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/MOVIESKiKi Layne (
Vought Rising) and Luke Hemsworth (
Westworld)
have boarded Deadlocked, the new action film from Amazon MGM Studios, although their character details are being kept under wraps. The duo joins previously announced Jamie Foxx and Sasha Calle. Directed by Nikhil Bhat,
Deadlocked follows a grieving former Marine serving jury duty who is forced back into action when the trial of the century turns into a deadly hostage situation as the defendant’s daughter seizes the courthouse to free her father. The film is written by Eric Scot Anderson (
The Black Fox) and Matt Takejiro Bosack (CBS’
NCIS: Hawai’i) and based on their original idea.
Ron Perlman (
Hellboy), Peter Facinelli (
The Twilight Saga) and Mark Elias (
9-11: Lone Star)
are starring in the comedy-adventure,
We Could Be Heroes, which is soon to wrap in Ontario, Canada. The film follows an unlikely wannabe detective who finds himself pulled into a very real mystery when a young gamer gets into trouble and turns to him for help recovering her stolen gaming rig. What begins as a seemingly straightforward favor soon develops into a much bigger adventure. Elias stars as Miles Bernstein and also wrote the screenplay. Emami is directing the feature and producing alongside Elias.
A trailer was released for A Talent for Murder,
starring Helen Mirren as legendary novelist Patricia Highsmith.
Directed by Anton Corbijn and written by Joanna Murray-Smith, the film
sees Alden Ehrenreich (Weapons, Solo) as Edward Ridgeway, a man sent by
his New York publisher to Switzerland to convince the Talented Mr Ripley
author to pen one last masterpiece in her all-important Ripley series.
The thing is, someone from the publisher has already been sent on the
mission and nobody's heard from him since. And there are an awful lot of
guns and knives around Highsmith's home. But Highsmith intends to give Ridgeway one night to show her he
can "inhabit the mind of a killer," before she puts anything down in
print. And so, the pair play Highsmith-style crime writing 101. First
up? They'll need to find their mark, a dazzling female lead with a
dazzling female name — Clementine Harriet Balfour (House of the Dragon's
Olivia Cooke) — who's "destined for money" from her great aunt. But the
longer Ridgeway plays the Ripley game with Highsmith, the more the darkness of
her literature threatens to get very real. A Talent for Murder hits
cinemas October 23.
Denise Richards and Casper Van Dien are teaming up for the first time on-screen since the big-budget 90’s action movie, Starship Troopers, recently wrapping up production in Ontario on the new thriller, No Free Lunch. In the film, a mother-daughter duo (Arcadia Kendal, Lara Daans) fight for their lives after a college drop-off goes awry. Kidnapped by a deranged former surgeon (Sebastian Pigott) pining to fulfill a promise to his dead mother, their relationship is tested through a series of sadistic games as he plots to woo and marry one of them. Before his planned murder-suicide can unfold, detectives and FBI agents (Richards and Van Dien), on the slimmest of leads, race to rescue the two women. The project is directed by Damian Lee and also stars Arcadia Kendal (Sacrifice), Sebastian Pigott (The Order), Lara Daans (King of Sorrow), and Annie Malee (Satisfaction). The film is due to be released in spring of 2027.
Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) is starring with Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World: Dominion) in the thriller Hystoria, which has recently wrapped production. The film is directed by Batan Silva (After Darkness, Compulsion), from an original screenplay by Jonathan Benecke and P.T. Hylton (Serena). Hystoria is set during a seemingly ordinary retirement party that takes a sinister turn when three former students discover their respected history teacher is secretly plotting to violently reshape the future. The film also stars Jamie Gray Hyder (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) with newcomer Hudson Harden Scheel, who makes his feature film debut.
A first look was revealed for Black Palace, Nick Hamm’s period thriller. Written by Jon Croker (No One Gets Out Alive), the movie stars Freya Allan (The Witcher), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), Joe Anders (Cape Fear), Raffey Cassidy (The Brutalist), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones), as well as Martin Clunes (Wuthering Heights) and Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeply). Black Palace is set in 1888 London as an emerging tabloid media terrifies the public with lurid stories of infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. Meanwhile, a young woman is sent to work at the heart of Queen Victoria’s British Empire: Buckingham Palace. Her task is to spy on Victoria’s wayward grandson who keeps disappearing at night. As she grows closer to the prince, she uncovers secrets that threaten both the Crown and her own survival.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
ABC is moving forward with a new legal drama described as a mash-up of Suits and The Rainmaker. In the series, a brilliant, high-powered corporate attorney is wrongfully convicted of murdering her husband, losing everything — her freedom, her career, her daughter. Exonerated six years later, she joins a scrappy Brooklyn defense firm and uses the ruthless skills that once protected billion-dollar corporations to fight for others vulnerable of being screwed over by the system — all while searching for the truth behind the crime that ruined her life. As it's still very early in the development process, no cast members have been announced just yet.
Irish broadcaster RTÉ announced that the third season of its family crime drama, Kin, starring Charlie Cox, will be released in 2027 and released a first-look image from the upcoming season. The third season synopsis reads: "In the third season, as the Kinsellas consolidate power, buried betrayals and festering rivalries turn inward, and the greatest threat to the family empire becomes the family itself." In addition to Cox, returning cast include Clare Dunne, Emmett J. Scanlan, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Sam Keeley, Yasmin Seky, and Mark McKenna Jr.
Jessica Gunning is returning to Netflix following her breakout role in Baby Reindeer, the darkly comedic stalker thriller. Gunning is one of the four leads of the streamer’s Feral, a similarly darkly comedic thriller series based on the 1987 novel by Shirley Conran In the drama, four very different women learn to survive on a lethal tropical island after their mining exec husbands are kidnapped. The question is, can they put aside their differences, their self-doubts and their vanities to stay alive? Gunning plays Annie, a quietly dutiful wife who has sacrificed her ambitions to raise four sons under her domineering husband, Duncan.
Netflix has announced the premiere date of The Law of Beasts as November 18. The four-part drama is inspired by the true events that led to the introduction of what became known as Poland’s “Beast Law.” In 1988, Poland is shaken by the murder of four boys. Major Anna Bersz (Agnieszka Grochowska) leads the investigation, while her friend, psychiatrist Agnieszka Grabska (Agnieszka Zulewska), is tasked with assessing the sanity of the suspect, Mariusz Trynkiewicz (Michal Pawlik). With time running out and a system that leaves no room for doubt, the women make a decision that ends their friendship and affects the rest of their lives.
The BBC and BritBox have announced casting as filming begins on the new detective drama, The Detection Club, a 10-part mystery drama from creator Kit Lambert, inspired by the golden age of detective fiction. The Detection Club follows the mysterious society formed by three of Britain's most celebrated crime writers—Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and G.K. Chesterton—as they are drawn into a series of real-life murder investigations. The Detection Club stars Miles Jupp (Napoleon) as Chesterton, Bryony Hannah (Call the Midwife) as Christie, and Cara Theobold (Downton Abbey) as Sayers, with Viraj Juneja (Little English) as D.I. Greenway. Created for television by Kit Lambert (Father Brown, Cooper & Fry, Whitstable Pearl) and based on an original idea by author Simon Brett, the series is set in 1930s London and follows the legendary crime writers as they hone their craft within the hallowed walls of a secret London location. After receiving an invitation that leads them to their first real murder case, the famous trio work together to solve a series of exciting mysteries. Their amateur sleuthing brings them into the path of D.I. Greenway, an out-of-his-depth young police detective whose determination to prove himself is both helped and hindered by the writers’ extraordinary instincts.
Sky has ordered a second, currently untitled six-episode season of the crime drama, Under Salt Marsh, in which Rafe Spall plays enigmatic Detective Eric Bull. Following the events of the first season, Bull will move to a remote Scottish mining village that is, per the synopsis, “sinking under the weight of its own secrets” and a murder investigation brings him closer to the truth about his own past. The second chapter of Under Salt Marsh will begin filming in Scotland in 2027.
Apple TV has released a first look at 12 12 12, the heist drama starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. The show’s premise unfolds across three timelines: the 12 months of planning, the 12 hours of the heist, and the 12 days after the heist. The series follows disgraced FBI agent (Mackie) and an American career criminal (Dornan) who play a zero-sum game of cat and mouse across Europe. At the center of it all is the daring, epic raid on a bank vault deep beneath the streets of Zurich. The ensemble cast also includes Jack Kesy, Agathe Rousselle, Sallie Harmsen, José García, and Kali Reis, among others. The series premieres with two episodes on Friday, November 13. Apple TV will then release one new episode every Friday through December 25.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is on the run in the first trailer for the action series, Kill Jackie. Based on bestselling author Nick Harkaway's acclaimed novel, The Price You Pay, the eight-part series follows Zeta-Jones as Jackie Price, a former international drug smuggler whose carefully constructed new life is thrown into chaos when a team of elite assassins is sent to kill her. Prime Video, AMC+ and Stan have announced a October premiere date for the U.S. with other territories announcing soon.
Based in Los Angeles for the first five seasons and in London for the upcoming sixth season (premiering in December), Only Murders In the Building is likely relocating to New York for Season 7, with the installation of a writers' room in the city. Although there's been no official series renewal, it's common for a writers room to be established prior to such announcements. The series stars the sleuthing trio of Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez), who become friends while investigating a succession of suspicious murders.
Sir David Suchet (Poirot), David Mitchell, and Anna Maxwell Martin will be joined by an all-star cast in a Ludwig Christmas special, including Jason Flemyng, Joe Wilkinson, Cathy Tyson, Alexandra Roach, and Kiell Smith-Bynoe. The BBC detective series stars John Taylor (David Mitchell) as a reclusive puzzle maker who publishes puzzle books under the pen name "Ludwig." His identical twin brother, James Taylor (David Mitchell), is a successful detective chief inspector in the Cambridge police force. James has gone missing, and his wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), a childhood friend of both brothers, enlists John's help to solve the mystery. Pretending to be his brother, John infiltrates the local police station to investigate; inadvertently, he becomes embroiled in solving other cases. Set in Yorkshire, the Christmas episode sees John, Lucy and Henry arrive at a remote Christmas themed hotel for what should have been a much-needed escape, when a sudden blackout turns the festivities into a locked-room murder mystery.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast was recently in conversation with Amy Wilson Maroney, talking about her Miramonde Series and the Sea and Stone Chronicles.
On Spybrary, host Matthew Hurst spoke with author Jinwoo Park about his debut novel, The Oxford Soju Club. The book center on North Korean spies and their Korean American adversaries, who are regulars at an Oxford restaurant run by an oblivious South Korean. The book is as much about the psychology of their ethnic identities as shoot outs and chases.
On the Cops and Writers podcast, retired Milwaukee Police Sergeant Patrick O'Donnell read the Introduction and Chapter 1, "You Don't Have to Be Sherlock Holmes to Solve This Crime," from his upcoming book: Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop.
On the Pick Your Poison podcast, host Dr. Jen Prosser investigated the case of a three-year-old who developed abdominal pain, constipation, profound lethargy, and a sudden seizure after a family gathering. The crucial clue appears in an unexpected place—and points toward a mysterious Civil War artifact. Along the way, discover what movies get wrong about gunshot wounds and how one toxin may have influenced the Roman Empire.
THEATRE
Ted Lasso‘s Nick Mohammed will host The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal, a new West End stage adaptation of the hit BBC One-iPlayer competition series. Written by John Finnemore and directed by Robert Hastie, The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal will actually include five separate plays, each repping a round of the competition. The production’s website explains the premise: “From Monday to Friday, the story begins identically, but develops into five entirely distinct plays. Characters banished or murdered early in one version emerge victorious in another...Then on Saturdays, the audience takes control as they decide who will wear the cloak...” Performances begin May 11, 2027, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on Drury Lane in London’s West End.
