Media Murder for Monday

It's Monday again, which means it's time for the latest roundup of crime drama news:

AWARDS

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominees for the 2019 Golden Globe Awards for both film and television. Some of the big-screen crime drama nods include a Best Picture nomination for BlacKkKlansman (based on the real story of an African American police officer who infiltrated the Klan) and also its star, John David Washington, and director, Spike Lee; and Best Actress honors to Nicole Kidman, for the crime drama Destroyer, and also Melissa McCarthy, who played a forger in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

On the TV side, The Americans, Bodyguard, Killing Eve, Homecoming, The Alienist, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Escape at Dannemora, Sharp Objects, and a Very English Scandal were all nominated for Best Drama or Limited Series. You can find the complete list via this ink.

The New York Film Critics also handed out their awards for film in 2018. Can You Ever Forgive Me? was a big winner with the online critics group with Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively.

THE BIG SCREEN

Fox 2000 has acquired the best-selling novel Where the Crawdads Sing, described as a mixture of a crime thriller and a coming-of-age tale, and has tapped Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to produce a feature film adaptation. The story is set in a small southern town where a young woman named Kya raises herself in the marshes after she is abandoned by her family. After her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

Fimmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga announced that Spectre actress Lea Seydoux and regular 007 castmembers Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris are returning for Bond 25. Seydoux played psychiatrist Dr. Madeleine Swann in Spectre who works at Austrian clinic and has an affair with Mr. Bond. She is arguably the first Bond girl to reprise a role in a picture (although Maud Adams played different characters in separate films). Fiennes will continue on as Bond’s crusty MI-6 boss, Whishaw as the famed tech gadget guru Q, and Harris as 007 sidekick Moneypenny. TMGM plans to release the film on Feb. 14, 2020.

Stefano Sollima (Sicario: Day of the Soldado) is in talks to direct Without Remorse, based on the Tom Clancy novel that serves as the origin story of John Clark, to be played by Michael B. Jordan. The film will be the first of two novels (the other being Rainbow Six) that Paramount is adapting based on the character from the Jack Ryan universe.

Antoine Fuqua is developing and may direct the historical-action epic, The Devil Soldier, based on Caleb Carr's bestselling novel which is described as "an American version of Lawrence of Arabia, set in 19th century China." Carr’s bestseller The Alienist was turned into a hit limited series for TNT.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Starz has acquired the eight-episode crime drama series Dublin Murders, adapted from Tana French’s first two novels in the Dublin Murder Squad crime series, In The Woods and The Likeness. Dublin Murders follows Rob Reilly (Killian Scott) – a smart-suited detective whose English accent marks him as an outsider – who is dispatched to investigate the murder of a young girl on the outskirts of Dublin with his partner, Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene). Reilly is pulled back into another case of missing children and forced to confront his own darkness even as Cassie is sent undercover for another murder case and forced to come face to face with her own brutal reckoning.

ABC, which is rebooting its iconic series NYPD Blue, is also looking to bring back another 1990s New York cop drama, Dick Wolf’s New York Undercover. Created by Wolf and Kevin Arkadie, New York Undercover aired on Fox for four seasons, between 1994-98. It starred Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo as two undercover detectives in New York City’s Fourth Precinct and was the first police drama on American television to feature two people of color in the starring roles.

Quantico star Pearl Thusi is set to star in Queen Sono, Netflix's first African original series. Thusi will play a highly trained spy in a South African agency in the series.

Apple is in advanced talks to buy rights to the gritty Israeli TV show Nevelot (English translation: "Bastards") and adapt it for the U.S., beating out bids from competitors including Showtime, FX and Amazon. The show's plot involves two military veterans who go on a youth-focused killing spree because they believe today's kids don't understand the sacrifices of their generation. Richard Gere is also in talks to star in the series.

Oscar winner Brie Larson is finalizing a deal to star in I’m Thinking of Ending Things, the new film adapted from Iain Reid’s 2016 novel and directed by Charlie Kaufman for Netflix. The story centers on Jake, who is on a road trip to meet his parents on their secluded farm with his girlfriend (Larson), who is thinking of ending their relationship. When Jake makes an unexpected detour leaving her stranded, a twisted mix of palpable tension, psychological frailty and sheer terror ensues.

Netflix has renewed Narcos: Mexico for a second season, an announcement that comes just three weeks after the first season’s Nov. 16 premiere. The series charts the origins of the country’s drug war through the rise and fall of the Guadalajara Cartel under Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo (played by Diego Luna). Season 1 follows Gallardo as he unites Mexico’s disparate smuggling organizations into the country’s first global drug empire, while DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena’s (Michael Peña) efforts to expose the operation lead him to a horrific outcome with decades-long geopolitical consequences.

Desmond Chiam (The Shannara Chronicles) has been tapped as one of the male leads opposite Poppy Montgomery in Reef Break, ABC’s 13-episode summer crime drama. Reef Break is described as "a sexy, action-packed drama" starring Montgomery as Cat Chambers, a thief-turned-fixer for the governor of a stunning and seductive Pacific Island paradise. Desmond will play Jake Wyatt, a detective on the island who knows his way around a life-or-death scenario. After a one-night stand as strangers, Wyatt and Cat (Montgomery) suddenly are working on a case together — a scenario he’s not quite prepared to handle.

NCIS: New Orleans will welcome LeVar Burton, best known as Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation, for a guest starring role playing Rufus Nero, a Naval intelligence agent who works with Pride's team after a deadly virus is stolen. Cooperation between Rufus and the agents is imperative, given that this is a rare virus that could do a lot of damage if not recovered as quickly as possible.

Netflix has released the trailer for their upcoming docuseries The Innocent Man. Based on the 2006 non-fiction book by John Grisham, the six-part documentary series focuses on two murders in Ada, Oklahoma in the 1980s and the dubious means to which the convictions were obtained.

There's also a new trailer for the forthcoming Netflix action-drama Triple Frontier, about a group of former Special Forces operatives played by Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal.

The riddle of Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) is the central question for NBC’s The Blacklist as it returns for Season 6 and the just-released trailer suggests that the master manipulator of the underworld may be behind bars for a while.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Guardian Books podcast sat down with Sara Paretsky, author behind the iconic Detective VI Warshawski, to discuss her latest book in the long-running crime series, Shell Game.

The latest episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is a Christmas-set feature, the first chapter of the mystery novel Ruined Stones written by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, which is read by actor Paddy Myers.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste delved into the "hot" topic of sex in crime fiction. They're joined by top crime writers Steph Broadribb, Mark Edwards, and Susi Holliday. They discuss the do's and don't's of sex scenes in crime fiction, share some of the best and worst examples, and the results of the incredibly scientific poll carried out among crime fiction readers.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Paul Heatley on the latest episode of the Crime Cafe.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham had a quick round up of some adaptation news and some holiday recommendations from readers.

Det. Adam Richardson discussed twins' DNA, Massive Parallel Sequencing, the First 48 hours of an investigation, and discovering your characters, in the latest Writer's Detective Bureau podcast.

GAMES

The immersive entertainment company Nomadic and virtual reality games publisher VRWERX are teaming to develop an adrenaline-laced virtual reality experience based on Paramount’s hit film franchise Mission: Impossible. The location-based game, which is scheduled to open next spring in Orlando, will bring players inside a mission and give them the vicarious thrills of pursuit—running, jumping and interacting with objects in a physical space that’s enhanced through virtual reality.