Media Murder

TV

Scheduled for the Today Show this morning on NBC was Douglas Preston, author of The Monster of Florence. Hopefully the show web site will upload that interview later.

Tom Selleck starred as Jesse Stone in four made-for-tv movies based on the character created by Robert B. Parker, and all four are now available on DVD. A fifth movie (Jesse Stone: Thin Ice) has completed production and is expected to air sometime in early 2009, while yet a sixth (Jesse Stone: No Remorse) is currently in production with no air date as of yet. (Hat tip to Mysteries on TV.)

M.J. Rose has sold a pilot for a one-hour drama based on her novel The Reincarnationist to Fox Broadcasting. The pilot is written by David Hudgins for Warner Bros. Productions. Hudgins and Lou Pitt are executive producers, and Rose is a consulting producer.

In case you've missed it, the Retro Television Network is showing episodes of mystery TV series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Ironside, Kojak, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Simon & Simon, Ellery Queen, and more.

The Santa Monica Mirror interviewed actor Tony Shaloub, who plays obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk, prior to a benefit a staged reading of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters which featured Shaloub and his wife, Brooke Adams.

FILM

Tobey Maguire has acquired screen rights to the Marcus Sakey crime novel Good People. the script will be penned by Kelly Masterson, who most recently wrote Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley were added to the cast for the upcoming independent crime film London Boulevard, based on the novel by Ken Bruen. The film begins shooting in London this summer.

The NY Times had a preview of Guy Ritchie's new Sherlock Holmes movie (currently scheduled for release in November), starring Robert Downey Jr. As to why the film will show Holmes in a new light, Downey said, “So many of the ideas that Conan Doyle had took place offstage in his books. We have the technology, the budget and the means to carry them out.” So get ready for Sherlock Holmes, action hero.

One of James DiCaprio's next roles will be Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. John Orloff has been hired to write the screenplay of the film.

RADIO

The BBC World Service dramatized James Ellroy's nonfiction account of his mother's murder, My Dark Places, adapted for radio by Steve Chambers.

NPR's Authors Series profiled African-American mystery writers Paula Woods, who won a Macavity Award for the first book in her Charlotte Justice series, Gar Anthony Haywood, Shamus Award-winning author of the Aaron Gunner mysteries, and Gary Phillips, a writer and editor of crime stories.

The Vidocq Society was featured on yesterday's Talk of the Nation program on NPR, including Frank Bender, sculptor and forensic reconstructionist, and William Fleisher, former police officer and FBI special agent (both founding members).

PODCASTS

Aldo Calcagno and Seth Harwood had a new web site venture called Crimewav which features podcasts with mystery writers, which this week includes Michael Connelly.

THEATER

As the Big Read continues its reach across the U.S., one community will get to see a play titled "The Mystery of Dashiell Hammett" staged as a vintage 1940s radio drama.