Media Murder for Monday

Another new week means another new wrap-up of the latest in crime drama news:

AWARDS

The Screen Actors Guild awards were handed out last night at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

The Academy Award nominations announced last week included a few nods to a few crime dramas, including To Hell or High Water (Best Picture), Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), and Original Screenplay (Taylor Sheridan); Isabelle Huppert was nominated in the Best Actress category for the psychological thriller Elle; and Michael Shannon was nominated for Best Actor for his role in the noir psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals. The biggest winners with the most nominations included the musical La La Land (14), the mystery-scifi film Arrival (8), and dramas Moonlight (8), Hacksaw Ridge (6), Manchester by the Sea (6), and Lion (6).

MOVIES

Paramount Pictures has acquired film rights to the Sonia Purnell book A Woman Of No Importance and attached Star Wars' Daisy Ridley to star. The story is based on real-life American heiress and super-spy Virginia Hall, who attempted to break into the ranks of the American Foreign Service in the years before World War II. Rejected because of gender and a disability — she lost part of her leg in a hunting accident — Hall worked during the war for the British intelligence unit SOE. She later joined the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA.

Samuel Goldwyn Films and AMBI Group will partner on the domestic release of the thriller Lavender starring Abbie Cornish. The project centers on a photographer (Cornish) who suffers severe memory loss after a traumatic accident, and strange clues amongst her photos suggest she may be responsible for the deaths of family members she never knew she had. A psychiatrist (Justin Long) helps her recover the lost memories. Diego Klattenhoff and Dermot Mulroney co-star.

Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace have signed on to star in Stockholm, a thriller written and to be directed by Robert Budreau. The story is based on the true story of a 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm that was documented in a 1974 New Yorker article "The Bank Drama" by Daniel Lang. The hostages bonded with their captors and turned against the authorities, and gave rise to the psychological phenomenon "Stockholm syndrome."

House Of Lies star Dawn Olivieri and Mo McRae have been cast in lead roles in the crime thriller Den of Thieves, which stars Gerard Butler. Directed by Christian Gudegast (who also co-wrote the script with Paul Sheuring), the story is based on true events and follows an elite crew of bank robbers who set out to pull off the ultimate heist and get to the money first, right under the noses of Los Angeles’ most feared division of law enforcement. Olivieri will play Debbie, the estranged wife of Butler’s corrupt cop character "Big Nick" Flanagan, and McRae will play a sheriff working under Big Nick. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Pablo Schreiber, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Meadow Williams are also in the cast.

A trailer was released for the thriller My Cousin Rachel, based on the Daphne du Maurier novel, which tells the story of a young Englishman (Sam Claflin) who plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin (Rachel Weisz), believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms.

Fans of murder mystery themes in cinema should check out this listing of "20 Great Murder Mystery Movies That Are Worth Your Time."

TELEVISION

CBS has given pilot orders to two projects: the crime drama Killer Instinct, starring and executive produced by The Good Wife cast member Alan Cumming, and Perfect  Citizen, a legal drama written and executive produced by former Good Wife executive producer Craig Turk. Killer Instinct (f/k/a Dr. Death) is based on the upcoming book by James Patterson and centers on a former CIA operative (Cumming) who has since built a "normal" life as a gifted professor and writer but is pulled back into his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer on the loose. Perfect Citizen centers on the former general counsel for the NSA who, after his involvement as a whistleblower in an international scandal, embarks on a new career at a storied law firm in Boston.

ABC has ordered a female buddy cop comedy pilot from executive producer Elizabeth Banks. The pilot centers on a driven but stubborn detective who finds unlikely help from her precinct’s trustee, a larger-than-life ex-con finishing out her prison sentence doing menial tasks for the police department. Though these two have completely opposing views on crime and punishment, a "highly entertaining and successful partnership is born."

Paula Patton has been cast as the lead of ABC's supernatural thriller drama series Somewhere Between, which was given a 10-episode straight-to-series order for summer 2017. It follows superstar news producer Laura Price (Patton) who knows when, where, and how her daughter Serena is going to be murdered but doesn’t know who the murderer is. Despite this, all of her attempts to keep her daughter safe fail, and Serena’s fixed, unmovable, terrifying fate keeps her directly in the path of her killer.

UnReal alum Breeda Wool has landed a series regular role in AT&T Audience Network’s upcoming drama series Mr. Mercedes, based on Stephen King's 2014 book, set for premiere in the fall. Mr. Mercedes follows a demented killer who taunts a retired police detective with a series of lurid letters and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he is able to strike again. Wool joins previously announced fellow cast members Kelly Lynch and Justine Lupe.

Second Chance alumna Amanda Detmer has booked a series regular role on ABC’s Marc Cherry untitled southern drama pilot. The drama stars Reba McEntire as Ruby Adair, the sheriff of colorful small town Oxblood, KY, who finds her red state outlook challenged when a young FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent is sent to help her solve a horrific crime.

Transparent's Melora Hardin is heading to The Blacklist next month, playing Isabella Stone, described as "a socialite by day, character assassin by night." The show also announced that Brent Spiner, who played Star Trek's android, Data, will be featured on an upcoming February episode, playing a master criminal known as "the Architect" who offers his services for the right price.

IFC Midnight has acquired domestic rights to director Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52, the Sundance documentary that deconstructs the infamous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The title comes from the 78 setups and 52 cuts that were required to construct Hitchcock’s meticulously choreographed two-minute shower sequence in his 1960 iconic film. Philippe breaks down the scene shot for shot, enlisting the help of film buffs and filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Bret Easton Ellis, Karyn Kusama, Eli Roth, and Peter Bogdanovich.

A trailer was released for the spin-off Better Call Saul, which returns to Netflix this spring.

A trailer was also released for The Blacklist spinoff, The Blacklist: Redemption, in which Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) joins a team of highly trained black ops professionals led by his mother, Scottie Hargrave (Famke Janssen).
 
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 featured Brad Ricca, author of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation.

The Next Steps podcast with host Jenny Milchman welcomed the ITW present best-selling author Elizabeth Heiter and debut novelist KJ Howe.

The Thrill Seekers podcast featured E.A. Aymar and DJ Alkimist talking about their collaboration that fuses together music and storytelling.

The BBC's Sarah Brett and Nihal Arthanayake interviewed former journalist and crime fiction writer Peter May who talks about his new Enzo Macleod novel, Cast Iron.

Two Crime Writers And A Microphone chatted with guest Sarah Pinborough, the author of Behind Her Eyes, about her inspiration for the work.

Noir on the Radio host Greg Barth welcomed crime fiction author Tony Knighton, a Lieutenant in the Philadelphia Fire Department who's also published short fiction in Static Movement Online and Dark Reveries.  

Dystopian crime fiction author A.R. Shaw stopped by Authors on the Air as they continued their Female Crime Fiction Writers Month theme.

Writer Types is a brand-new podcast hosted by Eric Beetner and S.W. Lauden that focuses on crime and mystery fiction. In the first episode, they interviewed authors Megan Abbott, Lou Berney, and Steph Post, looked at some of the best books from 2016 and coming up in 2017, and had a live reading of the short story "Whoops" by Nick Kolakowski. Beetner and Lauden explained their plans for the podcast over at the Do Some Damage blog.

The Story Blender podcast snagged author Andrew Gross to discuss his new historical thriller, The One Man, which is set in Auschwitz in 1944.

THEATER

The Cleveland Play House will present Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery from Jan. 21 through Feb. 12 in Playhouse Square’s Allen Theatre. Rafael Untalan takes on the role of Sherlock Holmes and Jacob James plays Doctor Watson, with three actors "playing everyone else in England."

Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) announced that Ann Cleeves is to receive the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing, which recognizes authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence.  Ann Cleeves is internationally renowned as the author of the series on which the TV series Vera and Shetland are based, and she is also the author of other crime novels and short stories and is a tireless advocate for libraries.

The Mystery Writers of America announced this year's Edgar Award nominations. The Best Novel category includes The Ex by Alafair Burke; Where It Hurts by Reed Farrel Coleman; Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye; What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin; and Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. You can read all the nominees in the various categories via the MWA website, including a Best Paperback Original nod to fellow blogger and Friday's Forgotten Books originator, Patti Abbott (for Shot in Detroit).

The Deutscher Krimi Preis, which purports to be the oldest German mystery-book prize, announced the winners (and the two runners-up) in two categories. The best German mystery category was won by Die Mauer (The Wall), by Max Annas, while the international mystery category was won by a translation from the English, The Heavenly Table, by Donald Ray Pollock. Books by Liza Cody and Garry Disher came in second and third.

Thursday, January 26, is International Mystery Night at the Mystery Readers NorCal Literary Salon in Berkeley, California. Featured authors scheduled to appear include Jeff Siger (Greece), Cara Black (Paris), and Lisa Alber (Ireland). The event is open to all, but you must RSVP to attend, and space is limited.

A £20,000 literary prize is being launched by Amazon for new work by authors releasing their work on Kindle’s self-publishing platform in the UK. The Kindle Storyteller award is open to authors writing in English across any genre, fiction or non-fiction, for books launched on Kindle Direct Publishing between February 20 and May 19, 2017.

An eclectic batch of items from spy novelist Tom Clancy (Hunt for Red October) is being sold by an auction house in Alexandria, Virginia. Clancy was actually a native of Maryland, and when he died in 2013 at the age of 66, he was still living at his 80-acre estate on the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland, from which most of the auction items originate. The auction will take place January 31, but bidding is already underway online.

The Arthur Conan Doyle estate has debuted a new website with texts, correspondence, photos, memorabilia, and films about the creator of Sherlock Holmes and his many roles, including author, physician, advocate, and spiritualist. One interesting account is his less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward the knighthood offered to him in 1902. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) is considered one of the classic writers of the so-called "Golden Age" mysteries, perhaps best known for his locked-room tales. But his output is more than just that, and the Classic Mystery Blog lists ten books to get you started.

Interested in diving into some chilly noir but don't know where to start? Here's a list of "10 Scandinavian Crime Novels to Read While Getting Your 'Hygge' On." For those who don't know, "hygge" has been in the news lately after it made the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 word of the year shortlist and went viral. Pronounced hoo-guh, it's a Danish term loosely defined as "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being." (Doesn't seem particularly well-suited for crime fiction, but there you go.)

For fans of legal thrillers, the ABA Journal asked ten lawyer-authors to choose the top 10 law novels in the past 10 years, with Alifair Burke starting off the list.

It appears that there are even astrophysical whodunnits on a galactic scale:  across the universe, galaxies are being killed and the question scientists want answered is, what’s killing them?

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Never See Morning" by Jennifer Lagier.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People chatted with Melissa Lenhardt about her new book The Fisher King, as well as nostalgia vs. progress in a small Texas Town; the MP also sat down with Terry Shames to discuss the latest installment in her Samuel Craddock series.

Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest wrap-up of crime drama news to start off the new week:

AWARDS

In the annual People's Choice Awards, The Girl on the Train was declared Favorite Thriller Movie; Priyanka Chopra won for Favorite Dramatic TV Actress (Quantico); the Favorite TV Crime Drama went to Criminal Minds, while Mark Harmon won for Favorite Male Actor in a TV Crime Drama (NCIS) and Jennifer Lopez for Favorite Female Actor in a TV Crime Drama (Shades of Blue); and The Favorite Premium TV Series nod went to Orange is the New Black.

Meanwhile, the Oscar Nominations are scheduled to be announced tomorrow - too late for today's blog, but I'll cover it next week. You can catch the updates via the official Oscars.org website as they happen.

MOVIES

After launching three franchises between Barbershop, Fantastic Four, and Ride Along, director Tim Story is set to tackle a fourth by signing on to helm New Line’s reboot of Shaft. Richard Roundtree starred in Gordon Parks’ original 1971 movie as John Shaft, a smooth-talking detective hired by a drug lord to find his kidnapped daughter, while Samuel L. Jackson picked up the mantle as Shaft’s nephew in John Singleton's 2000 remake.

Adam Brody and Sophie Nelisse (The Book Thief) are set to star in Evan Morgan’s The Kid Detective from Brightlight Pictures and Myriad Pictures. Written and directed by Morgan, the feature is described as "a darkly satirical murder mystery based on the demoralization of a wholesome American icon." A once-celebrated kid detective (Brody), now 29, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity until a naïve client (Nelisse) brings him his first "adult" case – to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.

Orange Is the New Black actor Pablo Schreiber has signed to star opposite Gerard Butler in STX's heist thriller Den of Thieves. Christian Gudegast is set to direct from the original screenplay he co-wrote with Paul Sheuring, which focuses on $120 million that is taken out of circulation on a daily basis by the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve and a notorious crew of robbers that plan the ultimate heist right under the noses of the city's best cops. Butler will play the head of a team of agents looking to stop the heist, while Schreiber will play the leader of the bank robbers. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and O'Shea Jackson are also in the cast.

The growing list of characters introduced into the Ocean's Eight ensemble cast has expanded further with the addition of British actor Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Alice Through The Looking Glass), although details of his character are being kept under wraps.

A trailer was released for the indie thriller City of Tiny Lights, written by Patrick Neate and based on his own 2005 novel of same name. Riz Ahmed plays Londoner Tommy Akhtar, a private eye who gets caught up in a dangerous case surrounding a high-class prostitute.

A new trailer was released for the upcoming John Wick sequel with Keanu Reeves returning as legendary hitman John Wick, who is forced back out of retirement when a former associate plots to seize control of a shadowy international assassins' guild.

TELEVISION

Stephen Susco, the writer behind hit thrillers The Grudge and The Grudge 2, has been set to adapt Fiona Cummins’ upcoming debut novel Rattle for television as a six-part series. The story centers on a sinister bone collector who has a macabre obsession with his museum of medical oddities and when the time comes for a fresh harvest, it’s down to Detective Etta Fitzroy to hunt down the psychopath before he can add to his collection.  

ABC has given a new pilot order to the prolific and successful Shondaland Productions. The untitled legal drama will be set in the Southern District of New York Federal Court (a/k/a "The Mother Court") and follow brand-new lawyers working for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high profile and high stakes cases in the country – all as their personal lives intersect.

ABC has given pilot orders to two more drama projects, including Deception, an FBI crime drama procedural from Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak, magician David Kwong, Blindspot creator Martin Gero, and Berlanti TV. The drama centers on superstar magician Cameron Black, who has only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, illusion, and influence after his career is ruined—the FBI. He’ll become the world’s first consulting illusionist, helping the government solve crimes that defy explanation, and trap criminals and spies by using deception.

Jessica Biel will star in and executive produce a new anthology series titled The Sinner for USA Network that's based on Petra Hammesfahr’s book of the same name. The first season/installment of the close-ended series follows a young mother (Biel) who, when overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage, commits a startling act of violence and to her horror has no idea why. The event draws in an investigator (Bill Pullman) who finds himself obsessed with uncovering the woman’s buried motive. Together they travel a harrowing journey into the depths of her psyche and the violent secrets hidden in her past.

Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight) has joined the cast of David E. Kelley's Mr. Mercedes series, the adaptation of Stephen King's 2014 novel of the same name. The drama follows a demented killer (Penny Dreadful's Harry Treadaway) who taunts a retired police detective (Brendan Gleeson) with a series of lurid letter
s and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he is able to strike again. Jerome will play Jerome Robinson, a high school student who does yard work for the detective and helps with technical support.

Cold Case Files’ True Crime Series is getting a reboot on the A&E Network, which will premiere the 10-episode series beginning February 27, with Danny Glover as narrator.

TNT has given a sixth-season pickup to its popular crime-drama Major Crimes, although the order is for 13 episodes, down from recent years. The drama centers on a special squad within the LAPD that deals with high-profile or particularly sensitive crimes, led by Captain Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell).

NBC will broadcast a preview of Dick Wolf’s Chicago Justice, the newest installment of the producer’s successful Chicago franchise, on Wednesday, March 1. The preview will immediately follow a crossover event between Chicago Fire at 8 p.m. and Chicago P.D. at 9 p.m. that is set to introduce a storyline that seamlessly flows into Chicago Justice.

For those Blacklist fans who are wondering how the spinoff show is going to work since one of the series' main characters, Tom Keen, will be making the transition between The Blacklist and The Blacklist: Redemption, worry no more. On February 23, NBC is giving the two shows a two-hour block so that one show will sign off and the next one will sign on afterward, and Tom Keen will simply walk from one episode into the next. The show also confirmed there are plans to keep Ryan Eggold's character Tom Keen on the flagship series, so even if The Blacklist: Redemption doesn't work out over the long haul, he will still be around.

The ratings for ABC's FBI series Quantico have been falling, and showrunner Joshua Safran has revealed the show is making a big change to cater to its viewers: Quantico is getting rid of its flashbacks because viewers weren't huge fans of the device during Season 1.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Thriller author Rebecca Forster was one of the latest to join in the Female Crime Fiction Writers Month celebration at Authors on the Air.

The Two Crime Writers And A Microphone podcast discussed Mark Billingham's forthcoming new Thorne novel, Martyn Waites's return to his usual name, and the crime genre. This week's special guest is debut novelist Joseph Knox.

THEATER

Murder, Margaret and Me is set to open at Norwich theatre in the UK with a run through January 28. It tells the story of an unlikely friendship that develops between crime writer Agatha Christie and actress Margaret Rutherford during the filming of the first Miss Marple film. "The play is about the process of creating and the conflicts of artistic creation. A question of ownership of character," said Phillip Meeks, the play’s writer. "But the play also pays homage to Margaret Rutherford. It’s half a biographical play."

Casting has been announced for the world premiere stage adaptation at Manchester's HOME theater of Paul Auster's City of Glass, marking the first time Auster's 1985 novel about a crime writer has been adapted for the stage. Mark Edel-Hunt and Chris New will play writer Daniel Quinn, who receives a mysterious phone call in the middle of the night. He is later hired by a strange woman called Virginia to protect her and her husband from her sociopath father-in-law. City of Glass will run from March 9-18 at HOME then move to Lyric Hammersmith from April 26 to 13 May.

Mystery Melange

This year's list of nominees for the Left Coast Conference's Lefty Awards have been announced, including the Lefty for Best Humorous Novel honorees: Donna Andrews, Die Like an Eagle;  Ellen Byron, Body on the Bayou; Timothy Hallinan, Fields Where They Lay; Heather Haven, The CEO Came DOA; Johnny Shaw, Floodgate; and Diane Vallere, A Disguise To Die For. For all the categories and finalists, check out the Mystery Fanfare site.  The 27th annual Left Coast Crime Convention will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 16–19, where Faye Kellerman and Jonathan Kellerman will be honored with Left Coast Crime Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The Center for Fiction in New York City's next CFA Master Class will be with Scottish crime author Ian Rankin on Tuesday February 7, 2017. Rankin's Inspector Rebus series turns 30 this year, and he will delve into his decades of experience writing the series and crime fiction in general as part of the class.

Fans of the historical mystery TV series Miss Fisher should take note:  a new convention, Miss Fisher Con, is headed to Las Vegas' Vdara Hotel from May 4-7, 2017. Events will include discussion sessions, a costume contest, scavenger hunt, and more. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

Miss Fischer fans (of the TV series or the original book series by Kerry Greenwood) may also be interested to hear that Tin Man Games plans to release the graphic novel Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze later this year.

Congrats to the new chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in the UK, Martin Edwards, in what also happens to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of his joining the CWA. The organization hosts several events each year, as well as advocating for authors and sponsoring the prestigious Dagger Awards. Edwards is the first person to hold that position and the presidency of The Detection Club (founded in 1930 by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and others) simultaneously.

Author and editor Paul Brazill announced that A Twist of Noir is back and seeking stories of 1000 words or less in any genre as long as there is a crime and noir theme. Meanwhile, the new website is up with some stories to tide you over. (HT to Sandra Seamans.)

Former HLN host Nancy Grace has launched a new crime news website called Crime Online, which bills itself as an "intersection of crime-reporting and crime-fighting." Grace’s new digital media venture includes a podcast and will allow readers to engage by providing their own input and theories.

Washington Post book reviewer Maureen Corrigan took exception to the recent spate of suspense books with "girl" in the title, adding that "When an old dame like Jessica Fletcher displays more sang-froid in confronting the psychopaths of Cabot Cove than most of these girls do in routinely opening their refrigerators, perhaps it’s time for less malady and more moxie in female suspense fiction."

One of the fictional stars of Spanish crime fiction, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s gourmand private eye Pepe Carvalh, is getting a new case in a novel by Carlos Zanón. Zanón takes up the story line of Carvalh thirteen years after the death of Montalbán with the blessing of the author's family and publishers.

As the Agatha Christie commemorations continue (from 2016) for her 125th anniversary and also the 100th anniversary of Poirot's debut, Emily Temple compiled a list for LitHub of "30 Essential Crime Reads Written by Women in the Last 100 Years" In honor of Dame Agatha.

If you'd like to explore the works of female crime writers even further, the Mystery People's Molly Odintz compiled a list of fifty such mystery novel titles.

The Strand Magazine put together a list of the "Top 8 Mysteries set in China," selected for historical and social interest.

If legal crime thrillers are more your thing, Peter Manus profiled the genre and picked his "favorite lawyers in crime fiction."

It's amazing what people had the time to do before television and the Internet. As an example, check out these "40 Hidden Artworks Painted on the Edges of Books."

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "You Tell Me" by David Spicer, and the latest story at Beat to a Pulp is "Creepy" by Alec Cizak.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People welcomed Richard Newman, whose Graveyard Of The Gods made their list of the Top 5 Debut Crime Novels Of 2016, as well as author Tim Bryant (author of the P.I. Alvin "Dutch" Curridge series), and author Mette Ivie Harrison; and Jeffrey E. Seay stopped by Omnimystery News to talk about his latest thriller featuring NCIS Special Agent Ruben Carver.

Media Murder for Monday

AWARDS

The British Academy Film & Television Awards, or BAFTAs, announced lists of the best films of the year. There aren't many crime dramas in the running, but multiple nominations were handed out to both the neo-noir psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals and the science fiction mystery film Arrival, as well as leading Oscar contenders La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Nocturnal Animals.

The Directors Guild of America announced awards for film and TV excellence in direction. On the film side, the honorees reflected the BAFTAs and Golden Globes already announced, while on the TV side, the crime drama nods included Ryan Murphy and John Singleton, both nominated in the Drama Series categories for episodes from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story; Raymond de Felitta for Madoff; and Steven Zaillan for The Night Of.

MOVIES

The cast of Ocean's 8 is welcoming late night talk show host James Corden to the cast, playing an insurance investigator who grows suspicious of the ladies’ plan to mount a large-scale act of thievery in New York City. The all-star cast includes Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, and Helena Bonham Carter.

Warner Bros. has released the first official trailer for CHiPS, a feature length comedic adaptation of the 1970s-80s NBC TV drama about motorcycle cop partners in the California Highway Patrol based out of Los Angeles.

TELEVISION

AMC and the BBC are re-teaming with The Ink Factory for a limited adaptation of another John le Carré bestselling novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, with Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) set to write the adaptation. This is the first TV series treatment for the book, which was the basis for the 1965 Paramount feature film starring Richard Burton. Le Carré, who served as a writer along with Paul Dehn on the 1965 film, will also executive produce the TV project.

Marc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids, has landed ABC’s first pilot order of the season with an untitled project starring Reba McEntire. She'll play Ruby Adair, the sheriff of a colorful small Kentucky town, who finds her red state outlook challenged when a young FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent is sent to help her solve a horrific crime. Together they form an uneasy alliance as Ruby takes the agent behind the lace curtains of this Southern Gothic community to meet an assortment of bizarre characters, each with a secret of their own.

Lifetime has put in development the psychological thriller You, based on Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novel of the same name. It is described as "a 21st century love story about an obsessive, yet brilliant twenty-something who uses the hyper connectivity of today’s technology to make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him."

Four days after TNT’s drama Good Behavior ended its 10-episode first-season run, the show has been picked up for a fall 2017 second season. The series, based on a series of books by Blake Crouch, tells the story of Letty Raines (Michelle Dockery), a thief and con artist whose life is always one wrong turn or one bad decision from implosion. Fresh out of prison, Letty tries to stay afloat but gets sucked back into the criminal world when she overhears a hitman being hired to kill a man’s wife and decides to derail the job, with the help of her parole officer (Terry Kinney).

Dakota Fanning is set as the female lead opposite Daniel Brühl and Luke Evans in TNT’s upcoming straight-to-series drama The Alienist, based on the international best-selling novel by Caleb Carr. The psychological thriller is set during the Gilded Age of New York City in 1896, where newly appointed police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt calls upon criminal psychologist (aka alienist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl)) and newspaper reporter John Moore (Evans) to conduct a secret investigation into a series of haunting, gruesome murders. Fanning will play a headstrong NYPD secretary named Sara Howard, who helps her colleagues investigate the murders.

Weeds alum Hunter Parrish has booked a major recurring role in ABC drama series Quantico, playing a political strategist forced to join forces with the CIA and FBI during the aftermath of the G20 hostage crisis.

Meredith Eaton (Boston Legal) has joined the cast of CBS’ MacGyver remake as a series regular, playing Matty Webber, the new director of operations at the Phoenix Foundation. Mac (Lucas Till) and the team, with the exception of Jack (George Eads), are excited to meet their new boss, who is known as a legend in Covert Ops.

Shots Fired, Fox’s 10-hour event series, will debut at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. The show, from executive producers Gina Prince-Bythewood, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, examines the dangerous aftermath of two racially charged shootings in a small Southern town.

Showtime president and CEO David Nevins revealed at the Television Critics Association winter previews that David Lynch's reboot of Twin Peaks will premiere with a two-hour episode Sunday, May 21 on Showtime, while a new trailer for the series was also released. The project picks up twenty-five years after the original Twin Peaks when the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town were stunned after their homecoming queen Laura Palmer was shockingly murd
ered.

20th Century Fox TV is circling a revival of the Emmy-winning 1980s NBC legal drama L.A. Law, with original series co-creator Steven Bochco conceiving the project as set in 2016 Los Angeles and revolving around new characters (young lawyers), while also featuring several characters from the original series as bosses.

The X-Files sequel is closer to becoming a reality, according to Fox entertainment president David Madden, although many details need to be worked out before it actually comes to fruition. Fox chairman Gary Newman also commented on the fate of Wayward Pines, noting that it wasn't dead yet, but won't be returning this summer.

One show not closer to reality is the proposed TV adaptation of the 1987 movie Fatal Attraction (starring Michael Douglas and Glen Close), which has been shot down due to "casting issues."

The first trailer was released for Snatch, Crackle’s upcoming original scripted series based loosely on the 2000 Guy Ritchie-directed crime/comedy film of the same name. Set to premiere on Crackle on March 16, the 10 episode series (supposedly inspired by a real-life heist), stars Harry Potter's Rupert Grint and follows a group of twenty-something hustlers who stumble upon a truck load of stolen gold bullion and are thrust into the high-stakes world of organized crime.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Screenwriter Nina Sadowsky joined Alex Dolan on Thrill Seekers to discuss her first novel, Just Fall, which is currently being adapted for a series on the Starz network.

Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed three more women authors in the "Nasty Women of January: Female Crime Fiction Writer" series: Danielle Girard, the author of nine novels, including Chasing Darkness and Savage Art, as well as The Rookie Club series; Elizabeth Heiter, who writes a series featuring FBI profiler Evelyn Baine; and organized-crime thriller writer Dina Santorelli.

Mystery Melange

Jeffery Deaver has been elected as the new president of the Mystery Writers of America, and if you're in the area of New York City on January 13 from 6-8 p.m., you can attend the MWA’s National Board of Directors for its annual party at Mysterious Bookshop and meet Deaver and fellow authors. Currently, those scheduled to appear include Donna Andrews, Frankie Y. Bailey, Laura K. Curtis, Hannah Dennison, Laura Durham, Lyndsay Faye, Daniel Hale, Thomas Hopp, Harry Hunsicker, Laurie R. King, Allison Leotta, Larry Light, Elizabeth Little, Jeffrey Marks, Tony Perona, Lori Rader-Day, Manuel Ramos, J.M. Redmann, Mark Stevens, Charles Todd, Maggie Toussaint, and Mo Walsh.

From Martin Edwards blog, I learned of a new event in the UK: Alibis in the Archives, which will be held at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Flintshire,  June 9-11. The event will celebrate the launching of the Crime Writing Archive at Gladstone's Library, which is actually two separate but distinct archives, one for the Crime Writers' Association and the other for the Detection Club.

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned the possibility of an Inspector Rebus festival, thanks to the efforts of his creator, author Ian Rankin. It appears the speculation has become reality, with RebusFest now scheduled for June 30 to July 2 in Edinburgh. With Rankin himself serving as curator, there will be interactive events, tours of the city, live music, and talks on Edinburgh’s history and its influence on the author.

Gerald So, editor of the Five-Two Weekly blog focusing on crime-themed poetry, is seeking more unpublished poems for the February 2017 Valentine's/passion/love theme, with a deadline of Saturday, January 21. He's also accepting regular submissions at the same time.

Submissions opened January 1 for the annual Al Blanchard Award for short crime fiction. Sponsored by the New England Crime Bake conference, the award winner receives a cash prize, Publication in Level Best Books’ Crime Fiction anthology, and admission to the conference. For contest guidelines and submission information, head on over to the Crime Bake website.

Mike Ripley has published his latest monthly "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine, with both a look forward (with New Year's "Resolutions") and a look back to 20 years ago when he was commissioned to write two "Crime Guide columns for the Daily Telegraph with book recommendations.

Literary detective Heather Wolfe, who author James Shapiro called the "Sherlock of the library," thinks she's cracked the case of Shakespeare’s identity, thanks to her passion for manuscripts that helped unravel mystery of who the bard really was. Of course, many other claims, such as this, this, and this have different opinions on the subject.

Speaking of Sherlock The British Newspaper Archive blog looks at Sherlock Holmes in newspapers, including a peek into the re-creation of 221B Baker Street in London's Sherlock Holmes pub, and Arthur Conan Doyle discussing the fallout following publication of "The Final Problem."  (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

Also, the BBC is launching #SherlockLive, an interactive mystery that you can play along with on Twitter.

The British Library Crime Classics Series, which has recently published re-releases of several neglected and mostly-forgotten mystery novels, has proven to be quite popular with some rather impressive sales numbers. Martin Edwards, who is an editor for the series, has mentioned the series on his blog, and the UK Bear Alley Books blog also highlights the series this week, noting that the series may stand out with "a selection of delightfully old-fashioned covers and with no Poirot or Marple on the TV at the moment, maybe readers who enjoy a cosy murder mystery are looking elsewhere for their devilishly clever murders and drawing room revelations."

While we're still on the other side of The Pond, check out this list of "10 Irish Crime Fiction Novels You Didn't Know You Needed in Your Life."

Although the infamous Black Dahlia cases in California grabbed all the headlines in 1947, there was another case a month later, the "Lipstick Murder," which was equally shocking but remains unsolved, a "mere footnote in the annals of L.A. noir," as the LA Weekly reports.

In the UK, one used-bookseller is charging customers to browse in his shop as a way of fighting back against online shopping with the traditional weapon of his trade - misanthropy. The Guardian's Stephen Moss explains why that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you loved the supernatural and psychological twist on the FBI/law enforcement crime theme in The X-Files television series, then Book Riot has a list of ten books just for you.

Otto Penzler selected his five crime and mystery picks for January, including Sandrone Dazieri, Peter Swanson, Agatha Christie, and more.

Perhaps you are more of a fan of unreliable narrators? If so, here are ten books that will tickle your psychological fancy.

Did you ever catch yourself thinking that the whole gun-in-a-violin case cliche was so passé? Well, maybe not so much:  a woman walking in the woods near the Boathouse at Fletcher’s Cove along the C&O Canal in Washington, D.C.  found a violin case containing at least one firearm, and police said they discovered other weapons nearby.

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Broken Window Theory" by Peter M. Gordon.

In the Q&A roundup, thiller author Lesley Welsh took Paul D. Brazill's "Short Sharp Interview" challenge; the Mystery People held a Q&A with Ed Lin about his Taipei night market mysteries; and Ragnar Jónasson stopped by Shots Ezine to answer questions about his new book, Rupture.

Media Murder for Monday

Happy Monday and welcome to a new week of crime drama news:

AWARDS

The Golden Globes were handed out last night, with La La Land leading the way with the most wins overall. On the crime drama side, The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story won for Best Dramatic Limited Series, with Sarah Paulson from the show also winning Best Actress in that category, and Tom Hiddleston winning for Best Actor in a Dramatic Limited Series for The Night Manager. Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman were also honored for their roles in The Night Manager, based on the novel by John le Carré. Billy Bob Thornton also won Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series for his role in Goliath.

The Writers Guild of America unveiled its film nominations in three categories — Original, Adapted and Documentary — for the 2017 WGA Awards, set for February 19 in simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles.  

The American Cinema Editors announced the nominees for the best-edited films of 2016 for the 67th ACE Eddie Awards. The awards have proven to be a reliable predictor of success in one of the most crucial Oscar categories. Nominations also included lists of the best-edited television programs for 2016.

Likewise, the Producers Guild announced nominees in the categories of children's programs, longform television, sports programs, and digital series for the annual PGA Awards, which will be handed out January 28. Nominees for documentaries were made in November, and nominations for theatrical motion pictures and animated theatrical motion pictures will be unveiled tomorrow. The TV honorees include series Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul, House of Cards, Westworld, Black Mirror, and Stranger Things; crime dramas were particularly well represented in the longform category, including The Night Manager, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and Sherlock: The Abominable Bride.

MOVIES

Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy are in talks to star in Paramount’s Triple Frontier, the Mark Boal-scripted thriller set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. This is the film that Katherine Bigelow once planned to direct (the new helmer is JC Chandor), and which at one time Tom Hanks and Will Smith and Johnny Depp have all been in discussions to join the cast.

Willem Dafoe has stepped aboard 20th Century Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express, joining the growing all-star cast in the ensemble piece that includes Kenneth Branagh (as Poirot), Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Michael Pena, Leslie Odom and Lucy Boynton. Dafoe will play undercover detective Gerhard Hardman in the hotly anticipated Agatha Christie adaptation that's also being directed by Branagh.

Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are on board the new action thriller, Black Water, which will follow a deep cover operative (Van Damme) who wakes up to find himself trapped in a CIA black site on board a submarine.

Sony’s comedic take on Sherlock Holmes has signed on Hugh Laurie and Ralph Fiennes to join the cast. (The film has nothing to do with the Guy Ritchie reboots starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law or the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.) The satirical take on Conan Doyle's characters stars Will Farrell, with direction from Etan Cohen, who also wrote the screenplay.

TELEVISION

Harold Perrineau, of Constantine and Lost fame, is heading to Criminal Minds for a major recurring role in Season 12. It will be a little later in the season, but he'll be playing a former FBI agent named Calvin Shaw who's behind bars for the murder of one of his informants. Shaw will enter the storyline for a run-in with an unnamed BAU agent, after which the squad has to make a judgment call on whether Shaw is on their side or not.

Veteran character actor Gerald McRaney has joined Fox’s 24 franchise reboot 24: Legacy as a series regular, playing Henry Donovan, the father of presidential candidate John Donovan (Jimmy Smits). A powerful oil man and passionately devoted father, Henry is dedicated to putting his son in the White House, no matter what the obstacles.

Bones showrunners discussed how they will bring Booth's past back to complicate the final season, and they also teased the "rollercoaster" storylines.

Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. bosses discussed more crossovers between the shows with TVGuide, as well as what's next for Severide, an upcoming "surprise" for Casey and Dawson, whether Olinsky will ever warm up to Burgess, and more.

Hulu's forthcoming live TV streaming bundle will include CBS content as part of the package, meaning Hulu customers will be able to watch shows like NCIS for the first time on the streaming service.

Has television (at least in the UK) reached peak-cop-drama critical mass? Mark Lawson, writing for The Guardian, made his case for why that may - or may not - be true.

A first look was released for the upcoming new crime drama APB, a cop show with a tech-savvy twist, which premieres on Fox on February 6.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest Crime and Science Radio discussed "Car Crashes and Crime Hot Spots - Studying Patterns to Prevent Crimes." The special guests were Greg Collins, the Research and Analysis Manager for the Shawnee, KS Police Department, and Dr. Kevin M. Bryant, a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Benedictine College in Atchinson, Kansas, who was certified in advanced crime mapping by the National Institute of Justice.

The tables were turned when Crime and Science Radio host D.P. Lyle stopped by the Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE podcast to talk about forensics in fiction, his background consulting for various TV shows, and his own award-winning crime fiction.

Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed mystery author Terry Shames with special guest co-host Rob Brunet for "Nasty Women January - Female Crime Fiction Writers." Shames writes the award-winning best-selling Samuel Craddock series, set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas.

The latest Crime Cafe featured host and author Debbi Mack interviewing thriller author Paul Casselle.

Dark suspense novelist Laura Benedict also stopped by Authors on the Air to talk about her six novels of dark suspense that include the Bliss House gothic trilogy and other writings.

THEATER

The Court Theatre in Christchurch is set for the world premiere of the new comic-thriller, Ropable, from February 11 through March 4. Written by The Court's Artistic Director, Ross Gumbley (who is also directing the show) and Allison Horsley, the story is set in the the Hitchcock-themed B&B "The Macguffin Hotel," run by the quirky Norma Bates, where Eden Forsyth has arrived to marry (or should that read murder?), the great Montgomery Parker. Her beloved Aunty Prudence is a welcome addition to the wedding party, but the unexpected arrival of her mother, the famous crime novelist C.W. Forsyth, throws a wrench into Eden's plotting.

Mystery Melange

The new year brings a slate of recurring crime fiction festivals and conferences you can start planning for now, including this list from Crime Fiction Ireland for events across The Pond, this listing from Sisters in Crime, and I've also been updating the Upcoming Conference listing in the upper right sidebar on this blog.

Looking ahead to June, The Guardian's series of writing workshops continues with "Writing authentic crime fiction: A Masterclass with forensic pathologists, criminal lawyers and frontline police."  Participants will be able to learn how to craft a killer story for film, fiction, or TV with bestselling author Erin Kelly, Silent Witness consultant Dr Stuart Hamilton, former chief superintendent Graham Bartlett, and other experts from the world of crime.

The Captivating Criminality Network will hold its fourth UK conference June 29 - July 1st at Bath Spa University in the UK. The theme is "Crime Fiction: Detection, Public and Private, Past and Present," and conference organizers have issued a call for papers on the subject. (HT to Ayo Ontade at Shots Magazine.)

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine published their first issue of the new year, which celebrates both the holiday season and Sherlock Holmes (EQMM recently announced they would be publishing fewer issues, six per year, but each will now be a double issue of stories). You can also read more story-behind-the-story tidbits and news via the EQMM blog Something is Going to Happen, or follow the magazine on Facebook.

Speaking of short crime fiction, there's good news and bad news in the world of short mystery publications, as Sandra Seamans noted on her blog with a list of markets that have gone under during the past year, as well as some new kids on the block. It's particularly brutal to lose such outstanding zines as ThugLit, Crime Factory, The Big Click, Shock Totem, and Noir Nation, but we have hopes that some may find new lives eventually (as sometimes happens in the publishing world). Case in point, Pulp Modern, as I mentioned last week, may be rising from the grave.

Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, has issued a call for reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays on the topic of Midwest Mysteries. For more details, check out the notice on the Mystery Fanfare blog.

It's well-known to many Agatha Christie fans that the author was interested in archaeology, thanks in no small part to her second husband, Max Mallowan. But both Christie and Mallowan would be horrified to learn that a lot of the work they did in Nimrud, Iraq, was recently blown to bits by ISIS. As their grandson notes, "If my grandparents could somehow be alive again and see the newspapers for a week, they would not have recognized the places where they had been and lived and worked."

In what may be a first such incident in law enforcement, police in Arkansas have asked Amazon for recordings potentially made by an Echo device ("Alexa")  in connection with a murder investigation. Police haven't specified the type of data they expect to find on the device, and it's not clear what the device could have captured that would have been relevant to the case. But such new technology opens up a new can of worms for the legal field to fish through, both in terms of crime investigations and privacy.

The Books in My Life blog profiled the "great (and relatively unknown) short crime fiction of Fredric Brown."

Criminal Element also had a fun look at "Lisbeth Salander’s Assassin’s Guide to New Year’s Resolutions."

This is a cool idea: Vancouver libraries established a writer-in-residence program which has most recently featured crime author Sam Wiebe.

In January 1917, Gordon Mace registered a homestead patent for the Baldpate Inn, a bed-and-breakfast near Estes Park inspired by the mystery novel Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers. In keeping with the book’s theme, he and his family gave each of their guests a key to keep but visitors began donating keys instead. A century later, the inn houses a collection of about 30,000 keys, each with its own story to tell.

Maybe Benedict Cumberbatch playing Sherlock Holmes wasn't such a stretch after all; the actor and Sherlock creator Arthur Conan Doyle are actually 16th cousins, twice removed – both descended from John of Gaunt, who died in 1399.

The featured crime poem at the 5-2 this week is "Sweet Sixteen" by C.J. Edwards.

In the Q&A roundup, E.B. Davis interviewed author Mary Miley for the Writers Who Kill blog, discussing Miley's 1920s Hollywood mystery series; and the Mystery People chatted with Tom Franklin about editing the anthology Mississippi Noir, released as part of the Akashic Noir series.

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to the first Media Murder for Monday of 2017, and Happy New Year to all! Due to the holiday, it's a bit light on news, but here's the latest from the crime drama world:

MOVIES

J.J. Abrams will be awarded the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award by the American Cinema Editors on January 27 at the 67th ACE Eddie Awards. In addition to such popular films as the Mission Impossible, Star Trek, and Star Wars franchises, Abrams has also been involved with popular TV shows like Westworld, Alias, Lost, Fringe, and Person of Interest.

A new teaser photo for the upcoming John Wick sequel shows a reunion of Matrix stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Reeves reprises his role as the titular character, while Fishburne will play The Bowler King.

TELEVISION

Homeland executive producer Chip Johannessen told Cinemablend how Season 6 plans to bring Nicholas Brody back into the story. The former P.O.W. character, played by Damien Lewis, was originally supposed to die in Season 1 but didn't leave the show until his death in the Season 3 finale. Meanwhile, Showtime viewers got an advance look at the new season.

Many of you will have watched the first episode of the new season of Sherlock last night, but the show's creative team has been hinting for quite some time that another season may never happen. The main reason is the increasing popularity of the show's actors, or as co-creator Mark Gatiss said "the success of Doctor Strange is not going to make Benedict short of work." On the other hand, Gatiss noted the "crazy idea" he had of how the Sherlock duo might eventually have its finale.

Sleepy Hollow's new actress, Janina Gavankar, explained how she feels about replacing the popular character Abbie Mills. Although not much is known about her character, she will play a special agent with Homeland Security.

One of Gotham's most favorite baddies makes a return to the series in a new mid-season image from an upcoming episode.

TV Guide also had some hints and teasers for the 2017 storylines in the Chicago Fire, P.D., Med and Justice franchise series.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Author Debbi Mack interviewed travel mystery author Maria Hudgins on the Crime Cafe podcast.

The latest FBI Retired Case File Review podcast featured retired agent Todd Hulsey served with the FBI for 15+ years talking about nuclear weapons and the Mascheroni spy case.