THE BIG SCREEN
RLJE Films and UMC have acquired the North American rights to the Jeremy Ungar-directed thriller Ride starring Bella Thorne (Famous in Love), Jessie T. Usher (Shaft), and Will Brill (The OA). Ride is the feature debut for Ungar, who also wrote the script, and follows James rideshare driver James (Usher) and passenger Jessica (Thorne). When they pick up a charismatic but manipulative Bruno (Brill), a night out in L.A. becomes a psychological war for survival.
Actress Cinthya Carmona (Hulu’s East Los High) has been cast in David Ayer’s crime thriller The Tax Collector, joining Shia LaBeouf, Bobby Soto, and Chelsea Rendon. Not much is known about the plot other then it hearkens to Ayer’s earlier gritty crime thrillers Training Day and End of Watch. Production is set to being this summer in LA.
MGM’s Operation Finale, which follows a team of secret agents in their pursuit of Holocaust Nazi architect Adolf Eichmann 15 years after World War II, is moving up from its Sept. 14 opening to August 29, the Wednesday before the four-day Labor Day holiday. Chris Weitz directed the project from Matthew Orton’s script, which stars Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Nick Kroll, Melanie Laurent, Lior Raz, Joe Alwyn, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Aronov, Ohad Knoller, Greg Hill, Torben Liebrecht, Mike Hernandez, Greta Scacchi, and Pepe Rapazote.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The team behind the Netflix and ITV hit Marcella snagged TV rights to Elizabeth Macneal's thriller The Doll Factory, which landed a publishing contract for 2019 after a bidding war. The thriller is set in 1850s London and follows Iris, an aspiring artist who works in a doll-making shop, and Silas, a reclusive collector. They meet by chance in London’s Hyde Park during the construction of The Great Exhibition of 1851, which is the start of Silas’ increasingly dark obsession with Iris.
Netflix has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to Hit and Run, an espionage thriller drama from Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, creators of the praised Netflix series Fauda, and Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, creators of the Amazon comedy Z: The Beginning of Everything. Created and written by Issacharoff, Raz, Prestwich and Yorkin, Hit and Run centers on a happily married man whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit and run accident.
Charter Communications is in advanced discussions to pick up the Discovery crime drama Manhunt from Lionsgate for two seasons of the series, each planned to feature a different infamous criminal. The second season would be a dramatized account of the hunt for Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber who targeted the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Manhunt was originally set at Discovery Channel with its first installment, the 2017 Unabomber, marking the cable network’s first limited scripted series and starring Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany. But Discovery opted to get out of the scripted arena and focus on its core unscripted business, therefore not proceeding with a second installment of Manhunt.
The acclaimed Italian crime series Gomorrah, which is currently working on its fourth and fifth seasons, has sold to 190 markets and is Sky Italia’s flagship show at home where it even outperforms Game Of Thrones. The first two seasons were picked up In the U.S. by Sundance TV and then showed on Netflix, although as Deadline reported, the former is not yet on board for the third season so the show could soon have a new home. The series, which was created and produced by Roberto Saviano and based on Saviano's book of the same, tells the story of Ciro di Marzio (Marco D'Amore), a member of the Savastano clan, headed by Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), a high-ranking drug lord. Ciro aims to navigate the dangers of the criminal world, while also fighting a brutal civil war.
Global has picked up a 13-episode third season of suspense drama series Ransom for premiere next year on Global in Canada and CBS in the U.S. Created by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) and David Vainola, Ransom is inspired by the professional experiences of crisis negotiator Laurent Combalbert, who, along with his partner, Marwan Mery, are among the top negotiators in the world. They travel the globe to help multinational corporations and government agencies with complex negotiations and conflict resolution.The principal cast includes Luke Roberts, Nazneen Contractor, Brandon Jay McLaren and Karen LeBlanc.
Deborah Ayorinde (Girls Trips) is set to recur opposite Mahershala Ali in the third season of Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO crime anthology series True Detective. Series newcomers Carmen Ejogo, Stephen Dorff, Scoot McNairy, Mamie Gummer and Ray Fisher also star in the next installment, which 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. Ayorinde will play Becca Hayes, the estranged daughter of retired Arkansas State Police detective Wayne Hayes (Ali). She joins previously announced recurring cast Michael Greyeyes, Jon Tenney, Rhys Wakefield, Sarah Gadon, Emily Nelson, Brandon Flynn, Michael Graziadei, Josh Hopkins and Jodi Balfour.
Anne Heche is returning to NBC for a guest arc on the upcoming sixth season of Chicago P.D. She'll play Dep. Superintendent Katherine Brennan, who is "smart, to the point and political, but often self-serving. A cunning and formidable opponent, she always keeps her wits about her."
Diona Reasonover, who guest starred in three episodes on CBS’ veteran crime drama NCIS last season, has been promoted to a series regular for the upcoming 16th season. Reasonover was first introduced as Ducky’s (David McCallum) new graduate assistant, Kasie Hines, in Episode 17 and was then brought in by NCIS boss Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in the aftermath of Abby’s (Pauley Perrette) departure as a forensic scientist to help out on a case.
Netflix released a first look at Michael Pena and Diego Luna in Narcos: Mexico, as the streaming services' drug trafficking drama heads to Mexico for its fourth season. Luna is set to play Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo but he goes by only one name: Felix. He is the leader of the Guadalajara cartel, one of the biggest narcos in the history of Mexico and the founder of the modern Mexican drug trade. Pena will play Kiki Camarena, a family man and an undercover DEA agent who garnered valuable intel through a series of informants around Félix and his newly minted Guadalajara cartel.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
In a special bonus episode of the New York Times' Book Review podcast, best-selling thriller writers Lee Child, Megan Abbott, Meg Gardiner, Lisa Gardner, and Lisa Scottoline discussed the tricks of their best-selling trade.
Wallace Stroby, an award-winning journalist and the author of eight novels, four of which feature professional thief Crissa Stone, discussed his writing and crime fiction on Authors on the Air.
Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack interviewed crime fiction author Phillip Thompson, a self-described writer of "redneck noir."
THEATER
Australia’s favorite comedy psychic detective will make his Scottish premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 2-26. The performance of 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick – A Dirk Darrow Investigation is part stand-up comedy, part mentalism, part magic, part story-telling, and all gritty retro film-noir described as "Sam Spade meets Naked Gun meets Penn & Teller."
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