Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Universal Pictures has acquired domestic distribution rights to the film adaptation of John Le Carre's novel Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy, currently in post-production and planned for a November or December release. Scripted by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan and directed by Tomas Alfredson, the film stars Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Ciaran Hinds.

MGM is in negotiations with Brazilian director José Padilha to oversee the remake of the 1987 futuristic film Robocop, originally directed by Paul Verhoeven. The original starred Peter Weller as a police officer near death who was turned into a powerful cyborg cop, until suppressed memories of his past life come back to haunt him.

TV

Chuck, the NBC series about an average computer geek who unwittingly gets the only remaining copy of the world's greatest spy secrets downloaded into his brain, is taking on a murder mystery in an upcoming episode. Co-creator Chris Fedak says he's always wanted to do a murder mystery and "Chuck and Co. are given the Sherlockian job of figuring out who the murderer is."

The Danish murder mystery drama The Killing became a cult hit for the UK's digital channel BBC Four, doing so well that the BBC just announced it will show the 10-episode second series, already broadcast in Denmark. A third series has been commissioned for 2012, and AMC has commissioned an American remake. The Killing features "unflappable detective Sarah Lund," played by Sofie Grabol, who unravels the murder of Copenhagen teenager Nanna Birk Larsen amidst a web of political intrigue.

Actor Mark Harmon (NCIS) has been cast in a television movie for the USA Network based on a novel written by John Sandford, starring as Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport. The movie is taken from Sandford's novel The Prey, and adapted by Chris Gerolmo (Mississippi Burning).

In more casting news, Chris Egan will star as Edgar Allan Poe in ABC’s new series remaking the author into an investigator who solves crimes in 1840s Boston using "unconventional" methods. (Hat tip to Omnimystery)

Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ, The Prisoner), is set to headline CBS’s crime drama pilot Person of Interest from J.J. Abrams. Caviezel will play a paramilitary ex-CIA agent who is presumed killed in the line of duty but resurfaces in New York City to team up with an an eccentric billionaire (Michael Emerson) to clean up the city's violent underworld.

It's Battletar Galactica take 2, only set in a police department in the fictional town of Excelsior. The new paranormal police procedural from Ron Moore first cast BG alum Jamie Bamber as a crime scene expert and has now added James Callis as a homicide detective and Tricia Helfer as Morgana, a necromancer (the magical equivalent of a coroner).

Cary Elwes (Princess Bride, X-Files) is joining the reboot of the NBC series Wonder Woman. He'll play Henry Detmer, acting CEO of Themyscira Industries, who's deeply devoted to Diana (WW's alter ego) and could be a possible love interest down the line.

PODCASTS

Part Four of Mark Coggins' novel The Immortal Game is available on CrimeWav, with P.I. August Riordan taking you on a "wisecracking, action-packed ramble through San Francisco's kinky sex milieux."