Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of the thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken. Directed by Daniel Alfredson, (best known for helming the Swedish adaptations of both The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), the project is based on the true story of a team of criminals who attempted to kidnap the grandson of the founder of the Heineken Brewery.

Pierce Brosnan may be heading back to spyland, co-starring in the thriller Survivor, about a State Department employee (Milla Jovovich) in London charged with stopping terrorists from getting into the U.S. until she's framed and targeted for death. Dylan McDermott is also a new addition to the cast.

Universal Pictures may be adding to the spy genre after it closed a deal for Section 6, a spec script by Aaron Berg about the formation about the British intelligence agency MI6.

Bella Thorne and Kyra Sedgwick are set to star in Big Sky, the English-language feature film debut of Mexican filmmaker Jorge Michel Grau. The project is described as a "neo-Hitchcockian thriller." The cast also includes Frank Grillo (Zero Dark Thirty) and Aaron Tveit (Les Miserables).

Nicole Kidman will produce and star in an adaptation of The Silent Wife based on the novel by A.S.A. Harrison. Often compared to Gone Girl, the psychological thriller became a sensation only months after the death of the author.

Screen Australia has committed hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to support the development of 18 feature films and to cultivate the careers of the next generation of filmmakers. The projects include The End of Everything, a thriller based on the LA Times bestseller by Megan Abbott, produced by Kristian Moliere and written by Andy Cox; also the edgy thriller Berlin Syndrome, about a holiday romance that turns into an obsessive relationship.

Double Tony-Award winner Jennifer Ehle is joining the all-star cast that includes Christopher Plummer, John Travolta, and Tye Sheridan in the upcoming Code Entertainment film The Forger. It centers on a former art prodigy and petty thief who buys his way out of prison to spend time with his ailing son and teams with his father for one last job.

Garth Davis is in early talks to direct Shantaram, an adaptation of the book by Gregory David Roberts. The Johnny Depp-produced project centers on an Australian heroin addict convicted of robbery who flees to India and reinvents himself as a doctor but becomes involved in counterfeiting, smuggling and gunrunning.

Director Doug Liman (The Edge of Tomorrow) has taken over helming the drug smuggling action thriller Narco Sub. The title refers to semi-submersible crafts South American drug cartels have been using to ship cocaine into the U.S.

A new trailer was released for David O. Russell's American Hustle, described as a cross between Goodfellas and Boogie Nights. The film stars Bradley Cooper as an FBI agent getting con-men Christian Bale and Amy Adams to catch some crooked money-men.

TELEVISION

A crime drama produced by Eva Longoria and Conde Nast Entertainment landed at CBS after a bidding war with other networks. Titled Real Deal, the project is written by Burn Notice veteran Craig O’Neill and is based on a 2005 Glamour article. It's described as centering on "two polar opposite women — an ambitious FBI agent and an uncontrollable criminal Confidential Informant — who must find common ground if they’re going to survive both the streets of Los Angeles and each other."

Last season, CBS had viewers pick the ending of a Hawaii Five-O episode. This year, they're going one better by having fans create an entire episode via the "Fan Built Five-O initiative." The public will be able to vote online until Halloween for an episode's half-dozen key story points: scene of the crime, victim, murder weapon, evidence, suspect and takedown. 

Twentieth Century Fox and Audible are teaming up to offer a free, downloadable original half-hour audio Homeland episode with star Damian Lewis as his congressman-turned-fugitive character following the show's episode this Sunday.

FX signed a 10-part mini-series from director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and writer Simon Beaufoy. Titled Telemark, it's based on the story of the British-trained resistance fighters who sabotaged Hitler's nuclear development program during World War II.

Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) and Glenn Howerton have signed on to FX's 10-episode limited series Fargo, an adaptation inspired by the 1996 Oscar-winning film. In the same article, Deadline reported that BBC America added Michiel Huisman (World War Z) Peter Outerbridge (Nikita) and Ari Millen (Rookie Blue) to Season 2 of its mystery-scifi series Orphan Black.

TNT renewed Cold Justice for a second season. The docudrama centers on former prosecutor Kelly Siegler and former crime-scene investigator Yolanda McClary as they solve small-town murder cases

Omnimystery News reported that the Ovation network has picked up all seven seasons of the Canadian procedure Murdoch Mysteries. The se
ries is based on the novels of Maureen Jennings and stars Yannick Bisson as police detective William Murdoch, who uses new forensic techniques to solve crimes in turn of the 20th century Toronto.

Former 24 producers Howard Gordon and Evan Katz have been given a script commitment from Fox TV for Trial of The Century, a serialized legal thriller told from the POV of a young Latina attorney working on a unique high-profile case.

Fox-TV has cancelled plans to air the midseason animated comedy series Murder Police. That may not be the end of the show, as producer 20th Century Fox TV is planning to continue fulfilling the 13-episode order and shop the series elsewhere.

TNT put in development the political thriller President X, about a former U.S. President who wakes up from a year-long coma and, now out of power, must hunt down the individual who tried to assassinate him.

Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling have been cast as a crime-solving duo in ABC Family's Mystery Girls pilot. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

CBS and Criminal Minds executive producer Janine Sherman Barrois are teaming up for a new crime drama that follows the intersecting lives of homicide detectives, attorneys, reporters, and the Mayor's office as they work to solve the most scandalous crimes San Francisco has seen in decades.

The USA Network ordered three pilots from the writers/producers behind Burn Notice, including a project titled Novice, which takes the audience on the journey of a young man trying to break into corporate America who finds his true calling may be a life of crime. 

Fans of the 1970s private detective series Remington Steele, which helped launch Pierce Brosnan's career, may be cringing at plans to reboot the show as a half-hour comedy on NBC.

TNT released a trailer for its new series coming December 4, Mob City (a/k/a L.A. Noir and Lost Angels), which follows members of an LAPD anti-mob task force.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Cozy writer Kathleen Delaney joined Suspense Radio for their latest podcast, talking about her new novel, Murder by Syllabub.

THEATER

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Chapter, is producing a developmental reading of the play Killing Time: A Tale of Love and Murder, by author Jane K. Cleland and featuring her series protagonist, antiques appraiser Josie Prescott. For more information about the event on Monday, October 21, check out the Academy's website.

The Mystery of Irma Vep, which satirizes Gothic romance novels, pulp fiction, and horror movies, is being staged at the Newnan Theatre Company in Atlanta Octobe 24 – November 3. The comic take on crime has two actors playing eight different roles and changing costumes thirty-five times. In 1991, "Irma Vep" was the most produced play in the United States,  it later became the longest-running play ever produced in Brazil.

The Lockport Palace Theatre in Lockport, New York, is putting on a production of Ripper, an original play by Jon May telling the story of Jack the Ripper’s victims.