Media Murder for Monday

OVIES

Best Actress nominee Rooney Mara, star of David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is replacing Blake Lively as the star of Steven Soderbergh's thriller Side Effects. She'll play Emily Hawkins, an unstable young woman addicted to prescription drugs who’s trying to cope with her husband’s recent release from prisonn.

Brian Henson (Jim Henson's son) is set to direct The Happytime Murders, described as "film noir puppet comedy" where the puppet cast of an '80s children's TV show are murdered one by one until a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case. The Hollywood Reporter notes that actress Katherine Heigl is in talks to co-star.

The crime thriller One Shot, based on the Lee Child novel and starring Tom Cruise, is experiencing a little legal speed bump; two producers are being sued by another who claims he worked for years on the project but was denied credit and future profits.

TV

ABC's crime drama Castle will air its much-anticipated noir episode "The Blue Butterfly" tonight, in which a Castle fantasy has the title character (Nathan Fillion) playing a hotshot private eye deep in a mystery that lures him to a beautiful femme fatale (Stana Katic), who turns out to be key in the investigation.

Lifetime is developing Columbine, a miniseries based on the tragic events of the deadly 1999 school shootings as told in the 2009 bestselling book by Dave Cullen. Writer-director Tommy O'Haver (American Crime) optioned the rights to the book and will write and direct the project.

Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson is developing a show for Fox about the relationship between a serial killer and the FBI agent who took him down. Rumors have it that Kevin Bacon will soon sign to play the good guy.

Robert DeNiro's show NYC 22 has received a premiere date of April 15 at 10pm EST on CBS. The series follow a group of rookie cops learning the ropes at the New York Police Department.

Andrew Davies is adapting crime novels for the BBC written by John Banville (under the pen name of Benjamin Black), featuring Quirke, an alcoholic pathologist with a complicated private life in 1950s Dublin. Gabriel Byrne has signed on to play the lead.

Andre Braugher is joining the cast of the pilot Last Resort by Shawn Ryan (executive producer for The Shield). The drama is described as "a thriller that's set in the near future and follows the crew of a U.S. submarine that refuses an order to fire their missiles and ends up being hunted. They take shelter on a NATO listening outpost on the island of Sainte Marina and declare themselves an independent nation (with lots of nukes)."

Actor Bobby Cannavale has joined the HBO gangster drama Boardwalk Empire as a series regular in the role of Gyp Rosetti, described as "a charming but ruthless gangster who challenges Nucky (Steve Buscemi)."

FX renewed Sons of Anarchy for two additional seasons, which came as no surprise considering it's the networks' top-rated show. The series was created by Kurt Sutter (writer/producer of The Shield), and centers on a sheltered community watched over by a renegade motorcycle club intent on protecting the town from the newcomers that threaten it.

THEATER

The Coach House Theater in Akron, Ohio, is staging Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, with a run through February 19. The theater is well-known for its productions of Christie plays.