THE BIG SCREEN
Constantin Film is adapting German author Ferdinand von Schirach’s international legal thriller bestseller The Collini Case. German actor Elyas M’Barek stars as an attorney who takes on a defendant accused of the vicious murder of a respected elderly businessman. In researching the case, the young lawyer comes across one of the biggest judicial scandals in German history and a truth that nobody wants to face. The project is being directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner from a screenplay by Christian Zuebert, Robert Gold and Jens-Frederik Otto, and was inspired by the author’s own family history.
Julianne Moore is in negotiations to join Amy Adams in The Woman in the Window, Fox 2000’s adaptation of the book by A.J. Finn. Joe Wright (The Darkest Hour) is directing the thriller, which sees Adams portraying a child psychologist with severe agoraphobia and a penchant for mixing alcohol with her medication who hasn’t left her house in months. The woman believes she witnessed a horrible crime involving a new neighboring family but no one, including the police, will believe her. Moore will play the mother of a mysterious young boy who moves in across the street. It was also announced last week that Wyatt Russell has been cast as David, the tenant who lives in Anna’s basement.
Gary Oldman and Jessica Alba have joined the cast of the thriller Killers Anonymous, from producer Goldfinch Studios. The cast also includes Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy), Sam Hazeldine (Mechanic: Resurrection), Rhyon Nicole Brown (Empire) MyAnna Buring (Ripper Street), Tim McInnerny (Game of Thrones), Michael Socha (Svengali), Elizabeth Morris (Let’s Be Evil), Elliot James Langridge (Northern Soul), and Isabelle Allen (Les Misérables). Martin Owen (Let’s Be Evil) is directing from a script co-written by Owen, Elizabeth Morris and Seth Johnson. The story revolves around an unusual support group for killers - but the failed assassination of a senator and the brutal and professional demise of his attempted assassin causes the very fabric of the group to unravel as one layer of betrayal leads to another.
Fresh off his turn as King T’Challa aka Black Panther in Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War, Chadwick Boseman is reteaming with Joe and Anthony Russos to produce and star in the action thriller 17 Bridges from STXfilms. Brian Kirk (Luther, Game of Thrones) has signed on to direct from a script by Adam Mervis that follows a disgraced NYPD detective (Boseman) who, after being thrust into a citywide manhunt for a cop killer, is given a shot at redemption.
District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has signed on to direct a new installment of the RoboCop series for MGM called RoboCop Returns. The project is a long-dormant sequel that had been planned by the original 1987 film’s screenwriters Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, but was cancelled when director Paul Verhoeven declined to direct the project and a WGA strike in 1988 followed. Justin Rhodes, who is also attached to write the upcoming Terminator reboot and the DC film Green Lantern Corps, will rewrite Neumeier and Miner’s script.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet is set to adapt Artemis, an adaptation of the novel by The Martian author Andy Weir that Phil Lord and Chris Miller will direct. Artemis is described as an adrenaline-charged crime caper that features smart, detailed world-building based on real science. It centers on Jasmine Bashara, aka Jazz, a twentysomething living in a small town named Artemis — and it’s the first and only city on the moon. Her budding career as a smuggler isn’t exactly setting her up as a kingpin, so when the chance at a life-changing score drops in her lap, she finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.
Quentin Tarantino has rounded out the large cast for his upcoming crime drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, bringing Spencer Garrett, Martin Kove, James Remar, Brenda Vaccaro, Nichole Galicia, Mike Moh, Craig Stark, Marco Rodriguez, Ramon Franco and Raul Cardona on board. They join the already cast stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Burt Reynolds, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Scoot McNairy and Al Pacino. Once Upon a Time takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippie Hollywood era ... and the Charles Manson murders.
Jeremy Renner has been set to star alongside Jamie Foxx in Spawn, the Blumhouse film that marks the directorial debut of Todd McFarlane from his scripted adaptation of his comic book creation. It was announced back in May that Foxx would play the title character, Al Simmons, a member of a CIA black ops team who is twice betrayed: after being set up by his cohorts to be murdered with his corpse set aflame, Simmons is then double crossed in Hell. Spawn turns his rage on street scum and revenge and enlists the aid of Detective "Twitch" Williams (Renner), an unconventional detective whose intelligence and intuition compliments Spawn’s power and will help Spawn win his war.
Steve McQueen's crime drama Widows is set to open the 2018 London Film Festival. The thriller is co-written by the Oscar-winning director with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn and unites a group of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo star.
On the 30th anniversary of the iconic film Die Hard starring Bruce Willis and the late Alan Rickman, The Telegraph profiled the genesis of the movie, which was actually based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 thriller novel Nothing Lasts Forever.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The Television Academy announced the nominees for this year's Emmy Awards. The spy series The Americans was among the nods for Best Drama Series, and Best Limited Drama Series included the outlaw project Godless, the psychological thriller The Alienist, and The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The Americans also snagged Best Actor and Best Actress nods for Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, and Sandra Oh was nominated for her role in the thriller Killing Eve. For all of the various categories and finalists, head on over to the official Emmys website.
Karin Slaughter’s upcoming thriller novel Pieces of Her is being developed for television by Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Endeavor Content, with Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, Mad Men) attached to direct and Charlotte Stoudt (Homeland, House of Cards) to pen the adaptation. Pieces of Her asks: What if everything you thought you knew about your quiet, middle-age mother was wrong? What if she has spent the past 30 years hiding in plain sight? What if, when violence erupts at your local mall and a shooter goes on a rampage, the person who stops him, dead, is your mother? Pieces of Her follows Andrea, a woman who thought she knew everything about her mother, Laura, until the moment she realized she didn’t, and their world unravels.
Another novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty is headed to Netflix. EveryWhere Studios has optioned the rights to Moriarty’s Three Wishes for a series adaptation written by playwright/TV writer Lila Feinberg (Younger). Three Wishes follows three wildly different sisters as their lives intertwine and unfold around their glamorous Manhattan wedding weekend that ends in a shocking tragedy. When a scandalous secret emerges, the tight-knit bond among the sisters is tested as they unravel a mystery that ripples throughout each of their lives.
Netflix has set Michael C. Hall, Cleopatra Coleman and Bokeem Woodbine to join Boyd Holbrook in the cast of the crime drama In The Shadow of the Moon. The Hap and Leonard helmer Jim Mickle is directing the movie from a script by Gregory Weidman and Geoff Tock. Holbrook plays a Philly police officer who struggles with a lifelong obsession to track a mysterious serial killer whose crimes defy explanation.
Former Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll alums Elaine Hendrix and Denis Leary are reuniting for USA Network’s thriller Erase pilot. Created by the Rescue Me veteran and Alex Cary, Erase focuses on a once rotten to the core character (Leary), a ill cop who changes his stripes after a life altering revelation and decides to bring down his corrupt superiors in the department. Leary’s O’Neal also has to strive against time to fix the family he almost destroyed in his old ways and keep everyone alive too. Hendrix will portray Bella Tanner, a fun, loving and true problem solver.
Ben Affleck will join Anne Hathaway in Dee Rees' Mudbound follow-up, The Last Thing He Wanted. Based on Joan Didion's 1996 novel, the movie will center on a hardscrabble journalist, Elena McMahon (Hathaway), who inherits her father's position as a dealmaker — an arms dealmaker. She soon finds herself on dangerous ground as the Iran-Contra Affair's arms-for-drugs plot reaches its tipping point. Toby Jones, Rosie Perez and Edi Gathegi are also joining the cast of the Netflix feature, which is currently filming in Puerto Rico.
Nashville star Charles Esten has booked a new series gig in the form of a season-long recurring role on TNT’s upcoming thriller drama Tell Me Your Secrets. Created and written by Harriet Warner, Tell Me Your Secrets is a thriller that revolves around a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: Emma (Lily Rabe), a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer, John (Hamish Linklater), a former serial predator desperate to find redemption, and Mary (Amy Brenneman), a mother obsessed with finding her missing daughter. Esten will play Mary's husband, Saul Barlow, a grieving father who has coped with the disappearance of his daughter by walking away from materialism and trying to move on from the loss. This has severely strained his relationship with his wife who refuses to give up the search.
Nic Bishop (Covert Affairs), The Sopranos star Annabella Sciorra, Molly Hagan (iZombie) and Tami Roman (When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story) have been cast as recurring opposite Octavia Spencer and Lizzy Caplan in Apple’s thriller drama series Are You Sleeping. Created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and based on the true-crime novel by Kathleen Barber, the provides a unique glimpse into America’s obsession with true-crime podcasts and challenges its viewers to consider the consequences when the pursuit of justice is placed on a public stage.
Fresh on the heels of news that Netflix has picked up a Bollywood crime drama from India comes the report that the streaming service has also signed two international crime dramas from Argentina and Brazil. The Argentine drama is titled Puerta 7 and follows one woman’s attempt to cut through the male-dominated world of football hooliganism to cleanse one club of its corruption and criminal element; the Brazilian thriller, The Faction, is set in the 90s and centers on Cristina, an honest, dedicated lawyer who finds out her missing brother has been jailed for years and is a leader of an ascendant criminal faction and is forced to become an informant and work against her brother.
Netflix will explore the true crime genre again in 2019 with a show based on the controversial case of the Central Park Five, boys who were accused of and then convicted of a rape they did not commit. The four-part series, which is created, directed, and written by Ava Duvernay, just announced the signing of Michael K. Williams, best known for his iconic role as Omar on The Wire, to play Bobby McCray, the devoted father of one of the teenage boys who lost valuable years of his life while incarcerated. Also joining the cast are John Leguizamo, who will play the father of one of the other accused teens, and Vera Farmiga of Bates Motel fame who plays Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lederer, the lead prosecutor for the case.
Rosario Dawson is set as the lead of USA Network’s crime drama pilot Briarpatch, from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. Written by Andy Greenwald and based on the Ross Thomas novel, Briarpatch centers on Allegra "Pick" Dill (Dawson), a tenacious and highly-skilled investigator working in Washington, DC for a young, ambitious Senator. When her ten-years-younger sister, a homicide detective, is killed by a car bomb, Allegra returns to her corrupt Texas hometown. What begins as a search for the murderer becomes a fraught and dangerous excavation of the past Allegra has long sought to bury.
George Newbern has booked his first post-Scandal TV series role, taking on a recurring character in Law & Order: SVU. Newbern will play Dr. Al Pollack, a charming, handsome and very wealthy doctor who is a past and future love interest to Detective Rollins (Kelli Giddish). They’ve had a tumultuous relationship in past and he has a bit of a wandering eye, but when they reconnect, things might be different this time — or not.
CBS released its fall schedule lineup, including returning series Bull, the NCIS franchises, SWAT, MacGuyer, Hawaii Five-O, Seal Team and Criminal Minds, as well as new shows Magnum PI and FBI.
Acorn TV, North America’s largest streaming service for British and international TV, announced its August slate featuring exclusive U.S./Canada Premieres. The roster includes the new drama series Mystery Road, called "Australia’s answer to True Detective" and starring multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner Judy Davis and AFCA winner Aaron Pedersen (Jack Irish) as detectives in this outback noir; and also the return of the female-driven British police procedural No Offence.
A trailer was released for the fourth season of Better Call Saul, which sees Bob Odenkirk as unemployed, casing joints, and sporting a purple tracksuit as he begins to transform into Saul Goodman.
The new trailer for Season six of Orange is the New Black shakes things up at Litchfield Penitentiary.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Radio New Zealand spoke with Robin Burcell about her life as a cop, a forensic artist and how she pours all that experience into her writing, including her latest novel, The Grey Ghost.
Writer Types welcomed authors Caroline Kepnes and Rob Hart for a chat about their various writing projects. The show also brought back the "5 Questions With..." segment featuring Ronald Colby, author of Night Driver. Plus an Unpanel of current and former law enforcement members and authors told us what writers get wrong about writing the police, with J. Todd Scott, Patricia Smiley and Paul Bishop
Spybrary featured a round table discussion on the life and books of spy writer Frederick Forsyth.
Destination Mystery spoke with attorney, author, and anti-trafficking advocate Pamela Samuels Young, often called "John Grisham with a female twist," about her legal thrillers, sex trafficking, and what she's working on next.
THEATER
Spokane, Washington's Stage Left is bringing the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None to the stage through July 29th. Bryan Durbin directs the classic tale of eight strangers on a deserted island who are being picked off one by one.
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