Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Casey Affleck will star in a drama about the Boston Marathon bombings, titled Boston Strong, based on the book by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge.

The Blue Room, a murder mystery adapted from the 1964 novel by Belgian mystery writer Georges Simenon, is in limited release in the U.S. and available via Cable and On Demand. You can check out a trailer and an interview with the director, Mathieu Amalric, who also adapted and stars in the film.

Lea Seydoux has been cast as the new Bond girl opposite Daniel Craig in Sam Mendes’ upcoming 24th installment. Although little is known about the character, it's been described as a "femme fatale" role. In another bit of Bond casting news, some insider sources are saying that Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista has landed a key henchman role.

A new trailer is out for the mystery thriller Before I Go to Sleep, based on the novel by S.J. Watson. The project opens October 31 and is produced by Ridley Scott, directed by Rowan Joffe and stars Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong.

A trailer was released for the crime thriller Bad Turn Worse (formerly called We Gotta Get Out of This Place) scheduled to hit theaters and iTunes and VOD on November 14. The plot centers on three Texas teens indebted to a sociopathic criminal who must steal from his boss, a money-laundering gangster – only things go from bad to worse when betrayal, distrust, and corruption complicate an already dangerous plan.

A trailer is also out for the heist thriller Focus, starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie.

For all you Elmore Leonard fans, the Hollywood Reporter whipped up a slide show of the "Best Elmore Leonard Adaptations."

TELEVISION

Fans of the cult classic Twin Peaks can rejoice – show creators David Lynch and Mark Frost are coming back with a new nine-episode limited series on Showtime, set to debut in 2016. Lynch and Frost will co-write all episodes, with Lynch set to direct each of them. The show will pick up the Twin Peaks story 25 years later and may or may continue the storylines around Laura Palmer's murder and may or may not include Kyle MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper character, according to a cagey interview with Frost for Deadline.

Meanwhile, the BBC ordered the final season of the crime drama Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. The three 90-minute programs will be based on Henning Mankell’s novels, The White Lioness and The Troubled Man.

ABC gave a full-season order to its new series How to Get Away With Murder. The network will add Ryan Phillippe drama Secrets & Lies to the Thursday at 10 p.m. lineup following Murder's 15-episode run.

NBC is teaming with Eddie Izzard to adapt author Timothy Hallinan's critically acclaimed comedic crime novels centering on Junior Bender, a high-end thief with a taste for the finer things in life who sidelines as a private eye for criminals. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

CBS bought a crime drama from author Patricia Cornwell, about a brilliant, unorthodox detective who works for San Diego’s Major Crimes Unit where demons from her past come back to haunt her.

CBS Television Studios and James Patterson are teaming up for a civil rights crime drama based on the Edgar Award-winning book The Thomas Berryman Number, about a messianic hit man hired to assassinate the first black mayor of Nashville.

Allan Hawco (who played the title detective in Republic of Doyle) will produce and star in the CBC's Caught, a drama based on Canadian author Lisa Moore's bestselling novel. He will play David Slaney, a convicted drug-runner who escapes from a Nova Scotia prison and tries to reconnect with his former partner in crime to pull off one more job that would set them up for life.

Arash Amel (writer of the Nicole Kidman drama Grace of Monaco), is in negotiations to write Made in Sweden, DreamWorks’ adaptation of a crime novel written by Anders Roslund and Stefan Thunberg. The work is based on a true story of a series of brazen bank robberies that were pulled off by three brothers and their childhood best friend.

The crime drama Unforgettable starring Poppy Montgomery has gotten the axe after three seasons.

The supernatural police procedural Grimm is headed to TNT in syndication, with the first three seasons airing early 2015.

PODCASTS/RADIO/VIDEO

The latest Crime and Science Radio featured an interview with psychotherapist, screenwriter, and novelist Dennis Palumbo.

THEATER

A former
Long Island stockbroker was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in prison for defrauding the backers of a planned Broadway musical based on the gothic mystery novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The producers still hope to bring the show to Broadway in the fall of 2015.