Media Murder for Monday

 

MOVIES

The murder mystery London Fields by Martin Amis is heading for the big screen under the direction of Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth). The movie adaptation of the book, about a woman who apparently foresees her death and sets out to arrange it, has been in limbo for a decade.

Tom Hanks is circling around a movie adaptation of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson. Universal Studios has acquired the movie rights and Hanks may produce and star in the true story of William Dodd, the U.S. ambassador to Berlin in 1933, and his daughter Martha, who had romantic affairs with a Gestapo official and a Soviet spy.

Director Steven Soderbergh may have dropped his plans to helm The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but he's going to take on a different project instead, written by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, Contagion). Titled The Bitter Pill, it's described as "a thriller set in the world of psychopharmacology."

Michael Chiklis is using his production company Extravaganza Films to team up with former Shield co-star Forest Whitaker in Pawn, an independent crime film based on a script by Jay Anthony White. Also starring in the film about a hostage drama gone awry will be Common (Hell On Wheels) and Ray Liotta.

If you happen to be in San Francisco on December 14, check out the historic Castro Theatre for the second annual Noir City Xmas. The Film Noir Foundation is offering a pair of rare noir-stained yuletide classics, Lady on a Train and Christmas Holiday, to darken your spirits this holiday season. As a bonus, the full schedule for the tenth annual Noir City film festival (January 20–29) will be unveiled.

Sony Pictures has released three new TV spots for David Fincher's film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that premieres December 21. As Collider reports, there's also an eight-minute trailer, and you can already download the film score.

TV

Liev Schreiber is taking on his first series regular role for Showtime's drama pilot Ray Donovan, created and executive produced by Southland creator Ann Biderman. Schreiber will play the title character, a Hollywood "fixer" who, according to Cinema Blend, "gets called in to solve embarrassing problems, like dead hookers or action heroes getting busted while coked out of their mind and attempting to couple with inanimate objects."

ReelzChannel picked up the drama series True Justice, which stars Steven Seagal as Elijah Kane, the head of a team of undercover Seattle cops.

TNT is extending its brand-new Mystery Movie Night franchise into spring of 2012 by giving the greenlight to an original movie version of Hornet's Nest. Adapted from Patricia Cornwell's novel, it will star Sherry Stringfield and Virginia Madsen.

The Sherlock Holmes News blog reminds us that the BBC-TV and Robert Downey, Jr. movie versions of the Holmes stories aren't the only projects based on Arthur Conan Doyle's famous creation. The Russian company Central Partnership is producing a new 16-episode Sherlock Holmes series due for release in 2012-2013. 

CSI: Miami is bringing in some sex symbols from the 70s. Raquel Welch and Bo Derek are scheduled for guest appearances on the TV series next year.

The new series The Firm, based on John Grisham's novel, premieres January 8th with a two-hour special. NBC released three teaser trailers for the show, which is more of a sequel than an adaptation and picks up years after central character Mitch McDeere broke free from a mob-owned law firm.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Michael Connelly appeared on CBS' The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to talk about his latest novel, The Drop.

Suspense Radio's December lineup includes MJ Rose and Lisa Black on December 10th at 10 a.m. pacific time, and Christopher Sandford and Lis Wiehl, December 17th.