Media Murder

MOVIES

The Coen Brothers' adaption of The Yiddish Policemen's Union, based on the Michael Chabon novel, will be postponed so they can concentrate first on their remake of the western True Grit.

Matthew McConaughey will play criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller in the film adaptation of Michael Connelly's bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer.  Lakeshore Entertainment "snapped up bigscreen rights to the tome six months before Lincoln Lawyer hit shelves in what was dubbed a seven-figure deal."

Barry Sonnenfeld will direct The Spellman Files, the Paramount Pictures adaptation of Lisa Lutz's novel.

The British Film Institute is marking the centenary of the birth of Albert "Cubby" Broccoli with a season of his pre-James Bond films and a series of Bond-related masterclasses.

Ericson Core (Invincible) has been signed to direct the crime thriller Murder, Inc, written by Brian Kistle. The story centers on two estranged brothers whose parents were brutally murdered when they were young. One becomes an FBI agent who decides to get his long-lost brother out of jail to take out the man who killed their parents.

TV

A CBS Paramount crew caused a little bit of excitement in D.C. filming the pilot for Washington Field, which follows the FBI's Washington field office and a team of special agents who work on critical cases. Some officials were concerned special effects involving a small "explosion" might spook the locals.

The Montreal Gazette took a look at pilot shows currently in production for U.S. networks (many of which film in Canada). They include

• The spinoff from NCIS (itself a spinoff from JAG)
• Another show about military investigations from the same producers of The Unit, this one an ensemble drama focusing on a team of federal prosecutors in the U.S. Justice Dept
• Brothers & Detectives from Daniel Cerone, the head writer and co-producer of Dexter, about a failed detective who discovers his 11-year-old brother is not only a whiz at solving puzzles - he can solve crimes, too
• Lost & Found, from Law & Order-creator Dick Wolf, starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) as a police detective who runs afoul of her superiors and is banished to the basement as punishment, where she uncovers evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The New York Times reported that many in the TV industry are beginning to regret putting shows on the Web for free. One sign of retrenchment by the broadcasters -- CBS no longer streams its hit show The Mentalist.

ET Online has a sneak peek of the upcoming Harpers Island, which has a large cast, seeing as how has each week during the 13-week run of the show at least one person gets murdered.

ITV has commissioned a sequel to Lynda La Plante’s Above Suspicion, which will once again star Kelly Reilly and Ciaran Hinds.  Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia will be a three-part drama based on La Plante’s novel of the same name, which focuses on detective Anna Travis.

Burn Notice, the top-rated original series on basic cable in the first quarter, led USA Network to top the basic cable ratings overall.

THEATER

Playhouse in the Park's 50th anniversary season will include best-selling novelist Walter Mosley's first play, Smell of the Kill.

Crime fiction was part of a double bill of new opera which premiered recently by Music Theatre Wales in Cardiff. The work is the creation of composer Huw Watkins and librettist David Harsen (who writes crime novels under a pseudonym). "People like crime novels and crime on the television so I don’t see why it shouldn’t work," said Watkins. "With opera you get extreme emotions. And if you’re not used to opera this is a good way to get started as the piece is just 30 minutes long."

WEB/RADIO

The most recent Crimwav Podcast was with Allan Guthrie, a Scottish writer of crime fiction, shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and winner of the 2007 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year.

The BBC Woman's Hour Drama has been featuring a dramatization of Daunt and Dervish, an adventure for Guy Meredith's female private eyes, set in 1956.

Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog pointed out several recent interviews on CBC Radio, including Cuban expatriate Jose Latour talking about his thriller Crime of Fashion, Gail Bowen discussing her new novel The Brutal Heart, and a Peter Robinson Q&A.

The March 28 edition of NPR's Weekend Edition featured an interview with thriller author Jeffrey Archer (Paths of Glory).

Two bestselling authors with extensive media experience have joined forces to launch From Cover to Cover, a literary talk show on Houston Radio Station, KPFT 90.1 FM, on April 22, 2009 from noon to 1 p.m.