Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Jon Favreau is set to co-star in Universal's crime thriller Term Life, starring Vince Vaughn as a thief who plans and sells heists to the highest bidder. Vaughn's character is forced to take his estranged daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) on the lam when a job goes bad, and takes out a life insurance policy on her for her protection—but it doesn't take effect for 21 days.

Sienna Miller edged out Thor actress Jaimie Alexander to star opposite Bradley Cooper in Clint Eastwood's film adaptation American Sniper. The film is based on the American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwan and Jim DeFelice.

Ciaran Hinds has joined the cast of the thriller Agent 47, playing against villains Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) and Thomas Kretschmann (Stalingrad). Rupert Friend had earlier signed on to play the title character.

A trailer was released for Devil's Knot, headed to theaters in May. Based on Mara Leveritt's book Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, the project is directed by Atom Egoyan and stars Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Amy Ryan, Mireille Enos, Stephen Moyer, Alessandro Nivola and Dane DeHaan.

Indiewire posted a featurette that discusses the adaptation of Jose Saramago's thriller novel The Double into the movie showing currently, retitled Enemy. producer Niv Fichman, director Denis Villeneuve, screenwriter Javier Gullón, and actor Jake Gyllenhaal add their thoughts about the making of the film.

TELEVISION

Josh Duhamel is returning to television to star in Battle Creek, the CBS series written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and House creator David Shore. The story follows Detective Russ Agnew (Dean Winters) and FBI agent Milton Chamberlain (Duhamel), two men with different worldviews who team up to fight crime in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Production company eOne is adapting Gloria Killian's true story about putting herself through law school while in prison and fighting a wrongful conviction for murder. Titled Inside Out, the project is based on Killian's book Full Circle: A True Story of Murder, Lies and Vindication (co-authored with Sandra Kobrin).

Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) has landed a leading role in CBS' untitled terrorism drama (w/t Red Zone). The project centers on a retired CIA operative-turned-high school football coach pulled back into action after a terrorist event rocks Washington, D.C.

TNT announced the premiere dates for several of its summer shows, including the new sci-fi series Falling Skies; the apocalyptic The Last Ship; Legends, starring Sean Bean as an undercover FBI agent who may be losing his grip on reality; and the new crime drama, Murder in the First, from executive producer Steven Bochco. The network also announced show dates for returning series Rizzoli & Isles, Dallas and Franklin & Bash.

Crown Media Family Networks announced it's rebranding the Hallmark Movie Channel as Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, starting the fourth quarter of 2014. One of the cornerstones of the new lineup is the 'Mystery Wheel" feature that will launch in early 2015 with Garage Sale Mystery, a series of movies starring Lori Loughlin (When Calls the Heart, Full House). The second movie franchise in the "wheel" stars Dylan Neal (Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove) who will star in and executive produce The Gourmet Detective, based on the series of books by Peter King. The third film series in the Mystery Wheel is TBA.

Anne Heche is set to star opposite Jason Isaacs in USA six-episode event series Dig. Heche will play the head of Jerusalem's FBI office and Isaacs's boss and love interest. The plot hinges on the accidental discovery of a conspiracy 2,000 years in the making while investigating an archaeologist's murder.  

CBS announced the 18 shows it was renewing for fall in the U.S. markets, including NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Person of Interest, CSI, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Elementary, and The Good Wife. Not making the cut were The Mentalist and Intelligence, two shows that are on the bubble.

Andrea Bogart (General Hospital) has booked a recurring role on Showtime's Ray Donovan playing the wife of FBI agent Volcheck (Kip Pardue). The project centers around professional celebrity "fixer", Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber).

Gillian Anderson and fellow cast members have begun filming the second series of BBC2's thriller The Fall. Gillians plays Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson who is on the trail of serial killer Paul Spector (Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan).

CBS's Hawaii Five-0 is promoting Jorge Garcia (Lost) to a series regular. Garcia plays plays Jerry Ortega, a conspiracy theorist and high school classmate of Chin Ho Kelly.

Likewise, HBO has upped Nazanin Boniadi (playing a strong-willed Muslim CIA analyst) to a Homeland series regular.

NBC announced Josh Lucas is joining Debra Messing in the drama pilot The Mysteries of Laura. Lucas will play the soon-to-be-ex husband of Messing's titular female detective character.

NBC released a "first look" of Matt Ryan playing occult detective John Constantine in the upcoming series Constantine.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

On CBS This Morning last week: Janet Evanovich, author of the Stephanie Plum series and co-author, along with Lee Goldberg, of The Heist.

Scottish author Denise Mina joined Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show on CBS talking about the writing life, writer's conferences and her works, with a healthy dose of humor added in (her spot starts about 30:00 into the video).