Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Pierce Brosnan has signed to star in the film adaptation of Stuart Neville's The Ghosts of Belfast (titled Last Man Out for production purposes), which is scheduled to begin shooting at the end of this year. The adaptation was written by late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson and Ted Mulkerin. The project follows a former IRA hitman haunted by the memory of his victims 20 years after serving time for murder, who can't find peace until he takes revenge on their behalf.

Director Daniel Espinosa (of Safe House fame) is developing an adaptation of John Grisham's latest novel, The Racketeer, for Fox 2000 and New Regency. The story follows the only person who has any information regarding the murder of a federal judge—an imprisoned former attorney who plans to use his new position of power to get revenge on those that sent him to prison. 

Deadline reports that Dominik Garcia-Lorido has joined the cast of Heat, directed by Simon West. She'll play the ex-girlfriend of a good-hearted Las Vegas enforcer (Jason Statham), who turns to him when she is violently beaten. Also, in other casting news, Australian actor/singer Tom Budge has signed on to the indie thriller Son of A Gun.

Variety is reporting that the film adaptation of Lawrence Block's novel A Walk Among the Tombstones appears to be getting closer to a reality. It was announced last May that Liam Neeson had been signed to star as former cop turned PI Matt Scudder, and now Downton Abbey's Dan Steven has also been added. (Hat tip to Crimespree.)

TV

Fox was impressed enough with the pilot for The Bridge project, that it has given an order for a 13-episode series. The show is an adaptation of the Danish/Swedish co-produced crime drama Broen/Bron, but is updated to follow a serial killer who is operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, with an El Paso Detective working with her Juárez counterpart. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.) 

Deadline reports that Domenick Lombardozzi (Breakout Kings) has been cast in a recurring role on HBO’s period mob drama Boardwalk Empire, playing Ralph Capone, older brother to Chicago mobster Al Capone (Stephen Graham). Also, in another casting update, James Hiroyuki Liao (Battle: Los Angeles) has joined the revamped CBS crime drama Unforgettable in the role of a detective "with a wide variety of eclectic interests and skills."

Spy dramas appear to be big for next year, and three spy drama pilots have added cast members, including two on ABC:  Ernie Hudson is in negotiations to co-star in Reckless, playing a world-weary experienced CIA analyst, and Seth Numrich and British actor Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises) are set to join the Revolutionary-war project, Turn; meanwhile over at Fox, Felicity Huffman is taking on the role of a housewife with a double life as a spy and master of disguise, in Boomerang.

The Wire's Paul Ben-Victor has signed on for a four-episode story arc on CBS's Vegas, playing an arrogant Hollywood mogul.

Peter Sarsgaard is joining AMC's The Killing, playing the new villain, a Death Row inmate who's been in and out of jail since he was a kid.

CCH Pounder, former star of The Shield, has joined the legal drama pilot The Advocates, from The Mentalist's Bruno Heller. Pounder will play the dedicated head of the Victims Advocate office where female lawyer Shannon Carter works (and partners with male ex-con Henry Bird) as a victim advocate.

NBC released a trailer for its new show Hannibal, based on the novels of Thomas Harris featuring serial killer Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter.

PODCASTS/VIDEO

Michael Enright, host of CBC's The Sunday Edition, talked with two masters of the police procedural: Swedish writer Henning Mankell and American novelist Craig Johnson.

GAMES

USA Network is launching a new online murder mystery game titled The S#cial Sector, written by Psych writers and starring Psych's detective duo, James Roday and Dulé Hill. The game will run eight weeks on SocialSector.usanetwork.com and allow fans to help investigate a murder by "playing games, sending real-time messages to Shawn and Gus and also sending video of their whodunit theories."