THE BIG SCREEN
A Breaking Bad movie from original series creator Vince Gilligan is set to begin production in New Mexico later this month. Further details about the film are being kept under wraps, although it's said to follow the escape of a kidnapped man and his quest for freedom. What's unclear is whether any of the show’s original characters are expected to return or if the project is planned for a theatrical release or will air on television.
The live-action film version of the 1960s pop icon/animated TV series Jonny Quest appears closer to becoming a reality after Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay has been hired to direct the project for Warner Brothers. The story centers on the adventurous boy hero Jonny Quest who travels around the world with his scientist father, his adopted brother Hadji, and their former secret agent bodyguard, Race Bannon, to solve world-threatening mysteries. An individual with knowledge with of the project told TheWrap that a major movie star is being eyed to play Race Bannon.
J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot has optioned an untitled feature pitch from The Crown writer Ed Hemming following a competitive auction. Plot details are being kept under wraps, although it's understood to be a high school-set thriller in the present day with a socially relevant twist.
Allison Janney has landed the lead role in the thriller Lou, another project being set up at J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot Productions. Anna Foerster (Underworld: Blood Wars, Outlander) will direct the dramatic thriller that follows a tough elderly woman living on a remote island who is recruited by a neighbor to help her find her kidnapped daughter. Janney will play a rule-breaking woman with a tough shell and abilities as a tracker.
Saban Films has acquired North American rights to American Dreamer, Derrick Borte’s thriller starring Jim Gaffigan as a down-on-his-luck rideshare driver who gets in way over his head with drug dealers and a kidnapping. Saban plans a theatrical release for the pic, which had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Less than a month after announcing the upcoming seventh season of Orange Is the New Black would be its final run, producers Lionsgate Television are already mulling a potential sequel to the series created by Jenji Kohan and starring Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Uzo Aduba and Danielle Brooks. Orange Is the New Black, which is inspired by Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name, bowed to critical acclaim in 2013.
Emmy-winning director Susanne Bier (The Night Manager) has signed on to direct all six episodes of The Undoing, the network’s high-profile limited series written by David E. Kelley and starring Nicole Kidman. Adapted from Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known, The Undoing centers on Grace Sachs (Kidman), who is living a seemingly perfect life - a successful therapist with a new book, a devoted husband, and a young son in an elite private school. But a violent death followed by her husband going missing threatens to tear her perfect world apart.
Emmy-winning The Americans star Matthew Rhys is in talks to take on the role of the iconic titular lawyer in HBO's planned Perry Mason reboot. Rhys played Russian spy Philip Jennings for six seasons on FX's The Americans, and this year the role scored him his first career Emmy after three prior nominations.
Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) and Brian J. Smith (Sense8) have been cast as two of the leads of USA Network’s straight-to-series drama Treadstone, an offshoot of Universal’s Bourne franchise, from creator Tim Kring and Universal Cable Productions. Written by Kring, Treadstone explores the origin story and present-day actions of a CIA black ops program known as Operation Treadstone — a covert program that uses behavior-modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins.
Robin Givens is set to appear on the ABC legal drama The Fix in the recurring role of Julianne Johnson, the loyal ex-wife of Sevvy (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). The Fix follows Maya Travis (Robin Tunney), an L.A. district attorney who suffers a devastating defeat when prosecuting Sevvy, an A-list actor for double murder. With her high-profile career derailed, she flees for a quieter life in Washington. But when Sevvy falls under suspicion for another murder eight years later, Maya is lured back to the DA’s office for another chance at justice.
Max Greenfield is the latest original Veronica Mars cast member set to reprise their role in the upcoming Hulu revival. Also joining the cast of the eight-episode limited series, scheduled to premiere in 2019, is Patton Oswalt. Greenfield’s Leo D’Amato was the new Sheriff’s Deputy when he recurred on the first three seasons of Veronica Mars. In the followup movie, Leo was a detective at the San Diego Police Department who helped Veronica (Kristen Bell) in the Susan Knight murder investigation.
Less than a month after its premiere on ABC, The Rookie is getting a full-season order. The cop drama premiered in mid-October to ratings that surpassed its time period from previous shows in that slot.
TNT's hitman series Good Behavior has been canceled after two seasons. The series was based on books by Blake Crouch and starred Michelle Dockery as Letty, a con artist released from jail on good behavior, who accidentally becomes entangled with an assassin named Javier played by Diego Botto.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Showtime is launching a companion podcast for its upcoming limited series from Ben Stiller, Escape at Dannemora, that will delve into the real-life events that inspired the drama. The limited series, which is directed and executive produced by Stiller, is based on the 2015 prison break from Clinton Correctional Facility. The podcast, which is produced by Wondery’s Real Crime Profile, will dive deeper into the real-life events and feature interviews with cast-members, real people involved in the case and the creators.
In the latest Crime Friction episode, hosts Jay Stringer and Chantelle Aimee Ausman were joined by Lou Berney to talk about hats, the sixties, and his new book, November Road.
The MysteryRats Maze podcast featured the first chapter of the mystery novel The Plunge by Nancy G. West, read by local actor Ariel Bennett.
Host Debbi Mack welcomed crime writer Dana King, author of the Nick Forte & Penns River Series, for an interview on the Crime Cafe.
Regular Read or Dead host Rincey Abraham was joined by guest host Liberty Hardy to "basically just rave about the amazingness that is Agatha Christie."
The latest Spybrary podcast featured a chat with author Merle Nygate about her first espionage novel, The Righteous Spy.
THEATER
A new Sherlock Holmes adaptation is heading to The New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, from November 15-17. Nick Lane adapted Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four for the stage, and says of the production, "Some of it is set during the Indian rebellion of 1857 – the book does go back 35 years in time from when it was written to talk about what transpired and why the crime at the centre of the novel happened, so there’s quite a bit of exposition. You have to try and find ways to make it fun for the audience to watch and visually interesting."
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