Media Murder for Monday

Here's your weekly roundup of the latest crime drama news:

MOVIES

Sony Pictures is moving forward with the delayed follow-up to the studio’s 2011 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (based on the Millennium book series created by Stieg Larsson), which is now slated for an October 2018 release. However, there is a catch; director Fede Alvarez has decided to use a whole new cast, including the role of the books' heroine Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace in the original Swedish trilogy and Rooney Mara in Sony’s Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher. The sequel will be based on author David Lagercrantz's The Girl in the Spider's Web, the continuation novel authorized by Larsson's estate.

James Mangold, coming off the hit Logan, is in talks to develop and direct The Force, the upcoming NYPD corrupt cop novel by The Cartel author Don Winslow. The plot has been described by author Stephen King as "Think The Godfather, only with cops. It's that good." It tells the story of a corrupt detective in the NYPD’s most elite crime-fighting unit who has to reconcile the idealistic guardian he still views himself to be with the corrupt cop he’s become, only to find himself attacked on all fronts.

Ridley Scott is currently finalizing plans to direct All the Money in the World, based on a script by David Scarpa that tells the harrowing, real-life story of John Paul Getty III’s kidnapping and subsequent ransom. As a teenager, the grandson of J. Paul Getty was kidnapped in 1973 with a ransom of $17 million sent to the family. While it was initially believed to be staged by the rebellious teen himself, when a lock of his hair and his severed ear was sent to the family, they realized it was real.

La La Land writer-director Damien Chazelle has optioned the movie rights to his mystery thriller The Claim. The project centers on a single father with a criminal background who must uncover the whereabouts of his kidnapped daughter while fighting the mysterious claims of another couple who insist that the child is theirs.

Man Of Steel’s Henry Cavill has officially been cast in Paramount’s upcoming sequel Mission: Impossible 6, a move that director Christopher McQuarrie made last week on Instagram. According to Variety, sources say Cavill would play some sort of a right hand to the head of Cruise’s unit.

Tom Bateman is taking on the role of a villainous gangster in the Liam Neeson starring vehicle Hard Powder, being directed by Hans Petter Moland. It's an adaptation of his Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance and is set in a glitzy Rocky Mountain ski town where an upright snowplow driver's (Neeson) life is turned upside down after his son is murdered by a local drug kingpin. He then seeks to dismantle the cartel, but his vengeful crusade sparks a turf war between a Native American mafia boss and the gangster Viking (Bateman).

Common has been tapped to star in Quick Draw, a revenge action thriller written and directed by Harris Goldberg. The plot is sketchy, but is said to be set in Los Angeles and "feature hyper-intense shootouts, choreographed car chases, and hand-to-hand combat."

Mark Strong has joined Catcher Was a Spy, playing the central role of Werner Heisenberg, lead scientist for the Nazi atomic program who became the main target in the U.S. effort to infiltrate the Nazi party and determine whether they were capable of building an atomic bomb. Paul Rudd stars as baseball player Moe Berg, a spy tasked with ingratiating himself with Heisenberg and ascertaining if the scientist was a genuine threat who should be assassinated. 

TELEVISION

CBS Films prevailed in competitive bidding for screen rights to the Ruth Ware bestselling mystery novel The Woman In Cabin 10. The story follows a journalist given an irresistible travel magazine assignment, a week on a boutique ultra-luxury cruise ship with only a handful of unimaginably wealthy travelers. But the dream assignment turns into a nightmare when she watches a passenger get thrown overboard after a violent act and all of the passengers seem to be accounted for the following morning as the ship sails on like nothing happened.

Justin Lin (The Fast and The Furious, Star Trek Beyond) has made a deal with Netflix for The Stand Off, a period drama written by Black Swan scribe Heyman, which takes place in 1969 when a newly formed Police unit known as the "SWAT team" embarked on their first major operation: to raid the Los Angeles Headquarters of the Black Panther Party. 

Halfway through its first season, CBS All Access’ first original scripted series, The Good Fight, has been renewed for a second season to premiere in early 2018. The Good Fight, a spinoff from CBS’ The Good Wife, is toplined by Christina Baranski.

NBC has picked up the Jennifer Lopez-starring gritty cop drama Shades of Blue for a third season. The series stars Lopez as Harlee Santos, a single mother and dirty cop working for Ray Liotta's Lt. Wozniak, who is equally willing to step outside the law to do what needs to be done to protect and serve.

Oscar winner Susan Sarandon will be joining Ray Donovan for a recurring role for season five, playing Samantha Winslow, the strong, focused head of a motion picture studio. The series stars Liev Schreiber in the title role, a professional "fixer," the man the town’s biggest celebrities, athletes, and business moguls call to make
the most complicated and combustible situations go away. 

Timothy Hutton is set for a recurring guest star role in Amazon’s upcoming original series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. The series stars John Krasinski as Jack Ryan, who uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into the center of a dangerous gambit with a new breed of terrorism that threatens destruction on a global scale. Hutton will play Singer, who serves as Deputy Director of Operations. The producers also announced that John Hoogenakker has booked a recurring role in the series playing a tough and salty American who works black ops for the CIA.

Hand Of God star Elaine Tan is set for a series regular role opposite John Leguizamo, Allison Miller and Neil Sandilands in Salamander, ABC’s drama pilot based on a Belgian format. Salamander centers on Ethan, a brilliant but misanthropic engineer who recruits a skeptical Homeland Security psychiatrist to help him track a mysterious bank robber whose theft of 66 specific safety deposit boxes sets in motion a series of blackmails that might be linked to a greater conspiracy. Tan will play Meghan, the master thief and anarchist who works alongside the domestic terrorist Jack Wang (Sandilands).

Elizabeth Perkins and Madison Davenport are set to co-star opposite Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson in Sharp Objects, HBO’s eight-episode drama series from Entertainment One. Adapted by Marti Noxon from the book by Gillian Flynn and directed by Jean Marc Vallée, Sharp Objects centers on reporter Camille Preaker (Adams). Fresh from a brief stay at a psychiatric hospital, Camille must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. Trying to put together a psychological puzzle from her past, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims a bit too closely. 

Chicago P.D. is getting a new detective in the form of Tracy Spiridakos, who will play Hailey Upton, a detective in the robbery homicide unit. Upton is a detective described as a hard worker who earned her detective shield on her merits alone after working a mysterious undercover assignment. But because the promotion came to her that way, she's had to prove herself to some colleagues in the boys club who don't believe she earned it.

Australian actor Alex Russell has booked a series regular role opposite Shemar Moore in CBS drama pilot S.W.A.T., executive produced by The Shield creator Shawn Ryan, Neal H. Moritz, Justin Lin and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas. The project is described as an intense, action-packed procedural following a locally born and bred S.W.A.T. lieutenant Hondo (Moore), torn between loyalty to the streets and duty to his fellow officers when he’s tasked to run a highly-trained unit that is the last stop for solving crimes in Los Angeles. Russell will play a man known as a loose cannon with no regard for safety – who's also the newest member of Hondo’s team.

Shemar Moore is slated to make a return to Criminal Minds in the Season 12 finale, although he is not scheduled to return on a full-time basis. One reason for that is the fact Moore landed the starring role in a new CBS adaptation of the 2003 movie S.W.A.T. 

Jim Caviezel, who played the sly former special op in CBS' cyber-thriller Person of Interest, is returning to the network in a new untitled pilot about Navy SEALs. He's been cast as Jason, the leader of his team of SEALs who's well respected and experienced in the field.

Krysta Rodriguez has booked a key recurring role for the second half of Season 2 of ABC’s Quantico. Rodriguez will play the intelligent, passionate and fiercely driven founder of "the Roster," a network and visibility platform for professional women committed to helping one another rise. 

Starz has unveiled a new trailer for American Gods, which follows ex-con Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) who is hired as a bodyguard and traveling partner to the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). The project is from Hannibal executive producer Bryan Fuller who created the show along with Michael Green working from Neil Gaiman’s novel.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste introduced a new feature of book reviews by blogger Craig Sisterson and also welcomed special guest Casey Kelleher, who talked about her books, how she started out, her love for Martina Cole, reality TV, and much more.

The Story Blender podcast featured Allison Brennan discussing the latest installment in her Lucy Kincaid series, Make Them Pay.