Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The release date for the American cinematic version of Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has already been set for December 21, 2011—even though the two leads haven't been cast yet. Daniel Craig is still in talks for the role of publisher Mikael Blomkvist despite the actor's potential schedule conflicts, and there is a growing list of actresses lining up for the role of Lisbeth. Meanwhile, Patti Abbott has a review for Crimespree Cinema about the Swedish film adaptation of the second book in Larsson's series, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

The new film The Killer Inside Me (starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba and directed by Michael Winterbottom) recently opened in select theaters. The film is based on Jim Thompson's 1952 pulp-noir novel by the same name about a small-town Sheriff's Deputy in Texas, Lou Ford, whose mild manner masks a hidden sociopath.

TV

TV writers David Black (Law & Order) and Charles Kips, author of Cop Without a Badge: The Extraordinary Undercover Life of Kevin Maher, are pitching Maher's book as a potential TV series. The book exposed "Real Housewives of New Jersey" Danielle Staub's
drug-dealing past.

Alfred Molina has been added to the cast of Law & Order: Los Angeles as Deputy D.A. Morales and joins another recently-named cast member, Skeet Ulrich (Jericho), who will play one of the two lead detectives.

Burn Notice is going to become a movie, i.e., a prequel to the series, with Bruce Campbell playing Sam Axe as a Navy SEAL prior to his retirement. Since it will be shot on location in Latin America, it will have to be sandwiched between seasons four and five of the series.

If you were a fan of the the police series The Shield, mark August 16h on your calendar. That's when several cast members (Catherine Dent, Kenny Johnson, David Marciano, Benito Martinez, Cathy Cahlin Ryan and David Rees Snell) from the show will appear together on an episode of the FX cop drama Lie to Me.

Those of you who were enjoying Canadian import cop drama The Bridge are in for some disappointment. CBS has taken it off its summer lineup on Saturdays after airing only three episodes, replacing it with encores of Cold Case at 8 p.m. Fans in Canada can rest assured, however, as CTV has ordered a second season of the cop drama.

RADIO/PODCASTS

National Public Radio has a story titled "How to Write a Page Turner" from the recent Thrillerfest in New York.

Because everyone knows Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo isn't getting enough publicity, the Diane Rehm show shares a Reader's Review.

The latest CrimeWav podcast features Part One of Jason Duke's novella, Phoenix Nightlife, which will total 4 parts, each coming out on a Wednesday over the next month. It even has its own video trailer.

David Morell appeared on a recent Writer's Roundtable, talking about "The Depth of the Thriller Genre, Building Characters Your Readers Love, Novels and Reality, and More."

Janet Rudolph has a clip on her Mystery Fanfare site with Sir Athur Conan Doyle talking about how he came to write his Sherlock Holmes stories.

THEATER

An Inspector Morse play,  House of Ghosts, with Morse played by former Doctor Who star Colin Baker, goes on tour in the UK from late August to early September. Baker's web site has more details about tour stops and dates. (Hat tip to Euro Crime.)

The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, written by Jeremy Paul, opened recently at London's Duchess Theatre, in which the great detective reveals a startling secret he has never shared with Watson. You should be able to catch the production for awhile if you're in town, as the end of the run is currently "open ended."