Media Murder for Monday

Hope everyone had a decent weekend! Here's a roundup of the latest crime drama news to start your brand-new week:

MOVIES

Director Baltasar Kormakur and actor Hugh Jackman are circling The Good Spy, Kai Bird’s biography of CIA operative Robert Ames, with F. Scott Frazier adapting the script. The hope is for Jackman to play Ames, an operative in the Middle East who was a big proponent of breaking down barriers by forming strong relationships there. He was killed in the bombing outside the 1983 American Embassy in Beirut, and his grave at the Arlington National Cemetery is the only one that carries "CIA" in its inscription. 

Filmmaker Mike Smith’s B&E Productions has obtained the film and television rights to Big Law, a legal thriller novel from Ron Leibman. The book centers on a Carney Blake, a young lawyer at one of NY’s most prestigious law firms, and his discovery that things aren’t what they seem in the business of big New York City law. Smith has directed on a number of legal dramas like Law and Order SVU, Criminal Intent, Suits, and How To Get Away With Murder.

Kroll & Co. Entertainment, the recently launched production company of producer Sue Kroll, has acquired the rights to Jonathan Lethem’s new novel, The Feral Detective, through her exclusive deal at Warner Bros. Pictures. The novel, which will be published this November, is Lethem’s first detective story since his New York Times bestseller Motherless Brooklyn, which Edward Norton is directing for the big screen with Kroll as executive producer. The Feral Detective follows Phoebe Siegler, a sarcastic and garrulous woman who heads to California to try to find her best friend’s missing teenaged daughter. When a lead brings her to the stark and seedy desert towns just east of Los Angeles, Phoebe is put in contact with Charles Heist, a laconic, strange private eye with an uncanny ability to find those that don’t want to be found, who reluctantly agrees to help. 

Sterling K. Brown has joined the cast of Blake Lively’s spy thriller The Rhythm Section, although his role is being kept under wraps. Production is set to resume now that Lively has recovered from a hand injury sustained last year. Reed Morano is directing Rhythm Section (based on a series of spy novels by Mark Burnell), the first film in what’s intended to become a franchise with James Bond producers Wilson and Broccoli producing. Jude Law is also attached to the film. 

Johnathon Schaech (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, That Thing You Do!) has signed on for Michael Cristofer’s thriller, The Night Clerk, joining Tye Sheridan, Helen Hunt, Ana de Armas, and John Leguizamo in the cast. Sheridan, who is also a producer on the film, stars as hotel night clerk Bart Bromley, a highly intelligent young man on the Autism spectrum who becomes a prime suspect when a woman is murdered during his shift.

Actress Julie Gonzalo is set for a supporting role in the indie thriller, The Great Illusion, which stars Selma Blair and Graham Greene in the story of a tortured FBI agent suffering from an irrational fear of darkness, as he investigates a mysterious former prostitute in order to catch a vicious serial killer. Gonzalo will play Theresa, a tough single mother of two. Maria Gabriela Cardenas will serve as director and wrote the script with Oscar Cardenas, who also co-stars in the film.

Charlie Matthau and Denise O’Dell have optioned rights to Juste De Nin’s Spanish-language graphic novel Garbo: The Spy Who Fooled Hitler, which is set to become the latest directorial vehicle for Matthau. The film will be produced under the name Bodyguard of Lies, and tells the incredible true story of Juan Pujol Garcia, a failed Spanish chicken farmer who became one of the greatest, if not the most successful, spies of World War II, whose deceptive work saved what is estimated at about 14 million lives. Reuben Sack, Justin Parker, Bradley McManus and Matthau are writing the screenplay, with plans to film on location in Lisbon, Madrid and London.

The first trailer dropped for Peppermint, starring Jennifer Garner as a grieving mother-turned-urban guerilla after her husband and daughter are killed but their murderers set free. Costarring with Garner are John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., and Juan Pablo Raba. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Major Crimes alum Raymond Cruz has snagged a recurring role opposite Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano in the second season of Epix’s Get Shorty. The dark comedy from MGM Television is based in part on the 1990 Elmore Leonard bestseller. In Season 2, Miles struggles to reconcile his ambitions as a filmmaker and a family man with his skill set as a career criminal. His progress in Hollywood is jeopardized when the washed-up producer (Romano) with whom he partnered in Season 1 agrees to wear a federal wire. Cruz will play Swayze, the brutal and murderous leader of a Latino prison gang who styles himself after Patrick Swayze, with long, flowing locks of hair and 80s-inspired dance moves.

Battlestar Galactica alum Jamie Bamber and Yasemin Allen (Water and Fire) have signed on to the cast of Cinemax’s Strike Back. Filming has begun on the 10-episode Season 6, which will be shot entirely in Malaysia. In the new season, when a Russian bomber crashes in the South China Sea, the covert special-ops soldiers of Section 20 — Thomas "Mac" McAllister (Warren Brown), Samuel Wyatt (Daniel MacPherson) and Gracie Novin (Alin Sumarwata) — are sent on a mission to investigate. There, they cross paths with Katrina Zarkova (Allen), a rogue Russian operative with questionable loyalties. Under orders of the new commanding officer, Col. Alexander Coltrane (Bamber), Section 20 pursues stolen contents of the Russian jet across Southeast Asia. 

Kelsey Grammer is set to co-star in Fox’s newly picked up legal drama series Proven Innocent, from Empire co-creator Danny Strong and writer David Elliott. Grammer will play Gore Bellows, a hard-as-nails and tough-on-crime state’s attorney, who goes up against an underdog legal team committed to reopening investigations to exonerate the innocent who were "proven" guilty. Grammer replaces Brian D’Arcy James who played the role in the pilot as the character is being tweaked. As for James, a versatile character actor and a three-time Tony nominee, the series’ producers and the network hope to cast him in a different role down the road.

Starz’s upcoming spy thriller series The Rook is having some leadership changes, with Lisa Zwerling (Betrayal) and Karyn Usher (Bones) coming onboard as showrunners. They join The Night Manager's Stephen Garrett who remains an executive producer. Originally, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer brought The Rook to Lionsgate, but she's stepping away due to differences in creative visions of the project. The Rook tells the story of Myfanwy Thomas, a woman who wakes up in London with no memory of who she is and no way to explain the circle of dead bodies around her. When she discovers she’s a high ranking official in the Checquy, Britain’s secret service for people with paranormal abilities, she’ll have to navigate the dangerous and complex world of the agency to uncover who wiped her memory and why she’s a target. The cast of the series includes Emma Greenwell, Joely Richardson, Olivia Munn, Adrian Lester, Ronan Raftery, Catherine Steadman, and Jon Fletcher.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Crime Friction hosted Kellye Garrett, of the Detective By Day mysteries, to talk about screenwriting, story structure, cozies, series characters, and diversity in publishing. Sam and Todd Robinson also stopped by to discuss The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste discussed choosing your own adventure, using your brain to make story decisions, the problem of factchecking in publishing, and how to pronounce "Ralph." The special guest was Liz Nugent talking about her route to publishing, working in theatres, and Riverdance.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Matthew Betley, author of the bestselling Logan West thrillers.

THEATER

St. Paul's Park Square Theatre is presenting Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, from June 15 – August 5. Directed by Theo Langason, the comedy/mystery features Sherlock’s most notorious case of wealthy Henry Baskerville who is threatened by the fable of a bloodthirsty hound on the moors. In this staging, the female duo of Holmes and Watson are on the case to sniff out the culprit as five actors play over 40 comical characters, filling the stage with suspects, allies and heirs.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh will stage Agatha Christe's Love From a Stranger (with adaptation help from Frank Vosper). Directed by Lucy Bailey, the play centers on Cecily Harrington and the whirlwind romance with a handsome and charming stranger who sweeps her off her feet. Her heart all a flutter and her head in the clouds, she recklessly abandons her old life to settle in the remote and blissful surroundings of a country cottage. However, her newfound love is not all that he seems. The production runs June 5-9 and will then go on tour throughout the UK.