Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Charlize Theron has signed on as co-producer and is also in talks to star in director John Madden's film project, Murder Mystery. (Madden's most recent film is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.) Penned by Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt, Murder Myster is said to be "an affectionate deconstruction of an Agatha Christie-style thriller," as it follows an American couple honeymooning abroad who are implicated in a murder they witness. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Sometimes it seems as though J.J. Adams must never sleep. One of his many irons in the fire is a movie based on Patrick Aison's script Wunderkind that was the subject of a bidding war. The action thriller is set in the 1970s and follows a pair of Nazi hunters, one a young CIA operative, the other an older Mossad member.

Primarily known for his movie comedies, director Will Gluck has plans to produce, direct and star in the film adaptation of the book Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper, by Geoffrey Gray. The book recounts the tale of a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 in mid-flight to demand $200,000 and parachuted out of the plane somewhere over the Pacific Northwest.

Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul is in talks to star in the HBO pilot The Missionary, a Cold War era drama that would feature Paul as a missionary turned CIA spy in the 1960s.

Oscar winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist) has joined Martin Scorsese's upcoming film The Wolf of Wall Street, based on Jordan Belfort's memoir. Dujardin will play a Swiss banker involved in laundering illicit funds for Belfort's firm.

Here's a fun bit of casting news: Hugh Laurie (House, MD) is in talks to play the villain in the upcoming Robocop movie reboot.

Omnimystery News brought an indie thriller to my attention. Home Sweet Home stars as Gwen Stevens as a lone woman who battles two psychotic squatters for her home and her life. Don't necessarily look for this one in theaters, however; as ON explains, it may be headed direct to DVD.

TV

The Canadian Broadcasting Company has ordered a project based on Louise Penny's novel Still Life. The book features Penny's protagonist, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sureté du Québec, investigating a murder in the sleepy fictional town of Three Pines.

Thanks to Dr. D.P. Lyle for noting that the Smithsonian Channel is airing a new program titled Forensic Firsts, which looks at the history of forensics and how new tools are changing crime solving.

Jeanne Tripplehorn (formerly of HBO's Big Love) has been hired to replace Paget Brewster in Criminal Minds, who left the show at the end of season 7.

NBC has already unveiled its fall schedule, which is starting early to take advantage of Olympics coverage. Grimm will premiere August 13th in a special time slot before moving to its regular in mid-September; a two-hour premier of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is scheduled for later in September, on the 26th. Oddly, the new Chicago Fire series doesn't premiere until October 10th.

PODCASTS

On Friday's installment of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Don Winslow talked about his novel of The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages.

Elizabeth Foxwell notes that BBC Radio 4 Extra is featuring Colin Dexter reading his story "The Double Crossing" this week.

THEATER

The Olney Theater in Maryland is staging Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer's popular play, through July 8. Broadway veteran Bob Ari plays Andrew Wyke, a mystery writer who finds out a young man, Milo Tindle (played by Jeffries Thaiss), is having an affair with his wife. Wyke invistes Tindle to his house, convinces him to stage a burglary of his wife’s jewelry, and things spin into dark territory from thereon.

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is producing more than just Shakespeare, with a staging of Agatha Christie's classic play The Mousetrap, still the longest-running play in the history of modern theater, performed continuously in London since 1952.

Michael Walker's whodunit play, Absolutely Dead, won the 2012 competition from the International Mystery Writers' Festival. It was fully staged during the festival at the RiverPark Center in Owensboro, Kentucky.

GAMES

Godfather: the game. Parker Brothers just released a new version of Monopoly based on The Godfather movies. The playing pieces? A horse head (!), cannoli, a Genco Olive Oil tin, the Don's limo, a dead fish and a tommy gun.