Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Noomi Rapace has been signed to star as the female lead in the sequel to the Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law movie Sherlock Holmes. The actress portrayed Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language versions of the films based on Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.

Mickey Rourke will star in the upcoming movie Ice Man: Confessions Of A Mafia Contract Killer, based on the book by Philip Carlo. It tells the true story of Richard "The Ice Man'" Kuklinski,
a killer who led a double life as a professional assassin and a family
man in suburban New Jersey.

TV

The BBC's successful three-part contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes will make its U.S. debut on the PBS show Mystery October 24 with the episode "A Study in Pink." It will be followed by "The Blind Banker" on October 31 and "The Great Game" on November 7.

A new series based on Robert Ludlum spy novels is being developed by Anthony Zuiker of CSI TV fame. It hinges on the work of the CIA black-ops group known as Treadstone 71 that was featured in the Ludlum novels.

Sarena Straus's book Bronx D.A.: True Stories from the Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence Unit, has been sold to CBS/Paramount for a real-life "Law and Order" series.

Katee Sackhoff is joining the cast of CSI, three years after she first became a frontrunner to replace Jorja Fox. Sackhoff will play Detective Reed, a "smart, tough, and feisty
investigator with an acknowledged lack of sensitivity," starting with her first episode during November sweeps.

J.J. Abrams is hoping to launch a crime-thriller series created by Jonah Nolan, brother of screenwriter Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception).  No word yet on any details about the plot or characters.

TNT has ordered a pilot from Star Trek: Voyager executive producers Kenneth Biller and Mike Sussman, titled Perception about an eccentric neuroscientist who helps the federal government solve complex cases.

Dean Devlin is helming a crime dramedy pilot for TBS called Brain Trust, which centers on a detective who must redeem himself after accidentally ending his partner's career. But after three hyper-smart geniuses help him save his job, he need his new partners to get his career back on track.

Executive producer/writer Allan Loeb is working on a drama based on The Rabbit Factory by
novelist Marshall Karp in which recently-widowed police detective Mike Lomax
and his newly married partner, Terry Biggs, "delve into a world of
mystery, intrigue and occasional hijinks."

PODCASTS/RADIO

NPR's "Morning Edition" chatted with English professor Yunte Huang about his new book, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History.

Roger Smith was interviewed about his novel Wake Up Dead with Kate Turkington on her Online 702/Cape Talk show. His crime-thriller is about a bombshell American widow on the run in Cape Town's violent underworld.