Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Lionsgate has acquired film and TV rights to Timothy Hallinan's "Junior Bender" crime fiction book series about a Los Angeles burglar who moonlights as an ad hoc private eye for clients on the wrong side of the law.

Robert Connolly is set to direct the film adaptation of The Shipkiller, the novel by Justin Scott. Connolly called the source material "an extraordinary novel that was almost made in 1979 with Sean Connery and David Niven. Ever since seeing Phillip Noyce's terrific Dead Calm, I had wanted to find the perfect thriller at sea and this is surely it."

Nicholas Cage is teaming with Emmett/Furla Films for the crime thriller I Am Wrath, scripted by Paul Sloan. Based on a story by Yvan Gauthier, the plot follows a man whose wife has just been murdered, finds rampant corruption within his local police force and takes matters into his own hands.

Adam Wingard will direct and Simon Barrett will rewrite the first draft of Dead Spy Running, a film project based on the series of novels by Jon Stock. The plot follows Danny Marchant, a young DJ forced to go on the run with a beautiful secret agent after he's framed for the murder of his father, an MI6 agent.

Elizabeth Banks has been added to the film adaptation of Laura Lippman's novel Every Secret Thing. Banks joins Diane Lane, who has already been cast. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

The first official stills from the movie Broken City have been released. The film, which is scheduled for release in January 2013, is based on a screenplay by Brian Tucker and follows Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a former cop who is hired to tail the cheating wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) of the city's corrupt mayor (Russell Crowe), a path that leads to murder.

TV

The USA Network ordered a pilot from the Elmore Leonard short story collection When the Women Come Out to Dance. The plot is said to be about a Miami businessman and politican-wannabe who marries a Columbian woman with a troubled past who proves to be resourceful at "fixing" any problem the corrupt, South Miami political scene throws at her husband.

The young British actor Freddie Highmore has been cast to play Norman Bates opposite Vera Farmiga in in A&E's upcoming series Bates Motel, a prequel of sorts to Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho.

A&E has ordered a pilot for Occult, a crime drama in which an FBI agent is paired with another agent, who specializes in the occult.

A&E has also ordered a fourth season of the drama The Glades, starring Matt Passmore as Jim Longworth, a cocky detective that relocates to a small town in Florida after a scandal forces him to leave Chicago.

Fox bought a script commitment for a drama titled The Prodigy, centering on a young CIA officer who has to infiltrate the New York City field office of the FBI on the hunt for agents who are working with enemies of the U.S.

USA Network released a video trailer for its new series Graceland, which follows a group of diverse agents (from the DEA, FBI and U.S. Customs) forced to live together in an undercover beach house in Southern California.

Fans of Foyle's War may have to wait until summer 2013 for the new season on PBS, but Acorn Media has released a few images from the production to tide you over. World War II is over, and Christopher Foyle steps into his new role as a Senior Intelligence Officer, only to discover that the British establishment is rife with communist sympathizers and traitors. (Hat tip to Crimespree.)

PODCASTS

The most recent Suspense Radio show featured the writing team of Gary Williams and Vicki Knerly, talking about the journey through the publishing world and their latest release, and also authors R. Barri Flowers and Sylvie Granotier.

THEATER

The critically-acclaimed play The Exonerated returns for a seven-week run starting Sept. 15 at the Culture Project in New York City. The production will again feature a rotating cast of stars, including Stockard Channing, Brian Dennehy and Brooke Shields, who read accounts by former death row inmates.