Media Murder for Monday

It’s the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Moonage Pictures is adapting Lionel Davidson’s Russian spy thriller, Kolymsky Heights. The BBC Studios-backed firm optioned the novel, which was originally published in 1994 but was republished by Faber in 2015 after it became one of the most requested out-of-print titles at UK bookstores. Set just after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the story begins with a coded message smuggled out of Russia—a plea for help from a supersecret laboratory deep in the frozen wastes of Siberia. The note is addressed to Johnny Porter, a Canadian Indian of the Gitxsan tribe with a genius for languages and disguises, and he's reluctantly forced to slip across the border on a rescue mission, setting up a chain of events that will change the course of history.

Golden Globe-winners Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Piven, along with Emile Hirsch and Paz Vega, are set to star in American Night, a neo-noir thriller helmed by first-time film director Alessio Jim Della Valle. Written by Della Valle, the plot follows Michael Rubino (Hirsch) who has just become the Don of the New York Mafia, but his greatest dream is to devote his life to painting and become a great artist. John Kaplan (Meyers), an art dealer, may feel like his life is in shambles, but he still has the best eye for spotting fakes in the world. Their paths, apparently distant, cross when Andy Warhol’s Pink Marilyn is stolen, setting off a series of unexpected events that upend their lives.

Nicholas Hoult will be joining Angelina Jolie in Taylor Sheridan's next feature, Those Who Wish Me Dead, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Michael Koryta. The thriller centers on a teen in witness protection hiding out from a pair of killers in a wilderness skills program in Montana while a fire rages. Sheridan, who penned the script for Hell or High Water, will adapt the book for the big screen.

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood will play in Cannes after all. The news comes after the feature was not included in the original batch of pictures unveiled last month. The film follows a faded TV actor and his stunt double (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt), trying to achieve success during the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, in a story that also intersects with the Charles Manson cult.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Stolen Pictures, the production company set up by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, will adapt Ben Aaronovitch's epic Rivers of London fantasy-crime book series. The project follows Peter Grant, “an ordinary police constable turned magician's apprentice as he solves crimes across the British capital with a blend of urban fantasy, mystery thriller and fantasy caper.”

Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment has acquired the rights to Joseph Finder’s thriller, Judgment, with plans to adapt the novel into a series. The novel centers on Juliana Brody, a formidable judge in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, who is blackmailed after a night of infidelity is captured on video. As the terrifying conspiracy unfolds, it becomes clear that personal humiliation, even the possible destruction of her career, are the least of her concerns and that turning the tables on her adversaries will require her to be as ruthless as they are.

Indie TV production company Drama Republic won a bidding rights war for the thriller, Seven Lies, written by Transworld editor Lizzy Goudsmit under the pen-name of Elizabeth Kay. The book is about the tangled, toxic friendships between women, the dark underbelly of obsessive love, and how lies can be dangerous, but the truth can be devastating.

In a return to television, Evangeline Lilly (Avengers: Endgame) is set to star in and executive produce the eight-episode mystery drama series, Albedo, that will be internationally distributed by eOne. Co-created and executive produced by writing duo Max and Adam Reid (Sneaky Pete), Albedo is set 150 years in the future and follows Detective Vivien Coleman (Lilly) who is dispatched to the edge of our solar system to investigate a scientist’s mysterious death on board an isolated space station. 

Martin Compston, Laura Fraser, Molly Windsor, and Jennifer Spence are to star in UKTV’s six-part crime drama series, Traces, which is based on an original idea from crime writer Val McDermid. Traces explores the world of the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science and follows female characters who will use the rigors of forensics to uncover the truth about an unsolved murder case.

The British crime drama, The Bay, which has been dubbed the “Northern Broadchurch,” has been renewed for a second season by ITV. The series stars Morven Christie as police Family Liaison Officer DS Lisa Armstrong and Daniel Ryan, who plays DI Tony Manning.

Hulu just dropped a teaser video for the Veronica Mars revival during its upfront event in New York. The clip shows the return of Kristen Bell, as private eye Veronica Mars, and many other familiar faces to the fictional seaside town of Neptune, California. 

A trailer was released for Showtime’s City On a Hill, the upcoming drama executive produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck that stars Kevin Bacon as a corrupt FBI veteran who forms an unlikely alliance with an assistant district attorney (played by Aldis Hodge). 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

WNYC studios posted a podcast with the title “Is True Crime Jinxed?” and spoke with documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, co-creator of the Paradise Lost trilogy, about modern filmmaking, the responsibility of the artist, and different interpretations of “truth.” 

The SPA Girls spent time with Adam Richardson, an American cop who helps authors and screenwriters with their crime-fiction questions through his website and podcast called the Writer’s Detective Bureau. 

Speaking of the Writer's Detective Bureau, this week's episode focused on Steven Pressfield’s Resistance, the difference between robbery and burglary, how the elements of a crime guide dialogue, an introduction to handguns for writers, and some mantras related to police work and life in general. 

Writer Types chatted with Angie Kim about her debut novel, Miracle Creek; there were interviews of Sophie Hannah and several more authors in Chicago at the Murder & Mayhem conference; plus this week's UnPanel segment featured Kellye Garrett, Frankie Bailey, Alex Segura, and Gigi Pandian of the Crime Writers of Color group.

In this week's episode of Two Crime Writers and a Microphone, hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste discussed the latest book from Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James and a new film about JRR Tolkien that angered his estate. The special guest was Neil Broadfoot, talking about his latest book, No Man's Land, haggis hunting, being a Gamekeeper, and more.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover podcast welcomed Kris Frieswick, author of The Ghost Manuscript. The book follows rare book authenticator Carys Jones who must track the clues hidden in a previously unknown journal, leading to a tomb that could rewrite the history of Western civilization.

Criminal Mischief: The Art & Science of Crime Fiction with Dr. D.P. Lyle focused on the various types of gunshot wounds to the chest, with relevant points for crime writers.

Crime Writers On ... True Crime Review was joined by special guest Sarah D. Bunting from the blog The Blotter Presents as they discussed the Maryland Court of Appeals' refusal to reconsider its recent decision reinstating Adnan Syed's conviction; a new six-part podcast series looking at the 2010 death of a blind woman from Halifax; and a look at the new eight-part series, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

THEATER

Vertigo Theater's Mystery Theatre Series in Calgary, Canada is presenting The Invisible Agents of Ugentlemanly Warfare, May 11-June 9. The story is set in 1939 when Canadian millionaire William Stephenson convinced Churchill and Roosevelt to combine forces in a joint covert effort against the Nazis. He assembled an elite team of spies, including the unlikeliest of agents: six irrepressible young women.

The Hayes Theater is presenting the Australian premiere of American Psycho, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, with a book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and music and lyrics by Tony Award winning Duncan Sheik. This bold musical takes on the shocking depiction of excesses of the 1980s as told through the devious actions of Patrick Bateman, a young, handsome and wealthy investment banker who becomes a serial killer.

The Evolution Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio, is presenting The Vultures, a modern, comedic, gay spin on the haunted house/mystery genre. The Vultures is a modern-day adaptation of two classic works, The Cat and the Canary by John Willard and The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. Performances take place May 22-June 1 at the Columbus Performing Arts Center's Van Fleet Theatre.

The Stages Repertory Theater in Houston will feature Murder for Two through June 16, 2019. Everyone is a suspect in Murder for Two, a hilarious murder mystery with a twist: one actor plays the investigator, the other plays all 13 suspects, and both play the piano throughout.

Witness for the Prosecution has extended its run in London through March 2020. Theatergoers step inside the magnificent surroundings of London County Hall and experience the intensity and drama of Agatha Christie’s gripping story of justice, passion, and betrayal in a unique courtroom setting. There are a limited number of VIP Jury seats available per performance, with patrons sitting in the Jury Box as the case unfolds before them.