Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Willem Dafoe is in negotiations to star in the film adaptation of the  paranormal crime thriller Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. Dafoe would play Sheriff Wyatt Porter, a man who helps a clairvoyant short order cook (Anton Yelchin) prevent crimes. The film is being directed by Stephen Sommers, who also wrote the script.

Roman Polanski is preparing to take on a film version of the true-crime Eastern European murder mystery A Murder Foretold, from an article in the The New Yorker by David Grann about a series of high-level murders in Guatemala.The film rights caused a bidding war among four studios, but Paramount and Indian Paintbrush were the winners.

TV

Actress A.J. Cook left the hit CBS drama Criminal Minds last season after her contract wasn't renewed, a move controversial among fans of the show. Now it looks like she's making a return to the series as a regular next year. Paget Brewster, who left the show after having her role dimished this season, could also return as a regular.

The USA Network announced the return date for Burn Notice, with season five set to begin June 23. It will be followed on that date by the debut of the new series Suits, about a brilliant  but unmotivated college dropout (Patrick J. Adams) who's recruited by one of Manhattan's top corporate lawyers (Gabriel Macht). As previously announced, White Collar and Covert Affairs will both return on June 7.

Syfy also announced their summer schedule, with Eureka and Warehouse 13 returning with new episodes on July 11. Haven returns for its second season on July 15, and the new series Alphas debuts on July 11. Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens with extraordinary abilities who investigate cases the CIA, FBI and Pentagon haven't been able or willing to solve.

Julia Ormond will guest star in the final season of USA's Law & Order: Criminal Intent, playing Dr. Paula Severin, "a brilliant psychologist charged with conducting mandatory sessions with Detective Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) to unravel his tortured past and chart a course for mental stability for our star detective." The series returns for its 10th season May 1st.

Catch the  four-minute clip of Showtime's upcoming new psychological thriller series, Homeland. Claire Danes stars as a CIA officer who discovers a rescue of a U.S. soldier (Damian Lewis) years before may not have been all that it seemed.

PODCASTS

You can catch Ian Rankin on The bat segundo show talking about his writing and how "readers are much more sussed than they used to be. I mean, they're watching cop shows on TV — whether it's reality shows or dramas."

Crime fiction author Lisa Lutz and poet David Hayward, formerly in a romantic partnership, discuss why they decided to reunite to collaborate on a new crime novel called Heads You Lose. NPR Weekend Edition host Scott Simon talks with the authors, who also created a kind of parallel book within their novel by sharing the e-mail exchanges between the two of them as they wrote.

On May 4 Val McDermid will be featured on the BBC World Book Club, so mark your calendars now.

THEATER

May 6 – June 19 at the Kreeger Theater in New York, is the world premiere and first stage adaptation of A Time to Kill, based on a novel by John Grisham. It was adapted for the stage by Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and depicts a Mississippi town's upheaval when a man takes the law into his own hands following an unspeakable crime committed against his daughter.

GAMES

Gamers eagerly awaiting the release of LA Noire for XBox can view a TV preview spot. The game promises "an unprecedented playing experience," as players are tasked with solving a string of brutal murders in a "perfectly emulated 1947 Los Angeles."