Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest crime drama news from screens big and small:

MOVIES

Julianne Moore is eyeing an unspecified villainous role in Kingsman 2, the sequel to the movie adaption of Mark Millar's action comic book series. If Moore signs on, she'll join star Taron Egerton, who will reprise his role as Eggsy. The first installment of the franchise starred Colin Firth as a sophisticated James Bond-esque agent that took the delinquent Eggsy under his wing and turned him into a suave agent. Firth’s character died in the first movie, but there have been talks of him returning in some form.

The original John Wick spawned the upcoming sequel John Wick 2, with a recently-announced setting change to Rome. Like the original, the sequel will star Keanu Reeves as an ex-hitman who comes out of retirement to track down gangsters. Unfortunately for fans, the release date for the sequel has been pushed back to February 10, 2017.

During the build up to the latest James Bond adventure, Spectre, there was a great deal of speculation as to whether or not Daniel Craig would be back to play the iconic spy for another movie. Even though he's reportedly contracted for one more, at one point Craig said the thought of playing the character again made him want to "slash his own wrists." MGM hopes to make it easier for him to commit to the project by pushing production back a year to allow Craig to shoot around his other projects.

TELEVISION

Amy Adams is set to star in a drama series currently being shopped around, which is based on Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel Sharp Objects. She will play Camille, a journalist tasked with covering the murders of two girls after returning to work from a stay in a mental institution. The all-star creative team also includes director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) and exec producer Jason Blum.

Angelina Jolie's Salt is the latest film to get the TV-series-adaptation treatment, with Sony Pictures developing the 2010 spy thriller as a potential TV show. Phillip Noyce directed the original film about Evelyn Salt (Jolie), a CIA agent released from a North Korean prison camp who turns out to be a Russian double-agent.

BBC Four has snapped up UK rights to the Swedish thriller Modus, an eight-part drama about criminal psychologist and ex-FBI profiler Inger Johanne Vik who returns to Sweden to spend more time with her two daughters. Vik’s autistic eldest daughter witnesses a murder, and as the number of mysterious murders starts to increase, Vik, together with detective Ingvar Nyman, takes up the hunt for what appears to be a cold-blooded serial killer on a mission.

The crime drama Unforgettable has been canceled after four season. Starring Poppy Montgomery as a female detective with the ability to visually remember everything, the procedural ran for three seasons on CBS before moving to A&E.

The BBC began filming on a second series of the critically acclaimed thriller The Missing. The first season starred James Nesbitt as a troubled man who returns to the scene of his son's disappearance on a French holiday eight years ago because he has learned new information. In this second eight-part season of the anthology series, Tchéky Karyo returns as French missing persons detective Julien Baptiste with a new case, new characters and a new location. The cast also includes Roger Allam, Laura Fraser and Florian Bartholomäi.

The Messengers alum Anna Diop has been cast opposite Corey Hawkins and Miranda Otto in the Fox pilot 24: Legacy, which reboots the 24 franchise with brand new characters and cast.

Sarita Choudhury (Homeland) and Karan Oberoi (NCIS) have booked series regular roles on Fox's drama pilot Recon, about a rookie FBI agent who embeds herself in a suspected terrorist family. Choudhury will play Farrah, a successful businesswoman who struggles to balance work, family and the Five Pillars of Islam. Oberoi is Jared, son of Farrah and her husband Omar. He’s described as "a charming bad boy and heir to his family’s company with ambitions that don’t align with his father’s business plan."

Eve Harlow has landed a series regular role on ABC’s murder trial drama pilot The Jury.  Written by VJ Boyd and Mark Bianculli and executive produced by Carol Mendelsohn, The Jury follows a single murder trial a season as seen through the eyes of the individual jurors. Harlow will play Melody, who’s completely cynical about the justice system.

Rizzoli & Isles may be coming to an end, but not before Angie Harmon hits a major milestone, directing the 100th episode. The drama is coming to a close after its seventh season and the show, on which Harmon stars alongside Sasha Alexander, and will hit its 100-mark on the eighth episode of Season 7. The show is currently in the midst of Season 6, which wraps in March.

Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou is set to co-star opposite Jason Patric in the second installment of Fox’s psychological thriller event series Wayward Pines, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan. He'll play CJ Mitchum, an original resident of Wayward Pines and a historian for the town. Based on the world created by author Blake Crouch in his bestselling series of books, the 10-episode second season of Wayward Pines picks up where  Season 1 left off, with the town’s residents battling the iron-fisted rule of the First Generation. 

Philip Winchester is set to headline the next installment in Dick Wolf’s Chicago franchise for NBC, tentatively titled Chicago Law. He is the first actor cast in the legal drama, eyed for a potential launch during the 2016-2017 season, likely in midseason.

Newcomer Dominique Columbus has signed on for a recurring role on the fourth season of Showtime drama series Ray Donovan. He’ll play Damon, described as a street-smart, homeless teen who packs a mean punch and becomes involved with the Donovan family. Ray Donovan stars Liev Schreiber as LA’s best professional fixer, the man called in "to make the city’s celebrities, superstar athletes and business moguls’ most complicated and combustible situations go away."

Publisher William Morrow is releasing a special TV tie-in edition book of Agatha Christie’s classic, And Then There Were None, tied to the Lifetime miniseries set to premiere on Sunday March 13th and Monday March 14th at 9pm ET/PT.   (HT to Janet Rudolph.)

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Scottish Book Trust's podomatic show had a chat with bestselling author Val McDermid and her partner in crime (research), forensic anthropologist Sue Black.

The latest Suspense Radio podcast featured three great authors, two of them who are also from across The Pond, Adam Dunn, then M.C. Beaton and finally Mick Sims.

Author Gary Phillips joined CrimeFiction.FM to discuss his most recent work, a collection of hard-boiled novellas titled, 3 the Hard Way.