THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
In a competitive situation, Netflix has acquired the action thriller Kill Switch from Harrison Query, with Jake Gyllenhaal attached to star. As Deadline noted, it's been described as falling somewhere between Collateral and Sicario, although the film’s logline is being kept under wraps. 6th & Idaho’s Matt Reeves & Lynn Harris will produce along with Gyllenhaal & Josh McLauglin’s Nine Stories banner and Scott Glassgold and his 12:01 Films. Kill Switch is the second hot package to sell recently from the same team. Last June, Query set up his political thriller short story, "Code Black," at Amazon MGM, with Gyllenhaal set to star, and the triumvirate of 6th & Idaho, Nine Storiesm and 12:01 aboard to produce.
Writer-director Kevin Interdonato’s indie feature, Dirty Hands, has been picked up by Saban Films for domestic release in the U.S. starting April 24. The action-packed thriller stars Patrick Muldoon, Kevin Interdonato, Michael Beach, Denise Richards, and Guy Nardulli. The film’s synopsis reads: Dirty Hands kicks-off in the underbelly of Chicago when a routine drug deal goes south for the Denton brothers, Richie (Muldoon) and Danny (Interdonato). Richie’s girlfriend, Sheila (Richards), struggles between her loyalties to Richie and his boss (Michael Beach), as rival leader, Rodney (Nardulli), and his gang are out for blood. With a Kingpin’s son murdered, the brothers must fight for their lives if they’re going to survive the night.
Quantify has launched international sales on the thriller, Blood Behind Us, one of the last films made by the late actor Michael Madsen. The movie also stars Tanner Beard, Jaime King, Michael Aaron Milligan, Russell Quinn, Ramsey Krull, and Katie Leclerc, and is directed by Brendan Gabriel Murphy. The storyline follows a troubled war veteran drawn back into violence through a motorcycle gang and a fractured relationship with his father, played by Reservoir Dogs actor Madsen in what producers describe as "a raw, commanding final turn."
TELEVISION/STREAMING
MASTERPIECE on PBS announced it will be co-producing the upcoming six-part police procedural, Winter. The series features an unconventional forensic pathologist, played by Richard Armitage (Missing You, Fool Me Once). Set in Bristol, England, Winter follows Dr. Ethan Winter (Armitage), one of the most gifted pathologists of his generation. He possesses an extraordinary analytical mind, capable of impeccable deductive reasoning which perfectly complements DI Lauren Bell, played by Annabel Scholey (The Sixth Commandment, Rivals), a meticulous, no-nonsense detective who is as driven as Winter when working on a case. Together they make a formidable team, as Winter’s genius and insight into the victims is invaluable to Bell and her murder squad detectives. Yet Winter is harboring a secret: the unsolved murder of someone close to him still haunts his every move, and he’s intent on unofficially investigating the death to bring the murderer to justice.
Channel 4 in the UK announced that production has commenced on the four-part thriller, Careless, an original drama by Australian broadcaster and streamer, Stan, produced in association with Channel 4 and others, and led by Solly McLeod (House of the Dragon), Robyn Malcolm (After The Party), Katie Leung (Bridgerton), and Richard Roxburgh (Rake). From creators Helen Fitzgerald (author of The Cry) and Louise Fox (Broadchurch), Careless will also star Mabel Li (The Testaments), Thomas Weatherall (The Narrow Road To The Deep North), and Alison Peebles (Dept. Q). The story centers on Scottish backpacker Robbie (Solly McLeod), who finds himself in Sydney, determined to become a live-in carer for a notorious rock’n’roll legend, Mike (Richard Roxburgh), who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. To his delight, he nails the interview and gets the gig. But, as he grows closer to Mike, he also grows closer to Mike’s wife Angela (Robyn Malcolm) and becomes a confidante to both Mike and Angela. As Robbie integrates himself further in their relationship, it becomes clear there’s something in Robbie’s past which may put Mike and Angela in serious danger.
Apple TV has set a release date for its upcoming drama series, Cape Fear. The 10-episode psychological thriller will arrive on the streamer on June 5, 2026 with the first two episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday through July 31. Cape Fear is based on the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald, which inspired Gregory Peck’s 1962 film and the 1991 remake directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Billed as a tense, Hitchcockian thriller and an examination of America’s obsession with true crime, the description reads: a storm is coming for happily married attorneys Anna (Amy Adams) and Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson) when Max Cady (Javier Bardem), the notorious killer they are responsible for putting behind bars, is let out of prison — and he wants vengeance. In addition to Bardem, Wilson and Adams, the cast includes CCH Pounder, Anna Baryshnikov, Jamie Hector, Lily Collias, Joe Anders, and Malia Pyles.
Kate Mara, Kerry Washington, and Elisabeth Moss have some dark secrets they’re keeping behind closed doors in the first official teaser for Apple TV’s Imperfect Women. The new psychological thriller, which is executive produced by Moss and Washington, was adapted from Araminta Hall’s 2020 novel of the same name. Per a description of the series, Imperfect Women examines a crime that shatters the lives of a decades-long friendship of three women. As the investigation unfolds, so does the truth about how even the closest friendships may not be what they seem.
Dark Winds has scored an early Season 5 renewal on AMC Networks. Season 5 begins filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico in March and will also consist of eight hour-long episodes set to debut in 2027. Based on Tom Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee book series, the drama follows Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) of the Navajo Tribal Police solving mysteries on their reservation as it is besieged by increasingly violent crimes in the 1970s. The series is created for television by Graham Roland. Season 4 focuses on the search for a missing Navajo girl, which takes Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito from the safety of Navajo Nation to the gritty terrain of 1970s Los Angeles in a race against the clock to save her from an obsessive killer with ties to organized crime.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
The latest episode of Meet the Thriller Author featured crime novelist Jonathan Kellerman, the #1 New York Times bestselling author behind the iconic Alex Delaware series.
On Crime Time FM, Louise Welsh chatted with Paul Burke about her new novel, The Cut Up; Rilke; Glasgow; Scottish PEN; academia; and being decent people.
On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester recommended some of their favorite historical mysteries.
