Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck and Judd Hirsch have joined the burgeoning cast of the upcoming film Tower Heist, about a group of employees in a luxury apartment building who attempt to rob the owner of the penthouse, a fraudulent banker (Alan Alda) under house arrest for swindling his employees.

Universal announced release dates for its upcoming thrillers (although you'll have to get out your 2012 calendar), including Safe House, starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds; Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsdale, based on the Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam; and the next Bourne movie.

TV

A possible spinoff series from Fox network's Bones may be in the works, featuring a character introduced in a recurring role on the series this season, who has highly sought after abilities to find anything (a theme based on based on The Locator books written by Richard Greener).

Several CBS and NBC shows have been given full orders for the rest of the new season, including Hawaii Five-O and Bluebloods on CBS and The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Chase and Undercovers on NBC.

Just as the remade Hawaii Five-0 gets its full-season order, the original Dan-O, actor James MacArthur, passed away at the age of 72. He'd been in talks to appear in the new series, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I wonder when network executives will run out of old shows to remake? Not soon, it appears. A new version of Charlie's Angels is headed your way, from the creators of Smallville, Miles Millar and Al Gough (with Drew Barrymore, Nancy Juvonen and Leonard Goldberg as exec prods).The ABC pilot will take a slightly different spin on the show, with a former cop/African-American angel and a Latina/former U.S. Marine in the mix.

Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) is set to star in TNT’s new dramatic pilot Perception, featuring Dr. Geoffrey Pierce, an eccentric neuroscientist who uses his unique outlook to help the federal government solve complex cases.

NBC has picked up Tommy’s Little Girl for development (from Executive Producer Jamie Foxx), about a young girl raised in a Mafia family who is hidden away in an orphanage after her family is murdered by a rival crime boss. She grows up to become an attorney and lives a double life as an assassin avenging her family's murder.

HBO is developing a Clyde Phillips drama based on the Israeli series The Naked Truth and following a major East Coast metropolitan precinct and its officers investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl from a prominent family.

PODCASTS/RADIO

If you missed Lee Child's feature on CBS Sunday Morning last week, check out the archived video via the link.

Sara Paretsky appeared on KUOW to chat about heroes and tough women.

THEATER

If you're lucky enough to be in New York City this fall, check out Play Dead, a new Off-Broadway thriller "that explores themes of death, darkness and deception," co-written and directed by Teller (of Penn & Teller) and co-written & performed by Todd Robbins. Performances will be at the  Players Theatre through January 1st.