Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to Monday and a roundup of the latest crime drama news: 

MOVIES

Anne Hathaway is in negotiations to star in director Dee Rees’ The Last Thing He Wanted, based on the Joan Didion political thriller. Marco Villalobos penned the screenplay, which centers on hardscrabble journalist Elena McMahon who quits her job at the Washington Post to care for her father. In doing so, she inherits his position as an arms dealer for covert government forces and soon finds herself in the crosshairs of political espionage.

French filmmaker Julien Seri has signed on to direct the father-son serial killer thriller Anderson Falls for Title Media and Lone Suspect. Starry Eyes executive producer Giles Daoust wrote the script, which follows a detective who becomes convinced that his wife’s suicide was staged, and that she was actually murdered. When he discovers that she may have been the victim of father-and-son serial killers, he’ll have to break all the rules to stop them from killing other women.

Now that we know Daniel Craig will reprise James Bond one last time, the next biggest question is who will direct the actor's last hurrah as 007, especially after Skyfall and Spectre director Sam Mendes announced he wouldn't be returning for Bond 25. Insiders say Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle is high on the list to helm the next James Bond installment, with MGM and Eon Productions, the companies behind the James Bond franchises, listing him as one of the frontrunners.

Idris Elba has released the first trailer for his directorial debut Yardie. Set in ’70s Kingston and ’80s Hackney, Yardie centers on the life of a young Jamaican man named D (Aml Ameen), who has never fully recovered from the murder committed during his childhood of his older brother Jerry Dread (Everaldo Creary). The film, which debuted in Sundance and is screening this week in Berlin, is adapted from the cult 1992 novel by Jamaican-born British writer Victor Headley. 

A reminder that the Noir on the Boulevard Film Series in San Diego cranked up this weekend. The series, which will last through December, will held at the Digital Gym Cinema and feature a classic noir one Sunday a month and a neo-noir on Mondays every other month.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

In a seven-figure deal, Amazon Studios has acquired the rights to the Alafair Burke novel The Wife, with the author set to write the feature script. Published in January by Harper, the novel center on Angela, a woman who suffered extreme trauma in her teen years and now learns that her celebrity husband may be a sexual predator. Jason Powell is a handsome NYU prof whose book on socially conscious investing called Equalonomics is a raging bestseller. He runs a successful consulting firm and hosts a top-rated podcast that has enabled Angela and her husband to live an idyllic life with their son in Greenwich Village. Then, his intern files a complaint at the NYPD Special Victims Unit claiming he made inappropriate sexual suggestions at the office. A second alleged victim surfaces and soon there is a murder and Angela has to confront past personal trauma she thought was far in the rear view mirror.

Anthony Hemingway is set to direct and executive produce CBS’ drama pilot Murder, from producer Dan Lin. Written by Amanda Green based on the BBC miniseries, this new take on the investigative drama explores crime through the unique and often-conflicting perspectives of cops and killers, witnesses and victims, friends and family. Shot like a true-crime documentary, the series invites the audience inside the emotional journey of an investigation, allowing them to discern the truth and judge the suspects’ guilt or innocence for themselves.

Jay Hernandez (Scandal) has been tapped to play Thomas Magnum, the lead in CBS’ drama reboot pilot Magnum P.I. CBS had been looking to add a twist to the classic character played by Tom Selleck in the original series, which had been conceived as diverse in the reboot, with the network setting out to find a non-white actor for the role. The reboot follows Thomas Magnum (Hernandez), a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. With help from fellow vets Theodore “TC” Calvin and Orville “Rick” Wright, as well as that of disavowed former MI:6 agent Juliet Higgins, Magnum takes on the cases no one else will, helping those who have no one else to turn to.

Julia Kelly will be a series regular opposite Kylie Bunbury in ABC’s Get Christie Love reboot drama pilot, inspired by the cult 1974 blaxploitation-themed TV movie and subsequent series. The new Get Christie Love is an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. She transforms into whomever she needs to be to get the job done, especially when it’s down to the wire and the stakes are life and death. Kelly will play Val, the bookish and nerdy tech op for Christie’s (Bunbury) counter-intelligence field unit. 

Sense8 alum Brian J. Smith has been cast as the lead in CBS’ drama pilot L.A. Confidential, based on the classic noir novel by James Ellroy. Directed by Michael Dinner, the TV series follows three homicide detectives, a female reporter and a Hollywood actress whose paths intersect as the detectives pursue a serial killer among the gritty and glamorous 1950s Los Angeles. Smith is set to play Detective Ed Exley, the lead role played by Guy Pearce in 1997 that earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Cold, but not without a conscience, brilliant, fiercely ambitious, Ed Exley is an L.A. cop when the pilot story begins. Determined to make his mark and become a hero in his father’s eyes, Ed will do anything to prove himself. Smith joins Justified's Walton Goggins, who was recently cast as Detective Jack Vincennes.

Alyssa Diaz (Ray Donovan) has booked a series regular role in ABC’s straight-to-series light crime drama The Rookie, starring and executive produced by Castle alum Fillion. Written by former Castle executive producer/co-showrunner Alexi Hawley, The Rookie stars Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. At an age where most are at the peak of their career, Nolan cast aside his comfortable, small town life and moved to L.A. to pursue his dream of being a cop. Diaz will play Angela, an LAPD Training Officer on the cusp of making detective-trainee. That all gets threatened when she gets assigned to Jackson West. Not only does she have to play the usual politics within her own station house, she now has her hands full with an entitled rookie whose father has a say in her career at the LAPD. 

In her American television debut, young Australian actress Harriet Dyer has landed the female lead in In Between Lives, NBC’s drama pilot from writer Moira Kirland, Heyday Television — the joint venture of Harry Potter and Paddington producer David Heyman and NBCUniversal International Studios — and Universal TV. Written by Kirland, In Between Lives centers on Cassie (Dyer), a mysterious young woman who reluctantly uses her gift of clairvoyance to help a veteran LAPD detective and a damaged ex-FBI outsider solve the most unnerving and challenging cases the city encounters. This eerie ability also opens the door for her to see and talk to the dead, who are seeking help for unresolved problems, whether she likes it or not.

Brandon Flynna nd Michael Graziadei are set to recur in the third season of Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO crime anthology series True Detective, starring Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo, Stephen Dorff, Scoot McNairy, Mamie Gummer and Ray Fisher. The next installment tells the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods. 

Dawson’s Creek alum Katie Holmes will star in and executive-produce a Fox drama pilot about a controversial FBI agent. The as-yet-untitled potential series centers on Special Agent Hazel Otis, who is in the middle of a terrorism investigation when her affair with a high-level general becomes public knowledge. As the world sees her as "the mistress," she fights to rebuild her personal and professional lives.

Hamilton's Phillipa Soo has signed as a series regular in CBS’ drama pilot The Code. Written by Limitless creator Craig Sweeny, the project features the military’s brightest minds as they take on our country’s toughest challenges inside the courtroom and out where each attorney is trained as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, an investigator, and a Marine. Soo will play 2nd Lieutenant Harper, a hyper-organized 2nd lieutenant capable of sub-dividing any problem into color-coded action points.

David Zayas (Dexter) has been tapped for a series regular in ABC’s drama pilot Staties. The show centers on Eliza Cortez, a hard-charging NYPD detective who’s banished to the boonies after a high-profile mistake and is paired with a new partner, Oregon State Trooper Sam King, whose investigative techniques don’t exactly follow protocol. Zayas will play Sgt. Machado, the head of Eliza’s new Oregon State Police unit. 

Bosch's Titus Welliver will play meth dealer Ronald Booth in the 18th episode of Chicago P.D.'s fifth season. His character is described as charming and intelligent but also comes with a mean side. An unpredictable man, he can go from a cool charm to impassioned rage in an instant. 

Production has begun on Convicting a Murderer, described as a follow-up to Netflix’s Emmy-nominated docuseries Making a Murderer, from documentary filmmaker Shawn Rech (A Murder In The Park). Rech will direct the eight-episode series which investigates the controversial case built by the State of Wisconsin against Steven Avery for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, in which police were accused of tampering with crime scenes and planting evidence to manipulate the investigation and implicate Avery of the murder. Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey are currently serving life sentences.

Netflix has released the official trailer for their upcoming limited series Collateral, starring Carey Mulligan. Spanning the course of four days in London, the series explores the repercussions surrounding the fatal shooting of a pizza delivery man. Mulligan plays British detective Kip Glaspie, who refuses to accept that this is a random act of violence, and is determined to discover the darker truth

Telexist, the VR production studio behind the narrative film Dinner Party, and its parent company Good Deed Entertainment are teaming on Memory Palace, a 10-episode VR noir thriller series that will be designed to be part cinematic VR and part interactive. The series will center on Owen Knowles, a gifted young lawyer with the knack for seeing peoples’ lies. Disbarred after the mysterious death of his fiancée, he turns to legal depositions as a means to find the truth and seek revenge, and as a human polygraph, he is reminded daily that there is no truth…everyone lies, and everyone has a secret.

The first trailer For BBC America drama Killing Eve was released. The show is based on the novellas by Luke Jennings and stars Jodie Comer as a mercurial, talented killer who clings to the luxuries her violent job affords her, and Sandra Oh as a bored, whip-smart, pay-grade MI5 security officer whose desk-bound job doesn’t fulfill her fantasies of being a spy.

PODCASTS/VIDEOS/RADIO

WHUR welcomed mystery writer Walter Mosley to chat about his new novel, racial and social justice, and the state of black entertainment.

Mick Herron talked with the Spybrary Spy Podcast about London Rules, his Slough House spy series, and Jackson Lamb.

THEATER

A production of William Goldman's stage adaptation of the psychological horror thriller Misery, based on Stephen King's 1988 novel, runs through March 11 at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. The story centers on successful romance novelist Paul Sheldon who awakes in a secluded home after a car crash and has to outwit the sociopathic bibliophile that seems bound and determined to keep him permanently bedridden.

Mystery Melange

Walter Mosley will be the Central Keynote Speaker at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference August 10-12 in New York City, it was announced yesterday. Mosley is best known among the crime fiction community for his popular historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Tickets are on sale for New Zealand's first ever crime fiction festival, Rotorua Noir, on the 26th and 27th of January 2019. Appearing as international guests of honor will be Alex Gray, Lilja Sigurðardóttir. Kati Hiekkapelto and Michael Robotham along with a host of Kiwi authors in panel discussions, interviews and an insight into the life of the criminal mind.

In honor of World Book Day, the UK's True CRIME Museum Hastings is sponsoring a book swap March 2-4. Anyone who arrives at the Museum with a crime-related book to donate can visit the museum for free. All the books collected from the event will be sold through the year and all proceeds go directly to the Museum’s supported charity, Victim Support.

Editor Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers Journal says the next issue will focus on Gardening Mysteries, and she's seeking reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays (first person, about yourself, your books, and the 'Gardening/Garden' connection). The deadline is April 1, and you can read more about the call here.

Some sad blogging news and some happy blogging news: First the sad, which is the news that Bernadette Bean, who had been writing the Reactions to Reading blog ever since 2008, has passed away suddenly. Fellow bloggers Jeff Pierce and Margot Kinberg have posted more details and remembrances. In happier news, congratulations go to the Type M 4 Murder blog, which is welcoming its one-millionth visitor this month. Rich Blechta has all the details.

Here's a little-known fact via the Paris Review: Of the ten thousand books in the library of Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II, two thousand were detective novels. During the Sultan's reign (1876-1909), more than fifty mystery novels were translated into Turkish. Abdülhamid also went on to create the first secret service and sent spies across the empire to report to him.

Writing for The Guardian, Olivia Laing looked at "Sex, jealousy and gender: Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca 80 years on," and how the author's bestselling novel reveals much about the author’s fluid sexuality – her ‘Venetian tendencies’ – and about being a boy stuck in the wrong body.

Hollywood Reporter noted that one of the projects in the works for the 100th anniversary in 2018 of the birth of crime writer Mickey Spillane is Titan Comics' comic book series featuring his signature creation, private eye Mike Hammer. The four-issue series is actually based on a story by Spillane himself, "The Night I Died," originally written in the 1950s as an unproduced screenplay.

If you're an aspiring crime fiction author but scared of rejection, take heart: Michael Bracken posted his submission history, and it turns out, he's been rejected 2,552 times. But, on the flip side, he's also had 1,582 acceptances, which is a ratio of one acceptance for every 1.61 rejections; not a bad record at all.

Chris Rhatigan picked "5 Crime Fiction Titles with a Strong Sense of Place" for the Criminal Element blog.

With the imminent premiere of the fourth season of Amazon's Bosch series, you can vote in a poll for your favorite Michael Connelly book, the author whose works inspired the Amazon series.

Ever find yourself hungry for some decadent fare from killer cookbooks? You're in luck.

Sometimes, crime does pay, as with this list of "10 Lifelong Criminals Who Became Successful Authors."

Want to train to be a spy?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Soulmate Mountain" by David S. Pointer.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sleuth Sayers' Brian Thornton chatted with Vancouver author Sam Wiebe about his new novel, Cut You Down, the second installment in his series featuring Vancouver PI Dave Wakeland; Criminal Element's John Valeri spoke with John Hart, the only person to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel consecutively, about his latest book, The Hush; Craig Sisterson welcomed London-based Karin Salvalaggio to discuss her Detective Macy Greeley series set in Montana; and Gregg Hurwitz was interviewed by Gulf Shore Life (ahead of an appearance at the Friends of the Library of Collier County’s Nick Linn Lecture Series) about his Orphan X books, recently picked up for film by Warner Brothers to star Bradley Cooper.

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to Monday, folks! Here's the latest roundup of crime drama news for you:

AWARDS

The annual British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs, were handed out this weekend. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was a big winner, taking home Best Film, Leading Actress (Frances McDormand), Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell), and Original Screenplay (Martin McDonagh).

MOVIES

Oscar winner Christopher Walken and rising star Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager, Steve McQueen’s upcoming Widows) have been cast in The Burnt Orange Heresy, the new neo-noir thriller from Golden Lion-nominated filmmaker Giuseppe Capotondi. The project is based on a screenplay by Oscar-nominated writer Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) and adapted from the cult novel by Charles Willeford, about an art-world scam that goes horribly wrong.

Black Bear Pictures and Anonymous Content have hired Morten Tyldum to direct and Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander to star in the adaptation of the dramatic thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter. Based on Karen Dionne's bestsller, the story centers on Helena Petterier (Vikander), who lives with a secret:  her mother was kidnapped as a teen and she was the product of the relationship between captive and tormentor, remaining in captivity herself for twelve years until her captor was finally arrested. But when he escapes from prison, she becomes determined to hunt him down using all the tools he himself gave her years ago.

Scott Eastwood has signed on to join Oscar winner Morgan Freeman in the cat-and-mouse thriller The Manuscript. Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) will direct from a script by Louis Rosenberg and Joe Rosenbaum. The story follows a jailed genius (Freeman) who writes and sends chapters from a mysterious novel to an aspiring young writer (Eastwood), ensnaring him in a high-stakes ploy to recover $100 million in stolen diamonds.

Actors Gerard Butler, Tucker Tooley, Mark Canton, Alan Siegel, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and director Christian Gudegast with have all signed on to return for the sequel to the heist thriller Den of Thieves. The project, Den of Thieves 2 will find Big Nick (Butler) on the hunt in the streets of Europe closing in on a man who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange.

Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick films, might be launching another film franchise with Sandman Slim, a film adaptation based on bestselling author Richard Kadrey’s nine-book fantasy series.The story centers on James "Sandman Slim" Stark, a fast-talking, hard-boiled, supernatural vigilante who escapes from Hell to avenge his girlfriend’s murder and hunt down the magicians responsible for getting him sent "downtown." Kerry Williamson, who penned the Netflix film What Happened to Monday, will adapt the novel (a previous draft was written by Kel Symons).

20th Century Fox has slotted a release date for Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, the sequel to his Agatha Christie adaptation Murder on the Orient Express, which Branagh directed as well as playing super-sleuth Hercule Poirot. The sequel is scheduled to premiere on Nov. 8, 2019, going up against Disney’s holiday film Nicole starring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader and the second week of Wonder Woman 2.

Morgan Freeman and Forest Whitaker are in talks to join John Travolta in the action thriller The Poison Rose. Bad Boys scribe George Gallo will direct from a script he wrote with Richard Salvatore, based on Salvatore’s novel of the same name.  The Poison Rose is described as being in the vein of Chinatown, L.A Confidential, and The Long Goodbye, with Travolta starring as a down on his luck PI who enjoys drinking, smoking, gambling and ladies in distress. Freeman will play Doc, the godfather crime boss of Galveston, Texas; Whitaker will play the shady owner of the town’s sanitarium for the rich and disillusioned. Also starring is John Travolta’s daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, who will portray the daughter of Travolta’s character, Carson Philips. 

Jake Gyllenhaal, Ansel Elgort, and Zendaya have signed on to star in Finest Kind, a crime thriller written and directed by Oscar-winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). It follows two brothers (Gyllenhaal and Elgort) who strike a dangerous deal with a crime syndicate that draws them into the Boston underworld.

Clive Standen, who currently stars in NBC’s Taken series adaptation, has been tapped to co-star along with Theo Rossi in Verdi Productions’ crime thriller, Vault. Tom DeNucci is on board to direct the film, which is inspired by true events. The story follows a group of small-time criminals, who in 1975 attempted to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia in the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island.

Piper Perabo, best known for toplining USA’s drama series, Covert Affair, has come aboard the third installment of the Olympus Has Fallen series, Angel Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. Ric Roman Waugh is directing the sequel, which follows Mike Banning (Butler) as he continues to be a target of terrorists, this time while mid-flight on Air Force One.

The Film Noir Foundation is partnering with the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Littleton, Colorado, to present the first NOIR CITY: Denver, March 23 - 25, 2018, a three-day festival that will feature ten films. FNF founder and president Eddie Muller ("The Czar of Noir") will have a special co-host, the legendary crime fiction author James Ellroy, who will co-program the festival. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

TNT has picked up to series the suspense drama pilot Deadlier Than the Male (working title), starring Lily Rabe, Amy Brenneman, and Hamish Linklater. Created and written by Harriet Warner (Call the Midwife), Deadlier Than the Male is described as "an intense, morally complex thriller" that revolves around a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: Emma (Rabe),  a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer; John (Linklater), a former serial predator desperate to find redemption; and Mary (Brenneman), a grieving mother obsessed with finding her missing daughter. As each of them is pushed to the edge, the truth about their pasts and motives grows ever murkier, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator.

Jason Statham is in negotiations to star in The Killer’s Game, an action thriller that D.J. Caruso has been hired to direct. Based on a Jay Bonansinga novel, the script centers on a veteran assassin who is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and takes a hit out on himself to avoid the pain that is destined to follow. After ordering the kill, he finds out that he was misdiagnosed and must then fend off the army of former colleagues trying to kill him. The book was published in 1997, and Hollywood has been trying to adapt since it was in manuscript form.

Multiple award-winning Big Little Lies is bringing back all of its stars for the second season. Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon confirmed their returns a few months ago, and now it was recently announced that Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, and Laura Dern will also be back. Even Alexander Skarsgård (spoiler alert ahead) who was allegedly murdered in the first season, is coming back, although it's not known if it will only be in flashbacks. The new addition to the cast is Meryl Streep, who will be playing the mother of Skarsgård's character. 

The first major documentary about the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal is set to air next week. Channel 4 is to air Working with Weinstein on February 20, a documentary that explores Weinstein’s relationship with the UK film business and "meets people who worked with Weinstein across 30 years of British film and investigates how we kept his accusers quiet for decades."

Fargo star Bokeem Woodbine has been cast to play the lead role in the pilot for CBS drama Main Justice. Woodbine will play the role of Miles Blair, the new U.S. attorney general after a career in Detroit as a beat cop and then police commissioner. The series is inspired by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s life.

Netflix announced this past week that Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson will be playing Texas Ranger Frank Hamer and ex-partner Maney Gault in The Highwaymen, from director John Lee Hancock. This was the project that goes back far enough that it once had Paul Newman and Robert Redford ready to play those roles, before Newman’s health failed. The plot focuses on Hamer and Gault coming out of retirement to hunt down the notorious bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. The lawmen were out of the Rangers by the time Bonnie and Clyde started their robbery reign, but were commissioned as special investigators, coaxed by a consortium of banks to assemble a posse and end the spree of the notorious gang reputed to have killed thirteen cops and others. 

The series adaptation of the action film Hanna at Amazon has found its three leads in Esme Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman, and Mireille Enos, with Sarah Adina Smith set to direct. Written by David Farr, who co-wrote the original film, Hanna follows the journey of a young girl with extraordinary skills as she evades the relentless pursuit of an off-book CIA agent and tries to unearth the truth behind who she is. 

Amazon Studios has also renewed Bosch for a fifth season, ahead of the season four premiere of the hour-long cop drama in April.  Bosch, starring Titus Welliver in the titular role, and based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels about LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, has become Amazon Prime Video’s longest-running one-hour series.

Former Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders star Alana De La Garza has been tapped as one of the three leads in CBS drama pilot Chiefs, from David Hudgins and Carol Mendelsohn. In addition, helmer Zetna Fuentes (How To Get Away with Murder, This Is Us, Shameless) has been tapped to direct the pilot, from Sony Pictures TV and CBS TV Studios. Written by Hudgins, Chiefs explores the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful, but very different women who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County. They band together to create a task force to catch a dangerous serial killer.

Quantico has lost yet another major character leading up to its Season 3 premiere. Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Quantico director Miranda Shaw, has officially exited the show. It was reported last year that Ellis' role would be reduced, and she would no longer be billed as a series regular, but now it appears she will not be part of the show at all. Two other series regulars, Yasmine Al Massri and Pearl Thusi, also left the series last year. Priyanka Chopra, Johanna Braddy, Jake McLaughlin and Russell Tovey remain on as the core cast of the show.

James Franco is headed back for season 2 of The Deuce, but according to Megan Abbott, a writer for the HBO series, it looks like his status on the show was never in doubt. Abbott told Entertainment Tonight at the Writers Guild Awards on Sunday that Franco, who was accused of sexual misconduct following his Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy win at the Golden Globes last month, would "of course" return for the show’s second season. The accusations were posed against Franco by five women in a Los Angeles Times expose published in January. After the news broke, The Deuce creator David Simon released a statement saying that Franco was "entirely professional as an actor, director and producer." The series, which centers around the beginnings of the porn industry, stars Franco as twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino.

PODCASTS/VIDEOCASTS/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Vest talked about libraries closing and the importance of visiting them, and also chatted about the intensity of Karl Ove Knausgaard. Noelle Holten reviewed books from Elle Croft and Matt Wesolowski, and special guest Mark Hill discussed book title changes, doing book events, and much more.

The Story Blender podcast welcomed John Lescroart to talk about his latest thriller featuring San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy, titled Poison.

Debbi Mack interviewed thriller author Kristin Helling on Crime Cafe to discuss The Altruism Effect, which is based on the real-life Stanford Prison Experiment that happened in 1971.

Beyond the Cover's latest special guest was Brad Parks who stopped by to discuss his new stand-alone domestic suspense thriller, Closer Than You Know.

Read or Dead podcast hosts Katie and Rincey talked about romantic mysteries, with quick mentions of the Audie awards and some Stephen King news.

Suspense Radio's Inside Edition hosted two crime authors, author Phillip Donlay talking about Speed the Dawn, and bestselling author Brad Taylor talking about his latest Pike Logan Series, Operator Down.

Dennis Palumbo stopped by Crime Corner with host Matt Coyle to discuss his new book, Head Wounds, the fifth book in the series featuring psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi. Palumbo was also the featured guest on the most recent Speaking of Mysteries podcast.

The latest Crime Time podcast profiled Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, reviewed K.L. Slater’s Liar, and used the Rosemary's Baby sequel to talk about really bad endings.

The new Flash Friction podcast welcomed Aaron Philip Clark for its inaugural episode. Clark's Paul Little novels will be republished this spring by Shotgun Honey/Down & Out Books along with his third novel, The Furious Way, to be published November 2018.

THEATER

Audiobook company Audible announced that Tony Award winner Billy Crudup will return to the title role in Harry Clarke, written by Obie Award winner David Cale (Lillian) and directed by Leigh Silverman (Violet). Audible is bringing the sexually charged, wickedly funny one-man thriller to the Minetta Lane Theatre in a strictly limited 10-week-only engagement with performances beginning Wednesday, March 7th ahead of a Sunday, March 18th opening. Audible listeners will have exclusive access to discounted, premium seats.

I don't often have many dance-related news for Media Murder, but here's an interesting item: Houston choreographer and educator Heather von Reichbauer has interwoven Edgar Allan Poe's life and literary characters to create an original dance narrative work, Madness, Memories, and Woe: A Fantastical Journey Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Performances run at Houston's Match on Main Street, March 2-4.

Mystery Melange

 

Fans of Bill Crider are offering up their remembrances following the author's death after a bout with cancer in home hospice. Crider, best known for his Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, was also a huge advocate and promoter of crime fiction, a fixture at Bouchercon conferences, and most recently, a social media icon via his pop culture blog and Facebook presence where he chronicled his life with the three adopted Very Bad Kitties (VBKs). You can read some of the tributes from The Rap Sheet, Evan Lewis, Jayme Lynn Blaschke, and Crimespree, with more to come. Even those of us who never had the good fortune to meet him in person feel like he was a friend, and he will be sorely missed.

Ayo Onatade has a handy listing of all the events coming up during the Granite Noir festival in Aberdeen, Scotland, February 23-25. Val McDermid and Anne Cleeves will be featured in separate conversations, plus there is a plethora of crime fiction-themed panels for aspiring writers including one for kids aged 8-10, as well as screenings of Double Indemnity, The Big Clock, and the Big Easy; an exhibition of crime scene and police photography; an interactive tour of sites associated with medieval and beyond crime and punishment in Aberdeen; a Noir at the Bar; the Crime Writers Pub Quiz; and much more.

Mystery Writers of America NorCal is holding a Master Class on Writing Commercial Fiction with Jeffery Deaver on March 10 from 10 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. in Oakland, CA. This event, which will include lunch, conversation, handouts, a lecture on specific goals and techniques, is free but exclusive to MWA NorCal members. However, if you're in the area, you can join MWA and reap many year-round benefits, as well. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Del Sol Press is holding a first novel competition and seeking to publish exceptional work by both new and recognized writers, with an emphasis is on original, unique, and accessible work with an edge. The 2018 competition invites submissions of literary and upmarket fiction, general fiction, serious women's fiction, SFF with a literary edge or fiction with a catalytic speculative element (e.g., Time Traveler's Wife), as well as mystery, crime, or suspense fiction.The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and is available to published and unpublished authors alike. The winner will receive a $1,500 honorarium and book publication by Del Sol Press, and finalist manuscripts will also be considered for publication. The submission deadline is May 15, 2018.

Fahrenheit Press founder Chris McVeigh announced that as of this month the press has joined with Number Thirteen Press to form a new imprint called Fahrenheit 13. Fahrenheit Press Senior Editor Chris Black noted that the imprint will highlight the finest hard-boiled noir and experimental crime fiction, or, as he puts it, "hardboiled, pulp, crossover, literary, neo- or classic noir, everything goes." The original Fahrenheit Press will continue to publish a blend of traditional crime fiction from established and debut novelists

The Ian Fleming estate has authorized Anthony Horowitz to once again write an official James Bond novel, this time a prequel to the first ever James Bond novel, Casino Royale. Forever and a Day, Horowitz's second 007 continuation novel, will make use of material left behind by Ian Fleming to imagine Bond’s first mission.

The Washington Post announced its new bestselling books charts. The Post (owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos) had previously used data from Nielsen Bookscan for its best-seller list that only provided data on print sales and was an incomplete view of the market. The new lists factor in Amazon's ebook sales and reads in Kindle Unlimited and will allegedly "more accurately reflect what people are reading instead of editor-influenced lists like the New York Times." The Post’s lists are backed by a new in-house technology called Bradbury, which enables automatically imported data from multiple sources and will be used to generate a data-driven weekly synopsis detailing movement on the list from the week prior such as fastest rising titles, authors, new additions, and historic performance.

Mystery Fanfare has a list of Olympics-themed crime fiction you can read while waiting for your favorite Winter Games athletes to complete. And for those of you who celebrate Mardi Gras, there's a list of mysteries and thrillers on that theme, too.

Jen Gann takes a look at how "A New Crop of Mom Thrillers Taps Into Our Worst Fears."

This is the kind of heart-warming news that's good to see: Garbage collectors in the Turkish capital have opened a public library comprised entirely of books once destined for the landfills. The library, located in the Çankaya district of Ankara, was founded after sanitation workers started collecting discarded books. For months, the garbage men gathered forsaken books. As word of the collection spread, residents also began donating books directly. The collection grew so large the library now loans the salvaged books to schools, educational programs, and even prisons.

Big Brother meets high-tech law enforcement: Chinese police are using dark sunglasses equipped with facial recognition technology to spot criminal suspects. The glasses, which are being worn by police at a busy train station ahead of the Chinese New Year travel rush, are linked to a central database which contains details of criminal records. Wearing the technology, police can almost instantly view an individual's personal details, including name, ethnicity, gender and address.

In an interesting study, new research from a memory expert at James Cook University in Australia shows there may be a simple way to help eyewitnesses of crimes remember more about what they have seen - and it's a lot simpler than you'd think.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Surprise Me Deadly" by Michael A. Arnzen.

In the Q&A roundup, The Crime Warp's Liz Mistry interviewed Sharon Thompson about her debut novel, The Abandoned; Deborah Kalb chatted with Maureen Johnson, the author of the new young adult mystery novel Truly Devious; Craig Sisterson's first 9mm Interview for the year featured French crime writer Johana Gustawsson whose debut, Block 46, was an international bestseller that won both the Balai de la Découverte and Nouvelle Plume d’Argent awards in 2016; the Mystery People's Scott Montgomery grilled Don M. Patterson about his novel Sierra Blanca that features Texas native and CIA operative Hank Copeland; the Sunday Guardian Live spoke with Swedish author Carin Gerhardsen, who specializes in writing "socially-engaged crime novels"; and Laura Lippman was the guest of Matthew Turbeville over at the Mystery People blog, discussing her newest book, Sunburn, which she has said might be her favorite book she's written so far.

Media Murder for Monday

 

Another week has begun and and so has another listing of the latest crime drama news:

MOVIES

Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Alec Baldwin have signed on for the thriller Motherless Brooklyn, written and directed by Edward Norton, who is also starring in the project. Inspired by Jonathan Lethem’s novel of the same name, the story is set in 1950s New York and follows Lionel Essrog (Norton), a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome, as he ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna (Willis). Armed only with a few clues and the powerful engine of his obsessive mind, Lionel unravels closely-guarded secrets that hold the fate of the whole city in the balance.

Armie Hammer is set to star in an untitled thriller from writer-director Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow), from Annapurna Pictures. Hammer will play a New Orleans bartender whose life begins to unravel after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.

Stephen Merchant and Norwegian actress Synnove Macody Lund have joined The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel The Girl in the Spider's Web, joining already-signed actors Claire Foy and Lakeith Stanfield and director Fede Alvarez. Sony hopes to relaunch the film franchise, whose last installment was released in 2011, planning for a November 9, 2018 release. The film is adapted from the David Lagercrantz-penned fourth book in the Millennium series.

Amber Heard will star in Run Away With Me, a romantic thriller from Sentinel Pictures, playing Kimberly, a star-crossed lover who encounters the dark criminal underbelly of the European fashion industry in Paris. There is no word on other casting, including Heard's love interest. French-Canadian director Fred Grivois has come on board to direct the project, after making his feature film debut with the 2015 thriller Through the Air (La Resistance de l’air).

After last week noting that production on the spy thriller The Rhythm Section had been shut down to star Blake Lively's injury, word comes this week that the film is expected to resume production in Spain in June. The film, based on Burnell’s series of "Stephanie Patrick" novels, centers on Lively who takes on an assassin’s identity so she can wage revenge against those who orchestrated a plane crash that killed her family.

Paramount released the full trailer for Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the sixth film in the series starring Tom Cruise. The extensive supporting cast includes returnees Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, and Michelle Monaghan, as well as newcomers Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Cavill,

Lionsgate has released the first trailer for their upcoming thriller Spinning Man, along with the first poster. Guy Pearce stars alongside Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver in the project, which serves as a gripping examination of crime, punishment, and conscience when a professor is suspected in the disappearance of one of his students.

Universal Pictures has debuted the very first trailer for their upcoming British thriller Tango One, the adaptation of Stephen Leather’s thriller of the same title, which is about how far one man will go to rescue his daughter and save his criminal empire from collapse.

A featurette was also released for the upcoming spy thriller Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

NBC has given a pilot order to the drama Suspicion, based on the book by Joseph Finder, from The Path creator Jessica Goldberg, Universal TV and Keshet Studios. Created/written by Goldberg, Suspicion is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves.

The novels in the "Teddy & Emilie" trilogy by Swedish crime author Jens Lapidus have been picked up by the production company Filmlance to be adapted into a new eight-part crime series. Jens Lapidus is known in Sweden as a criminal defense lawyer and is perhaps most famous for having written Easy Money, which was adapted into a film starring Joel Kinnaman.

Amazon Prime Video, Liberty Global, and All3Media International are partnering for the psychological thriller series The Feed from writer Channing Powell (The Walking Dead) and Studio Lambert. Based on the recently published novel by Nick Clark Windo, the London-set futuristic series centers on the family of the man who invented an omnipresent technology called The Feed. Implanted into nearly everyone’s brain. The Feed enables people to share information, emotions and memories instantly. But when things start to go wrong and users become murderous, the family is driven apart as they struggle to control the monster they have unleashed.

The Magnum P.I. pilot from Peter Lenkov (Hawaii Five-O), Davis Entertainment (The Blacklist), and CBS TV Studios has found its director in Fast & the Furious helmer Justin Lin. the reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series will feature the same central quartet of characters as the original but, instead of four guys, it will consist of three men and a woman, with Higgins reconceived as Juliet Higgins.

Michael Emerson (Lost, Person of Interest) will play the Abbot in the adaptation of Umberto Eco's historical crime novel Name of the Rose, joining a cast that includes Rupert Everett and John Turturro. The international eight-part drama is produced by Germany’s Tele Munchen Group and Italian production company Palomar and will first be shown on Italian broadcaster Rai in the first quarter of 2019.

Former Survivor’s Remorse star Teyonah Parris has been set as the female lead in CBS drama pilot Murder, based on the BBC miniseries, from producer Dan Lin. Written by Amanda Green, this investigative drama explores crime through the unique and often-conflicting perspectives of cops and killers, witnesses and victims, friends and family, shot like a true-crime documentary. Parris will play Det. Ayana Lake, a rising star in the NYPD whose keen intellect and quick, analytic mind are the keys to her success. But when she’s partnered with instinctive intuitive Det. Jack Garrity (not yet cast), styles and personalities sometimes clash.

Felicity Huffman has signed on for a recurring role opposite Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano in Season 2 of Epix’s dark comedy series Get Shorty, which is based in part on the 1990 Elmore Leonard bestseller. Huffman will play Clara Dillard, a mothering, high-level special agent for the FBI who’s described as hippie therapist meets J. Edgar Hoover. She takes over the investigation focusing on Amara and the crime organization in Season 2. In addition, Sarah Stiles (playing Gladys in Season 1), has been promoted to series regular for the second season.

A major shakeup has hit Law & Order: SVU. Rafael Barba (Raul Esparza) has exited the series and Chicago Justice's Peter Stone (Philip Winchester) will officially take his place. Ezparza spoke out about his exit, thanking his cast and crew in an emotional tweet. Showrunner Michael Chernuchin also opened up, hinting that this probably isn't the last we've seen of Barba. 

Gracepoint alum Virginia Kull is set for a recurring role in season 2 of AT&T Audience Network’s breakout series Mr. Mercedes. Kull will play Sadie McDonald, a nurse on the neurology ward, known as the “Brain Bucket” at Mercy General Hospital. She’s an epileptic who has recently gone off her medication and is prone to occasional microscopic seizures which pull her away from the task at hand. Her most famous patient is Brady Hartsfield, the infamous Mercedes killer.

A first-look at Channel 4's innovative new thriller series, Kiss Me First, was unveiled. Adapted by Skins co-creator Bryan Elsley from Lottie Moggach's debut novel, the series fuses live action with computer-generated sequences.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Robert Crais returned to WYSO's Book Nook to talk about his latest installment in his mystery series featuring Elvis Cole and answer the question "If it came down to a hypothetical battle between Lee Child's dominating fictional hero Jack Reacher and (Elvis' sidekick) Joe Pike, who would come out on top?"

WTOP Radio chatted with David Baldacci about his latest novel, End Game, the fifth in his Will Robie series, as well as his Virginia roots.

Two Crime Writers And A Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste welcomed reviewer Kate Moloney and special guest Will Dean, who talks about living in the middle of a forest, flat-pack houses, being Robin Hood, and Moose.

The Crime Friction podcast was joined by Gary Phillips (The Man), ahead of the release of his latest novel, Culprits.

THEATER

The Speed of Darkness is currently in production at the River Street Theatre in Los Angeles. Steve Tesich's South Dakota-set mystery-thriller is about a Vietnam veteran and construction-business owner whose past returns to haunt him. The show runs through March 18.

The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina is staging a production of the Tony Award-winning Dial "M" for Murder, directed by New York City-based Russell Treyz. Based on author Frederick Knott and the basis for the famous Hitchcock film, the story is chilling study of power, secrets, infidelity and greed. Performances run through February 25.

Calgary Stage West theater is presenting Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Ken Ludwig’s farcical version of the famous mystery thriller, in which five actors take on 40 different roles. The production is directed by Mark Bellamy and runs through April 15.