THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Digital creator and filmmaker Christian Del Grosso has wrapped on Boot
Lake, an indie thriller marking his feature directorial debut.
The cast includes Willow Shields (Hunger Games franchise), Nikki Roumel
(Ginny & Georgia), Sebastian Amoruso (Avatar: The Last Airbender),
Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull), James
Patrick Stuart (General Hospital), D.B. Sweeney (Megalopolis),
Martin Kove (Karate Kid franchise) and Alexa PenaVega (Spy Kids
franchise). Set in a shadowy Tennessee lake town, Boot Lake follows a
young woman who returns to her childhood home after uncovering a diary that
reveals buried memories tied to her family’s past. As she begins to piece
together the truth surrounding her mother’s death and a newly discovered
inheritance, she finds herself pulled into a web of manipulation, shifting
loyalties and mounting paranoia, where those closest to her may not be who they
seem.
Lili Reinhart (Riverdale and Forbidden Fruits), has joined Oscar
winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) in the thriller, The Mannequin, the next
film from Dangerous Animals director, Sean Byrne. Heralding from
Studiocanal’s genre label Sixth Dimension and due to start production this summer,
plot details have largely been kept under wraps. However, reports indicate the
movie is largely a "two-hander" [a play, film, or television program
with only two main characters] and Byrne has described it as a “twisted,
intense, and propulsive serial killer procedural."
Mekhi Phifer will star alongside Bren Foster in the action thriller, Marx, which
follows two brothers navigating a violent criminal world. The official synopsis
reads: “Axel Marx is a fearless fighter forged by violence, a relentless force
inside the ring who refuses to answer to anyone. His brother Ian operates
differently, calculating and strategic, working behind the scenes to navigate
the dangerous criminal networks surrounding them. But when a violent conflict
erupts between powerful factions in the Vegas underworld, the brothers are pulled
into a deadly power struggle that threatens to consume everything around them.”
The first trailer
for Her Private Hell from director Nicolas Winding Refn (who won
Best Director at Cannes for his 2011 crime thriller, Drive, starring
Ryan Gosling), was released just hours before the film’s premiere in this year's Cannes.
The cast includes Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and Charles Melton (Riverdale)
and is set in a future metropolis where a group of actresses is gathering at a
posh hotel, the backdrop for a Barberella-like movie—as a heinous killer
known as Leather Man is going around the city taking the lives of women.
Speaking of Nicolas Winding Refn, he's apparently lined up his next
directing gig, his long-in-the-works Maniac Cop. Originally,
the project was announced at Cannes 2016 as a feature, partly based on William
Lustig’s 1988 cult classic film. By October 2019, the project had morphed into
a TV series, although that project also did not move forward. The blurb at the
time for the Maniac Cop series was that it was set in Los Angeles, told
through a kaleidoscope of characters from cop to common criminal. A killer in
uniform has uncaged mayhem upon the streets leading to paranoia and social
disorder, as a city wrestles with the mystery of the exterminator in blue – is
he mere mortal, or a supernatural force? But it's unclear if Refn is sticking
with that exact plotline for the big screen version.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
The BBC announced a
new "reimagining" of Agatha Christie's beloved Belgian
detective, Hercule Poirot. The BBC is understood to have made a significant
commitment to the project, meaning it could run for up to three seasons over
the coming years, with Season 1 expected to premiere in the second half of
2027. The project comes via Mammoth Screen, which has a long track record of
adapting Christie's work, with Mammoth founder, Damien Timmer, executive-producer of many episodes of Poirot, the David Suchet series
that ran for nearly 25 years on ITV. Benji Walters, a relatively unknown writer
who has credits on BBC series Noughts + Crosses, will adapt the novels
and is said to have "breathed new life into the fictional Belgian
detective," although script details have yet to be revealed. The search
for an actor to portray Poirot, Christie’s most famous and longest-running character,
is underway.
Sylvester Stallone‘s Balboa Productions is teaming with Channing Powell (Tales
of the Walking Dead) to develop a series adaptation of the 4MK books by J.D. Barker.
Set in Chicago, Barker’s novels follow Detective Sam Porter as he hunts the
elusive Four Monkey Killer, a murderer who has terrorized the city for years
with a chilling and highly personal code of judgment. Guided by the maxim “hear
no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,” the killer removes the ears, eyes, and
tongues of his victims, turning every crime scene into a ritualized
message. But the true horror lies in the unspoken fourth commandment, “do no
evil,” which reveals the killer’s deeper agenda: exposing hidden corruption by
punishing the guilty through the people they love most.
Deadline reported
that a Season 3 writers room is already underway on MobLand ahead of the
Paramount+ drama’s Season 2 premiere, which would seem to indicate an impending
renewal. However, it was also reported that Tom Hardy will not be returning as
Harry Da Souza. Hardy starred opposite Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren and is
said to have had conflicts with the series writer/showrunner, Jez Butterworth,
as well as his co-stars.
The 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short – otherwise known as the Black Dahlia – has
remained one of the highest-profile unsolved crimes in LA history and has been
the subject of numerous books, documentaries, movies, and films including Brian
De Palma’s 2006 feature starring Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett, and the
Chris Pine-led series, I Am The Night. The team behind a new docuseries
in the works has
claimed they've uncovered “startling” new leads, including a primary
suspect and evidence proving the location of the murder, and they are currently
pushing the LA Police Department to release key pieces of evidence that have
been withheld for nearly eight decades. The team behind the series, Deconstructing
Dahlia, said they have discovered a “major bloodshed event and a concealed,
walled-up room at a location tied to the investigation," evidence
suggesting the original crime scene was “altered,” new witnesses that never
came forward, as well as other new information. This comes days after forensic
examiner Alex Baber claimed that he found evidence that links Short’s
ex-boyfriend Marvin Margolis to the brutal crime as well as to the Zodiac
killer.
Laura Linney has
joined the cast of Lanterns, the new DC series premiering
August 16 on HBO and HBO Max, which stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre. The
series also stars Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Jason
Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine
Cephas Jones. Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart (Pierre) and
Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark,
Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. In
a recent interview, showrunner Chris Mundy said the series is “as much of a
buddy cop show as a superhero show.”
Jennifer Beals (The L Word; Book of Boba Fett) has joined the cast of
Bishop, Prime Video's upcoming thriller drama series, playing
Maggie Loftin, a psychologist with the San Francisco Police Department.
In Bishop, homicide detective Bishop Graves (Joel Kinnaman) – brilliant,
battle-scarred – will put all of his skills to the test in the hunt for an
elusive killer targeting San Francisco’s moneyed class. As this increasingly
audacious killer develops a devoted following among the city’s powerless,
Bishop becomes convinced these murders connect back to SF’s most powerful man,
his own father, Lincoln Graves (John Malkovich).
Kelli Berglund (Heels, Now Apocalypse) has been cast in a
series regular role in Hulu’s upcoming Prison Break series.
Berglund will play Cheyenne, a female inmate at one of the deadliest prisons in
America. In Prison Break, a soldier-turned-corrections officer takes a job at
the prison to prove just how far she’ll go for
someone she loves. Previously announced cast includes Emily Browning as
Cassidy, Drake Rodger as Tommy, Lukas Gage as Jackson, Clayton Cardenas as
Michael “Ghost,” JR Bourne as Junior, Georgie Flores as Andrea, and Myles Bullock
as Darius “Red.”
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
NPR's Book of
the Day discussed two new murder mysteries that cleverly explore
the meta in two very different ways: Ilona Bannister’s Five and
Anthony Horowitz’s A Deadly Episode. Bannister spoke with NPR’s Ayesha
Rascoe about writing a novel with a five-minute timespan and Horowitz chatted
with NPR’s Scott Simon about poking fun at true crime — with a novel about true
crime.
On CrimeTime FM,
Garry Disher (The Paul Hirsch series) and Dom Nolan (White City)
discussed location as character.
Barbara Peters was in conversation with Alex Finlay on the Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast,
discussing his latest thriller, The Anniversary, about a serial killer
who stalks a small town every May 1st..
Killer Women
featured Heather Webb, the bestselling author of eleven novels, including her
upcoming The Hope Keeper and her other recently published Queens of
London, The Next Ship Home, and Christmas with the Queen.
Meet the
Thriller Author welcomed H.Y. Hanna to talk about The Taverna
at the Edge of Night and writing atmospheric destination thrillers.
Murder Junction
hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee discussed the true life case of Bollywood
actress Jiah Khan who died of apparent suicide in 2013 - but was there more to
the story?
THEATRE
A stage adaptation of Lionsgate's psychological thriller, The Housemaid,
is in development,
with playwright Bekah Brunstetter (The Notebook) attached. Based on
Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel, The Housemaid was most recently
adapted for the 2025 film, which has grossed nearly $400 million at the
worldwide box office. Specific stage plans – Broadway, the West End or
otherwise – have yet to be determined.
VIDEO GAMES
Peacock is doubling down on mobile games with a Law & Order crime game. The streamer
is launching Law & Order: Clue Hunter, which will give fans the
opportunity to step into the role of investigator. Players search crime scenes
for hidden objects, identify suspects, and solve cases inspired by the Law
& Order universe. New cases will drop weekly.
