MOVIES
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is getting a reboot from Fox. The graphic novel series was previously adapted to film by Fox in 2003, and although it starred Sean Connery, it was not a box office success. Fox tried to get it going as a TV series in 2013, but when that wasn't successful, have decided to try again with a film franchise. The original comics have been described as "The Justice League of Victorian England,” focusing on heroes, antiheroes and villains from classic 19th and early 20th century literature such as Mina Harker from Dracula, Alan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Doctor Jeckyl, Professor Moriarty and Fu Manchu.
Henry Cavill has bailed on the movie Stratton right before the film was to begin shooting. The reason is apparently due to "unspecified issues with the script." The project is based on the series of novels by Duncan Falconer about a member of Special Boat Service, a British Naval Special Forces unit.
Jason Statham acquired the rights to author J.J. Connolly’s novel Viva La Madness, the sequel to Layer Cake. When Daniel Craig, who starred in Layer Cake, decided not to reprise the role of the cocaine dealer known only as XXXX, Statham stepped in to take over the role. Although the project has had its fits and starts, Stathan recently said it's still in development, although it currently lacks both a writer and a director.
Vincent D’Onofrio is in talks to play the bad guy in the Warner Bros. big-screen adaptation of the classic 1970s cop show CHiPS. The project has already signed Dax Shepard and Michael Pena as the officers originally played by Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada.
Benjamin Bratt has been cast in Shot Caller, playing a member of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Gang unit determined to make a career bust by tracking a newly released prison gangster forced to orchestrate a major crime with a rival gang.
Deadline reported that a new trailer was released for Black Mass, offering a creepy Johnny Depp as the Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. The film is based on the Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill book about the criminal icon and also inludes Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, Jesse Plemons and Sienna Miller in the cast.
A trailer was released for Cop Car, showing Kevin Bacon as a ruthless sheriff tracking two boys who stole an abandoned police car that is hiding something valuable.
Warner Bros. released the first trailer for its remake of the 1991 crime thriller Point Break, starring Luke Bracy as FBI agent Johnny Utah who goes undercover with a group of thrill-seekers to investigate a series of crimes they are thought to have committed. (HT Omnimystery News)
TELEVISION
I'm a bit remiss in not mentioning the 2015 Critics Choice Award nominations from the Broadcast Television Journalists Assn. announced in May. Among those program with multiple nominations were 24: Live Another Day, American Crime, The Americans, How to Get Away with Murder, Homeland, and Justified. The nominees for Best Drama series include The Americans, Empire, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Homeland, Justified, and Orange is the New Black.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the publishing of Patricia Highsmith's first novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, making it only fitting that her series of books focusing on con artist Tom Ripley are being developed for the small screen. The project, which is from Guymon Casady, an executive producer on Game of Thrones and the Expendables franchise, and Good People’s producer Benjamin Forkner, hasn't yet signed cast or crew.
Penny Johnson Jerald won’t be returning to ABC’s Castle playing Captain Victoria Gates, a role she'd held since 2011. Although no reason was given for the actress getting the boot, she shared her disappointment via Twitter: "To my Castle fans around the world, as of late yesterday I am surprised and saddened to learn that I will no longer be a part of the Castle family."
The Criminal Minds spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders is moving forward without Anna Gunn who appeared in the pilot. The producers decided that Gary Sinise’s Jack Garrett fulfilled pretty much the same role as Gunn on the show and are going to add a couple of new characters that “speak more to the needs of the franchise," according to CBS President Nina Tassler.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The crime podcast series Serial, from This American Life and WBEZ Chicago, is set to return for a second season in the fall and a third next spring. The first season explored the 1999 murder of Baltimore teenager Hae Min Lee and her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed’s subsequent life sentence and was the first podcast to win a Peabody Award.
Jenny Milchman interviewed Lee Child alongside debut thriller writer, John Connell on Blog Talk Radio, talking about what it takes to reach the top of this game, (and then stay in the game), the trajectory from debut author to literary hero, John's WWII thriller, and last but not least, Jack Reacher.
Public Radio International's "The World" program discussed the Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective with Zach Dundas, author of the new book The Great Detective: The Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes.
The latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's fiction podcast is "The Pirate's Debt," by Tony L.P. Kelner and read by Charlaine Harris. The story first appeared in EQMM's August 2009 issue and was a finalist for the Short Mystery Fiction Society's best novelette of 2009.
BBC Radio4 is currently airing a version of Dame Ngaio Marsh's thriller, A Man Lay Dead, featuring Jeremy Clyde as Inspector Alleyn. But you'll have to hurry to catch it, since it goes away in a few days.
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