Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest news of crime dramas on the screen, on stage, and on air:

AWARDS

The Academy Award nominations included many of the same frontrunners that have percolated through awards season to date. American Sniper, a late-year release was added to the Best Picture category, joining other dramas such as The Imitation Game. Best Actor nods included Steve Carell for Foxcatcher, Bradley Cooper for American Sniper, and Benedict Cumberbatch for Imitation Game. Rosamund Pike was nominated in the Best Actress group for her role in Gone Girl. Other crime dramas up for various awards are The Judge (for Robert Duvall), and Inherent Vice and Nightcrawler (for writing).

The Critics Choice Awards were handed out by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and you can see all the winners via this link. It was nice to see that Gillian Flynn won Best Adapted Screenplay for her novel Gone Girl, despite being shut out of that category at the Oscars. Best Actor in an Action Movie also went to Bradley Cooper, for American Sniper, one of the few crime drama winners making the list.

MOVIES

Ben Affleck and David Fincher are re-treaming on a Warner Bros remake of the Hitchcock classic thriller Strangers On A Train, with Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) in talks to write the script.

In more Ben Affleck news, he's taking on the lead role in action-thriller The Accountant, where he'll star as a mild-mannered, socially-weird government accountant who moonlights as a highly trained assassin. Gavin O’Connor is set to direct, with John Lithgow, Anna Kendrick, Jeffrey Tambor, Jon Berthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and J.K. Simmons rounding out the cast.

Fresh off his role in Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to to replace Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg in Suicide Squad after Hardy had to drop out due to schedule conflicts. The Flagg character is the leader of the Suicide Squad, a team of antihero villains who carry out dangerous missions for the U.S. government in exchange for commuted prison sentences.

The official poster was released for the crime thriller The Gunman. Penn stars as an ex-special ops soldier who’s pitted against his former organization that is looking to silence him for good. The cast also includes Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance.

TELEVISION

Stephen King's novel, Mr. Mercedes, which King describes as his first hard-boiled detective tale about a psychopathic killer, is set to become a limited series for television. David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal and The Practice) will pen the script, and Jack Bender (Lost and Under the Dome) will direct.

Gary Sinise may have said good-bye to the character of Det. Mac Taylor in CBS' CSI:NY after the show was canceled in 2013, but apparently CBS wants him back. The network has hired him to play Jack Garrett, the leader of a division of the FBI's Analysis Unit in the new internationally-set Criminal Minds spin-off.

CBS has given the go-ahead for a second season of its freshman spinoff series, NCIS New Orleans.

Fox announced it's renewing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Empire and Gotham. Bones hasn't been slotted for renewal yet, due to "reaching another deal with its stars," while Sleepy Hollow is getting some mid-season tweaks to see if they revive the show's ratings enough for a third season.

In the same Fox publicity release, the network indicated that Wayward Pines, the mystery series by M. Night Shyamalan, about a Secret Service agent (Matt Dillon) who finds himself in a town he can't escape, will be Fox's centerpiece for scripted programming this summer.

Fox is also considering some reboots, including 24 (minus Jack Bauer), Prison Break, and the X-Files. The X-Files reboot is actually looking a lot more likely, with serious talks underway with creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

Kyle Maclachlan made it official that he will indeed be returning in the Twin Peaks limited-series sequel, playing FBI Agent Dale Cooper. Series mastermind David Lynch has also hired Sheryl Lee and Dana Ashbrook, who played teen lovers Laura Palmer and Bobby Briggs, to participate in the reboot.

Last week, we bid a sad farewell to screenwriter Brian Clemens who died at the age of 83. Clemens was a driving creative force behind The Avengers and co-creator of The Professionals, and wrote for Remington Steele, the Father Dowling Mysteries and Diagnosis Murder, among his many other influential projects.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Jan Burke and DP Lyle welcomed former FBI profiler Mark Safarik on Crime & Science Radio.

Paula Hawkins stopped by NPR to discuss h
er novel Girl on the Train and why it's being called "the next Gone Girl."

To mark the occasion of the University of South Carolina receiving Elmore Leonard's papers and library, Otto Penzler spoke about his friendship with the author and his contribution to the crime fiction community.

THEATER

The Arena Stage in Wasington, D.C. is presenting a new play frrom award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor), a fast-paced comedy about everyone’s favorite detective solving his most notorious case, the Hound of the Baskervilles. Five actors play Sherlock, Watson, and a total of more than 40 characters.

The Guardian reported on a new improv murder mystery at the speakeasy-style back room of the Wenlock & Essex bar in London. The mystery show Criminal is hosted by Liam Williams and features five comedians improvising the investigation of a crime, inventing dubious alibis and plausible modus operandi for "what’s essentially a macabre, live version of Would I Lie to You?" The show debuted January 17 and will continue at the venue monthly.