badge and her family, and returns to Philadelphia to bury her mother, a decorated officer who supposedly died by suicide. The closer Alex gets to discovering the truth about her mother’s death, the closer she gets to joining her family back on the force … where she belongs.

CBS ordered another pilot targeting the 2025-26 broadcast season, picking up the drama Einstein (working title), from the Monk team of Andy Breckman and Randy Zisk. The drama follows a brilliant but directionless young man, the great-grandson of Albert Einstein, who spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases.

Peter Sarsgaard says that he won’t be returning as high-strung prosecutor Tommy Molto for the second season of Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+. Sarsgaard’s much-maligned Molto went after Jake Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich in David E. Kelley’s adaptation of the Scott Turow novel. Earlier this month, Apple announced it has ordered a second season of the legal thriller, with Kelley, J.J. Abrams, and Gyllenhaal returning as executive producers and Turow as co-executive producer. There are no details about Season 2 beyond the fact that it "will unfold around a suspenseful, brand new case." Gyllenhaal’s Rusty is not a recurring character in Turow’s books, so it is unclear whether the Road House star would return as an actor.

Apple TV+ released a trailer for its upcoming seven-part psychological thriller, Disclaimer, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Renée Knight. Cate Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, a famed documentary journalist who discovers she is a prominent character in a novel that reveals a secret she has tried to keep hidden. As Catherine races to uncover the writer’s true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys her life and her relationships with her husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and their son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Kevin Kline also stars as Stephen Brigstocke, a retired professor who harbors a grudge against Catherine.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, authors Marnie Riches (The Silent Dead) and Chris Carter (The Death Watcher) joined host Victoria Selman to discuss criminal/forensic psychology, criminologists, killer profiles, and reasons to kill (or none).

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Vannessa Cronin, a senior editor at Amazon Books, to uncover the intricate process behind curating their top picks. Vannessa, with her extensive background in the book industry and a lifelong passion for literature, shared insights about her journey and the exciting trends shaping the mystery and thriller genres today.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed crime books for Women in Translation Month.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode is up featuring the first chapter of Murderous Means by Lida Sideris, read by actor Casey Ballard.

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

As Deadline reported, 20th Century and Imagine Entertainment are in early development on a feature adaptation of the hit Fox series 24. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for Fox, 24 originally ran for nine seasons between 2001 and 2014, and spawned a 2008 television film called Redemption. Kiefer Sutherland starred as Jack Bauer, an agent from the U.S. government’s fictitious "Counter Terrorist Unit" (CTU). No plot details are currently known, and it is also unclear if Sutherland will return to play Bauer.

Michael Mann is making a sequel to his 1995 film Heat and is working on writing the screenplay, which is based on the novel Heat 2 that he co-authored with Meg Gardiner. Mann told the Los Angeles Times that he wants to begin shooting the film by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. Heat followed the conflict between LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and a career thief, Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro), and also starred Val Kilmer as McCauley's right-hand man. Heat 2 will function as both a prequel and a sequel to Heat, jumping between two time periods. Although there's no word official yet on casting, Adam Driver and Austin Butler are rumored to be taking over DeNiro and Kilmer’s roles.

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to The Critic, a period thriller starring Ian McKellen, which is adapted from Anthony Quinn’s novel, Curtain Call. Directed by Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) from a script by Academy Award nominee Patrick Marber (Closer), the film will release in theaters on September 13th. Set in London in 1934, the film follows Jimmy Erskine (McKellen), the most feared theatre critic of his age, who derives pleasure from savagely taking down any actor who fails to meet his standards. When the owner of the newspaper where he works dies and his son David Brooke (Mark Strong) takes over, Jimmy finds himself at odds with his new boss. In an attempt to preserve the power and influence he holds so sacred, Jimmy strikes a Faustian pact with struggling actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), entangling them and Brooke in a thrilling but deadly web of desire, blackmail, and betrayal.

Mimi Rogers (Bosch: Legacy) and Cemre Paksoy (As the Crow Flies) are attached to star in Night Nurse, an erotic thriller from writer-director Georgia Bernstein, which will mark her feature debut. The film takes place behind the gates of a remote retirement community, where a starry-eyed nurse is beguiled by a string of perverse scam calls. When she discovers her patient is the seductive con man behind these schemes, her innocent flirtation blooms into a lust for deception.

A trailer was released for The Killer, a remake of John Woo’s 1989 classic. The original film starred Chow Yun-Fat as a noble hit man who performs one last job after accidentally blinding a young singer. In a gender-swapped role, Nathalie Emmanuel stars as the titular assassin in the remake, with Diana Silvers playing the young girl the killer blinds, and Omar Sy playing the dogged detective on the killer’s trail. The preview shows plenty of Woo’s trademark style, which encompasses "slow-motion, operatic emotion, and balletic gunplay." Woo directed the new film from a screenplay by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland and the screenwriting team of Josh Campbell & Matt Stuecken. The Killer debuts on Peacock on August 23.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Colin Firth is joining the cast of Young Sherlock, Prime Video’s new series from Guy Ritchie, which tells the origin story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved detective. He joins previously cast Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Zine Tseng, Joseph Fiennes and Natascha McElhone. Written by Matthew Parkhill and inspired by Andy Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes book series, the show re-imagines Sherlock Holmes (Tiffin) at age 19. Disgraced, raw, unfiltered, and unformed, he finds himself caught up in a murder mystery at Oxford University that threatens his freedom. Diving into his first-ever case with a wild lack of discipline, Sherlock manages to unravel a globe-trotting conspiracy that will change his life forever. Firth will play Sir Bucephalus Hodge.

NBC has picked up its two remaining pilots to series: Suits: L.A., starring Stephen Amell, and Grosse Pointe Garden Society. However, it has not been determined whether either of them will premiere during the 2024-25 season. Suits: L.A. is not a reboot or revival of the original USA series but more like a new chapter, centered on Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York who has reinvented himself by representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point, and to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Grosse Pointe Garden Society follows four members of a suburban garden club — Birdie (Melissa Fumero), Alice (AnnaSophia Robb), Brett (Ben Rappaport) and Catherine (Aja Naomi King) — all from different walks of life, "who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom."

Jeff Fahey (Lost), William Forsythe (Raising Arizona), and Nicky Whelan (Halloween 2) are among the cast joining Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural) in the upcoming dramedy crime series, A Motel. Also joining the cast are Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie), Niko Foster (MR-9: Do or Die), Nolan River (Old), Charlene Amoia (How I Met Your Mother), Luke Edwards (True Detective), Kelly Reiter (Deadlock), and Kelly Arjen (Adverse). Pellegrino leads the show about a group of outcasts working at a seedy motel who find themselves in danger when they accidentally uncover a drug smuggling plot for the mafia.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS released two new trailers (here and here) for the three remaining Mystery! titles to come this summer and fall, including the adaptation of Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders, Van der Valk Season 4, and Robert Thorogood's The Marlow Murder Club.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, Trevor Wood chatted with Sarah Moorhead about his new police thriller, The Silent Killer; early onset Alzheimer's; homelessness; Glastonbury, and more.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with thriller writer Jack Jordan about his new novel, Redemption, and his fascination with existential moral dilemmas.

The Pick Your Poison podcast looked at a poison still being used as medicine, why it’s called the King of Poisons, and what it has to do with the very first antibiotic.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

The Michael Crichton and James Patterson novel, Eruption, has been bought at auction by Sony in a seven-figure deal. The adaptation has snagged Oscar-winning Free Solo directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and Deadline also reports that conversations are ongoing with Keanu Reeves to potentially star. Eruption, which Crichton spent 20 years writing before his death in 2008, follows a history-making volcanic explosion that is about to wipe away the big island of Hawaii. However, a secret held for decades by the U.S. military is far more terrifying than any volcano.

Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies) is in talks to join Austin Butler in Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller, Caught Stealing, for Sony Pictures, a project based on the book by Charlie Huston, who is also writing the script. Caught Stealing follows Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of '90s NYC.

Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I), Tom Ellis (Lucifer), Geoff Bell (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso), and Ingrid Oliver (Doctor Who) are the latest names to have joined Netflix’s movie The Thursday Murder Club, based on the book by Richard Osman. They join a star-studded British and Irish ensemble including Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes. The story follows a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. The four members of the club will be played by Mirren (ex-spy Elizabeth), Kingsley (ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim), Brosnan (former union activist Ron), and Imrie (ex-nurse Joyce).

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Apple TV+ has ordered a second season of the legal thriller, Presumed Innocent, with David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams, and Season 1 star Jake Gyllenhaal returning as executive producers, and Presumed Innocent author Scott Turow as co-executive producer. The news comes a month into the run of the series, which already has become the #1 most viewed drama of all time on Apple TV+. There are no details about Season 2 beyond the fact that it "will unfold around a suspenseful, brand new case." Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich is not a recurring character in Turow’s books, so it is unclear whether the actor would return.

Game of Thrones alumna Emilia Clarke is set as a lead in Ed Brubaker’s Prime Video drama, Criminal, an interlocking universe of crime stories based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Clarke will play Mallory, a slick and daring armed robber who's partnered with Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper) in a passionate Bonnie-and-Clyde-like affair. Mallory is a woman on the edge, living on the wrong side of the law and hiding secrets that will bring her and her entire crew into the danger zone. In addition to Halper, Clarke joins previously announced cast including Charlie Hunnam, Richard Jenkins, John Hawkes, Adria Arjona, Logan Browning, Kadeem Hardison, Pat Healy, Taylor Sele, Aliyah Camacho, Michael Mando, Marvin Jones III, Michael Xavier, and Dominic Burgess.

Prime Video has also set the premiere date for the Aldis Hodge-starring crime thriller series, Cross, for November 14. Cross is a complex, twisted, pulse-pounding thriller created by showrunner and executive producer Ben Watkins, based upon the characters from James Patterson’s best-selling Alex Cross book series. The drama follows Alex Cross (Hodge), a detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, to identify—and ultimately capture—the murderers. In addition to Hodge, Cross also stars Isaiah Mustafa, Juanita Jennings, Alona Tal, Samantha Walkes, Caleb Elijah, Melody Hurd, Jennifer Wigmore, Eloise Mumford, and Ryan Eggold. In an unusual move, the series was renewed back in May by Prime Video for a second season, even before the premiere of season 1.

Courtney Taylor has been cast as a series regular opposite Maggie Q in Prime Video's Untitled Renee Ballard Series, which is a Bosch spinoff. The procedural follows Detective Renée Ballard (Q), who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold case division—a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. When Ballard uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch, to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life. Taylor will play Samira Parker, who is convinced by Ballard, her former mentor, to return to the LAPD’s Cold Case Unit five years after leaving the force.

PODCASTS/RADIO

James Lee Burke chatted with Crime Time FM's Paul Burke (no relation) about his career and Dave Robicheaux; the Diamond Dagger; Knights Errant; cooking for Davy Crockett, and more.

This most recent episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, Phil M. Williams.

The Cops and Writers podcast interviewed bestselling author and ghostwriter, Joshua Lisec.

The latest Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast featured the mystery short story, "Conversation With the Murderer," written by Heidi Hunter and read by actor Mary Catherine.

The latest installment in the podcast from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine featured Iain Rowan's riveting story, "Scars," from AHMM's Sept/Oct 2022 issue.

THEATRE

February 6, 2025 will see the world premiere of Picture You Dead, the seventh Peter James book featuring Roy Grace to be adapted for the stage by award-winning writer Shaun McKenna. The play will tour at major theatres across the UK until July 26, 2025. The Roy Grace books were also previously adapted by ITV for its critically acclaimed prime time drama about the Brighton-based detective, with season four of the crime series to be broadcast later this year.

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

Mishel Prada (The Continental) is joining Kiernan Shipka, Kiefer Sutherland, and Krysten Ritter in the action-thriller, Stone Cold Fox, currently in production in Los Angeles. In the ’80s-set revenge story, the defiant Fox (Shipka) breaks out of an abusive commune in search of her family. But when the queenpin (Ritter) kidnaps her little sister and sends a crooked cop (Sutherland) after her, Fox has no choice but to infiltrate the very place she escaped. Prada stars as Frankie, the ex-combat medic who joins forces with Shipka’s character to rescue her kidnapped sister from the abusive commune she once belonged to. Written by Sophie Tabet and Julia Roth, the project will mark Tabet’s directorial debut.

After a competitive auction, Amazon MGM Studios has landed the project Murder 101, with Jon Watts attached to direct. Watts will also produce alongside Dianne McGunigle and KT Studios’ Stephanie Lydecker. The film is based on the true story that unfolds in the true crime podcast of the same name from KT Studios and iHearts #1. Set in a small Tennessee town, the podcast told a story about how a group of high school students and their teacher, Alex Campbell, profiled a local serial killer which led to his capture.

IFC Films has snapped up North American rights to Skincare, a crime thriller starring Elizabeth Banks (A Mistake). Also starring Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick), Luis Gerardo Méndez (Charlie’s Angels), Nathan Fillion (The Rookie), and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (Pose), the film is set to hit theaters on August 16. A fictional story inspired by true events, Skincare follows famed aesthetician Hope Goldman (Banks), who is about to take her career to the next level by launching her very own skincare line, though complications arise when rival facialist Angel Vergara (Méndez) opens a new skincare boutique directly across from her studio. She begins to suspect that someone is trying to sabotage her reputation and business, and together with her friend Jordan (Pullman), she embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of who is trying to destroy her life.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

George Clooney’s remake of the French political drama series, The Bureau, has officially found its lead. Michael Fassbender is now confirmed to star in the series, which is now known as The Agency, having previously been titled The Department. Given a straight-to-series order at Showtime in 2023, the drama will premiere on Paramount+ with Showtime later this year and follows Martian (Fassbender), a covert CIA agent ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station. When the love he left behind reappears, romance reignites. His career, his real identity and his mission are pitted against his heart; hurling both him and his love into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage.

CBS is developing a new take on the detective series, Einstein, from Monk creators Andy Breckman and Randy Zisk. Brilliant but directionless, the great grandson of Albert Einstein spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases. This is the third attempt at developing the project for American television, including a version of the show that ran for three seasons in Germany, a gender-swapped version, and another that was in development at NBC. The German series, written by Martin Ritzenhoff and Matthias Dinter, was based on the 2015 movie they penned, and starred Tom Beck as Professor Dr. Felix "Einstein" Winterberg and Annika Ernst as police commissioner Elena Lange.

Fox is developing a supernatural crime procedural based on the Image Comics property, Proof. The book, which was created by Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo, pairs two unlikely heroes together – disgruntled FBI Agent-in-Training Ginger Rodriguez and John "Proof" Prufrock, a jazz-loving Bigfoot – to protect the world from Cryptids: obscure creatures whose existence has yet to be proven. While these two start out as a surprising duo, they strike up an unlikely friendship, partnership, and even potential romance as they help save the world side by side.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, Erin Kelly (The House of Mirrors), Chris Whitaker (All the Colours of the Dark), and Vanessa Walters (The Lagos Wife) joined moderator Victoria Selman at the Capital Crime 2024 conference to discuss their panel, titled "The Ties That Bind," and their favorite reads, characters, and settings.

Meet the Thriller Writer welcomed Ace Atkins, a New York Times best-selling author and former crime beat reporter, to discuss his journey from journalism to fiction writing, emphasizing the importance of real-world experience and good writing skills. He also talked about his extensive career, including his role in continuing Robert B. Parker’s iconic Spencer series, and his own Quinn Coulson series.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Adam Plantinga, police sergeant and best-selling author of The Ascent, chatted with host Frank Zafiro.

This week's episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured an interview with Clay Stafford, bestselling and award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, and playwright. He's also founder and CEO of Killer Nashville.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the prologue and first chapter of Lorie Lewis Ham's latest novel, One of You, read by actor Cady Mejias.

The Cops and Writers podcast looked into the mysterious world of death investigations with expert death investigator and host of the popular Death Calls podcast, Emily Speed.

The latest Pick Your Poison podcast investigated what pacifiers have to do with drugs, what toxin causes your brain to swell and how drinking too much water increases the risk, and which drug of abuse is currently under review by the FDA as medicine.

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

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are attached to star in the thriller, RIP, with Joe Carnahan writing and directing. The plot details are being kept under wraps other than it being described as a crime thriller and that it will begin shooting this fall. No stranger to crime thrillers, Carnahan has made a name for himself over the years with such films as Narc and Smokin’ Aces (which Affleck also appeared in).

David Tennant (Doctor Who), Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes), Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice), Daniel Mays (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget), and Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Killing Eve) are joining The Thursday Murder Club, based on Richard Osman’s 2020 novel of the same name. They join the all-star cast of Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie. Chris Columbus is writer-director on the crime-comedy, which will follow a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. The four members of the club will be played by Mirren (ex-spy Elizabeth), Kingsley (ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim) Brosnan (former union activist Ron) and Imrie (ex-nurse Joyce).

Olivia Taylor Dudley (The Magicians) and Riley Dandy (Things Will Be Different) are set to star in Abigail Before Beatrice, a slow-burn psychological thriller marking the sophomore feature of writer-director Cassie Keet. The film follows an isolated woman who must confront her past when a fellow former cult member reaches out with news that their leader has been released from prison early.

Producer Dominic Barlow has teamed up with writer-executive producer Brendan Foley on The Angolan Clan, based on a series of four bestsellers by author Christopher Lowery. The project is an action-drama thriller series centered on two women in their 30s: an English widow and a Spanish-Angolan housekeeper who unexpectedly inherit a Spanish villa and ownership of a clandestine diamond company from the English woman’s father-in-law, who was also the Spanish woman’s employer. Together, they delve into the mystery of their shared inheritance, unraveling its origins amidst present-day London and Spain.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Masterpiece on PBS has ordered a 10th season of the mystery series, Grantchester, with stars Robson Green and Rishi Nair set to return as DI Geordie Keating and Reverend Alphy Kottaram, respectively. Grantchester airs on Masterpiece on PBS in the U.S. and on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK. In addition to Green and Nair, other returning cast members include Al Weaver as Leonard Finch, Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs. C, Kacey Ainsworth as Cathy Keating, Oliver Dimsdale as Daniel Marlowe, Nick Brimble as Jack Chapman, Bradley Hall as DC Larry Peters, and Melissa Johns as Miss Scott.

Patrick Dempsey has signed on as a series regular on Showtime's Dexter: Original Sin, playing Aaron Spencer, a Miami Metro Homicide Captain with a long history with the titular serial killer’s (Patrick Gibson) adoptive father, Harry Morgan (Christian Slater). The series also stars Molly Brown as Debra Morgan, James Martinez as Angel Batista, Christina Milian as Maria LaGuerta, Alex Shimizu as Vince Masuka, and Reno Wilson as Bobby Watt. Per the logline: set in 1991 Miami, Dexter: Original Sin follows Dexter as he transitions from student to avenging serial killer. When his bloodthirsty urges can’t be ignored any longer, Dexter must learn to channel his inner darkness. With the guidance of his father, Harry, he adopts a code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.

Britain's Channel 4 has picked up the detective series Patience, starring Breaking Bad’s Laura Fraser, about a neurodivergent self-taught criminologist. Fraser plays Detective Bea Metcalf, the first person to spot the talents of Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis), "who works in the criminal records department of Yorkshire Police, cataloguing and filing the evidence produced during major cases. A young autistic woman, she craves routine and order, relishing the solitude and structure her job provides, but she yearns for more." Neurodiversity will play a thematic role in the series, with all neurodivergent characters within the series played by neurodiverse actors — including Purvis.

Sam Neill (Jurassic Park; Apples Never Fall) is set to star opposite Eric Bana in Netflix's limited series Untamed. Written by Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith, Untamed is a mystery-thriller that follows Kyle Turner (Bana), a special agent for the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness. The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. Neill will play Paul Souter who has been the chief park ranger in Yosemite for half his life. He’s a dedicated husband, father, grandfather, and friend to Turner (Bana), who's comfortable in all facets of his job, whether it’s dealing with crime inside the park or with the bureaucracy around it.

Michael Chernus (Dead Ringers) has been tapped for the title role in Peacock’s limited drama series Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. True crime veteran Patrick Macmanus serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner on the scripted series, inspired by the 2021 Peacock original docuseries of the same name. It chronicles the harrowing crimes of one of America’s most notorious serial killers and the investigation that ultimately brought him down. From 1972-1978, thirty-three young men were kidnapped, murdered, and buried in a crawl space beneath the house of their killer, Gacy, who went undetected for years because he was charming and funny, had a good, all-American job, was a community leader, and even volunteered to entertain sick kids… while dressed as a clown.

Apple TV+ released a trailer for its upcoming adaptation of Lady in the Lake, a seven-part limited series based on Laura Lippman's lauded 2019 novel, which was inspired by the real disappearances of Esther Lebowitz and Shirley Parker in 1960s Baltimore. Natalie Portman plays Maddie Schwartz, a Jewish woman who wants to become an investigative journalist and explore her potential beyond her home, and Moses Ingram plays Cleo Johnson, a Black woman who's trying to provide for her family while enduring the racism of 1960s America. When Cleo is found dead by Maddie in a lake, Maddie becomes obsessed with what happened to her as well as a missing young girl, and she inserts herself into the police investigation — but there's much more to the story than it seems.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On the latest episode of Red Hot Chili Writers, Australian thriller writer Michael Robotham and British crime writer MW Craven discussed their latest books, Storm Child and The Mercy Chair, as well the recent rise of Aussie Noir.

Crime Time FM featured a National Crime Reading Month special with Antony Johnston introducing Steve Cavanagh, Ilana Berry, Shawn Cosby, and Stuart Neville; Stu Cummins chatted with CL Taylor and TM Logan; and Paul Burke, Barry Forshaw, and Victoria Selman threw in a few reads of their own.

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

Higher Ground, the media company started by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, has extended its creative partnership with Netflix. As part of the deal, Higher Ground will have a multiyear first-look deal with Netflix for all of its film and TV projects. Among those are S.A. Cosby’s bestselling crime thriller, All the Sinners Bleed, which Higher Ground is developing with Amblin Entertainment; and Dyersville, a highly sought after Chicago-set crime thriller inspired by real life events, directed by Grant Singer. Higher Ground is coming off a succession of critically acclaimed and award-winning film and TV productions, including the Will Forte crime drama series, Bodkin, which spent three weeks on the Netflix global Top 10 list.

Black Bear announced the supporting cast for its Matthew McConaughey film, The Rivals of Amziah King: Golden Globe nominee Kurt Russell (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Cole Sprouse (Lisa Frankenstein), Owen Teague (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Scott Shepherd (Killers of the Flower Moon), Rob Morgan (Mudbound), Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jake Horowitz (Bones and All) and newcomer Angelina LookingGlass. The plot is being kept under wraps, though the project is described as a character-focused crime thriller set against the backdrop of rural Oklahoma. The feature is the second from writer-director Andrew Patterson on the heels of The Vast of Night, a sci-fi mystery distributed by Amazon that won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature in its Slamdance debut before going on to win Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

USA Network handed a series order to The Rainmaker, based on John Grisham’s best-selling novel, to be written and executive produced by Code Black creator Michael Seitzman. The official logline for the series is as follows: "Fresh out of law school, Rudy Baylor goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond as well as his law school girlfriend. Rudy, along with his boss and her disheveled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son." Grisham’s novel was published in 1995 and subsequently adapted into a 1997 action movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Claire Danes, and Jon Voight.

Amazon MGM Studios has launched development on The 500, a series adaptation of the novel from The Night Agent author, Matthew Quirk, with Andrew Sodroski (Manhunt) serving as showrunner, writer, and executive producer. The show follows a former con artist who is plucked from his Harvard Law School classroom to become an associate at Washington’s most high-powered consulting firm. Quickly pulled into a seductive, dangerous web of power and corruption, he struggles to find his way out. Published by Little, Brown and Company in 2014, The 500 marked the debut novel from Quirk, as well as the first in his Mike Ford series.

MGM+ has given an eight-episode series order to The Institute, a thriller based on the 2019 Stephen King novel. Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone) and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) are set to lead the drama from director/executive producer Jack Bender (Lost; Mr. Mercedes), writer/executive producer Benjamin Cavell (Justified; The Stand) and MGM+ Studios. The story follows twelve-year-old genius Luke Ellis, who is kidnapped and awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did, and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson (Barnes) has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide. Parker will play Ms. Sigsby, the charming but iron-willed director of the Institute and a true believer in its awful mission, who is convinced history will come to see her as a hero.

Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) and Jo Joyner (The Wives) will lead an adaptation of Little Disasters, Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name, for Paramount+ UK & Ireland. The pair will play friends Jess and Liz in the six-part psychological thriller, which also stars Shelley Conn (Alex Rider) and Emily Taaffe (The Beast Must Die). The four actresses play four friends who were thrown together while expectant mothers with little in common apart from their due dates. "When Jess takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury she can’t explain, close friend and on-duty A&E doctor Liz is forced to make the excruciating decision as to whether to call social services on her friend. The decision sets of a chain of events that show how a moment can fracture and nearly destroy families and friendships."

The book When the Night Comes Falling by Howard Blum, which tells the inside story of the mysterious murders of the four University of Idaho students in 2022, is being developed as a scripted series. Village Roadshow Television is working up the adaptation of the book, which is set to be published by HarperCollins on June 25. Bryan Christopher Kohberger has been charged with four counts of murder after Kaylee Concalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. Blum has been covering the case from the start and the series will see him go behind the scenes of the police manhunt that uncovered not only the suspected killer, but also larger questions connected to the tragedy.

In a new five-part documentary series, iconic Poirot actor David Suchet will replicate an international expedition that crime writer Agatha Christie took in the 1920s. In Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet, the actor will retrace Christie’s journey, which spanned former British Empire territories Canada, Hawaii, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia as part of a trade mission. Each episode will feature one of the five countries, with filming set to begin this summer toward a release date sometime around the end of the year. Suchet noted, "Having spent a quarter of a century personifying Agatha Christie’s iconic character of Hercule Poirot, I now feel so honoured to embark upon a journey around the world, as myself — in the footsteps of possibly the greatest crime writer of all times...I feel that she will be sitting on my shoulders at every moment urging me on to share her passion for knowledge, travel, archeology, and of course, mystery."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Spybrary Spy Book Podcast welcomed Merle Nygate for a deep dive into her latest espionage novel, Honour Among Spies, the highly anticipated sequel to The Righteous Spy.

Crime Time FM host, Victoria Selman, is joined by authors Melanie Golding (Little Darlings) and Jim Hewitt (The Perfect Village), who use folklore as inspiration for their novels.

The latest episode of the MysteryRats Maze podcast featured the first chapter of Murder at the Oasis by David S. Pederson, as read by actor Sean Hopper.

The Pick Your Poison podcast investigated how the lack of smell might kill you and the lethal poison that routinely kills rescuers, yet is made in your body.