Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston are set to star in the Phillip Noyce-directed thriller Above Suspicion. The project is adapted from the book by New York Times columnist Joe Sharkey and explores the true story of a newly married FBI poster-boy (Huston) assigned to an Appalachian mountain town in Kentucky, where he’s drawn into an illicit affair with an impoverished local woman who becomes his star informant. She sees in him her means of escape; instead, it’s a ticket to disaster for both of them.

Michael Fassbender is circling the lead role for the adaptation of John Leake's true crime-based novel, Entering Hades. With Academy Award-winning Birdman co-screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris rewriting the original script penned by Bill Wheeler, the story centers on Jack Unterweger, an investigative journalist who also lived a secret life as a serial killer who murdered eleven people in multiple continents.

Dean Norris, Larry Pine, Shea Whigham and Mark Pellegrino have been added to the cast of High Wire Act, the Tony Gilroy-penned political action thriller starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike. Brad Anderson is set to direct the project, which centers on a former U.S. diplomat called back into service in 1980s Beirut to save a former colleague from the group responsible for his wife’s death.

Kiersey Clemons is joining the ensemble cast for Sony’s remake of the 1990 thriller Flatliners, with Ellen Page, Diego Luna, and Nina Dobrev also in the cast, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's Niels Arden Oplev attached to direct. Ben Ripley is penning the screenplay, which once again follows a group of medical students who experiment with “near death” experiences involving past tragedies until the dark consequences began to jeopardize their lives.

How to Get Away with Murder's Charlie Weber has been tapped to star in the political thriller Ex-Patriot, which follows a CIA analyst-turned-whistle blower who flees to Colombia for a life of penance and obscurity. When the agent is tracked down by her former flame (Weber), he enlists her help in taking down a money-laundering magnate with allged ties to terrorism but a personal vendetta proves no one can be trusted.

Vertical Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to Atlas Entertainment’s thriller The Hollow Point, from director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego. The project stars Patrick Wilson, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Jim Belushi, and Lynn Collin and is set in a small town at the U.S.- Mexico border where a new sheriff is plunged into the thick of the ongoing conflict over the drug trade as he investigates a cartel deal that goes horribly wrong.  

The rural thriller Blackway starring Anthony Hopkins has been given a June 10 limited release date and an official trailer. Based on the 2008 novel Go With Me by Castle Freeman, Jr., Blackway follows Lillian (Julia Stiles), a woman who has recently moved to her small logging home town where she has to team up with an ex-logger (Hopkins) and his laconic young friend (Alexander Ludwig) to fight a crooked cop.

TELEVISION

History and Narcos writer/producer Chris Brancato are developing Cartel, a drama series based on the life of drug kingpin El Chapo and his rise to power, with an inside look at how cartels use social media to maintain their images, recruit new members and threaten rivals.

Although ABC was supposed to announce the fate of Castle on Friday, the day came and went without an announcement. Apparently, it's because contracts were still being hammered out for the remaining stars, and according to a Deadline report, Seamus Dever, who plays Detective Kevin Ryan, was one of those actors, signing a new contract to continue with the show if there is a ninth season.

CBS announced they are renewing Criminal Minds for a twelfth season with a full-season order. The fact that it is the last-announced renewal of an established show at the network is said to have been due to budgetary concerns. The offshoot series, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, hasn't yet been renewed, but its ratings strength makes it a likely candidate.

Fox Television released a new teaser trailer for the second season of the psychological thriller Wayward Pines, based on a trilogy of novels by Blake Crouch, as this season's storyline is set to center on a Secret Service agent on a mission to find two missing federal agents, whose investigation only turns up more questions. (Hat tip to Ominimystery News.)

Showtime released a new trailer for Season 4 of Ray Donovan starring Liev Schreiber as fixer to L.A.’s mega-rich and super-famous.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Guardian's books podcast talked about writing crime with Donna Leon, Duncan Campbell, and Barry Forshaw.

Georgia Public Radio spoke with author Karin Slaughter about why she chooses to set her novels in Atlanta.

CyberSecurity experts joined Libby Hellmann on 2nd Sunday Crime to talk about the latest news from the world of cyber crime.

This week's Crime & Science Radio podcast featured an interview with former Federal Prosecutor turned author Allison Leotta about domestic and sex crimes.

A Naked Scientists podcast posed the question, "Can Science Prove Whodunnit?," taking a look at real case studies to find out how forensics can both help and hinder criminal investigations, including the insects who are first on the scene, how your phone can tell tales, and why DNA can lead you on a wild goose chase.