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
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are in talks to star in Deep Water, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, with Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne set to helm the project. Zack Helm (Stranger Than Fiction) and Sam Levinson (Euphoria) are writing the adaptation of Highsmith's psychological thriller in which Affleck and de Armas would play Vic and Melinda Allen, a married couple whose loveless marriage is held together by an arrangement where she can to take as many lovers as she wishes - so long as she never abandons her family. But when the husband grows jealous, he concocts a murderous plot in which many of the lovers turn up dead.
Chris Pine is attached to Newsflash to play iconic CBS newsman Walter Cronkite. The Ben Jacoby-scripted drama takes place on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Texas. The drama also focuses on Don Hewitt, who was Cronkite’s producer and helped navigate the chaos in the historically tragic day in America.
Cate Blanchett is in talks to star in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Nightmare Alley, joining Bradley Cooper as the headliners. Nightmare Alley is the story of a corrupt con man who teams up with a female psychiatrist to swindle people out of money, up until the point that they double cross one another. The story is based on a novel by William Lindsay Gresham and was first adapted into a Fox film in 1947 directed by Edmund Golding and starring Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, and Coleen Gray. However, it is said that del Toro’s film will adhere more closely to the original novel.
John Swab’s crime thriller Body Brokers is lining up an impressive cast, including Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Emmy nominated actor Michael K. Williams (When They See Us, The Wire), Frank Grillo (Captain America: Winter Soldier) Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures), and Jack Kilmer (The Stanford Prison Experiment). Written and directed by Swab, Body Brokers is the true and untold story of the multibillion-dollar drug and alcohol treatment scheme where former drug addicts and dealers become millionaires as fly-by-night "body brokers," recruiting other addicts to seek treatment and selling these patients off to facilities paying the highest price.
Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, and Sarah Gadon are set to star in Black Bear, a suspenseful "meta-drama" written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine. Currently shooting in the Adirondack Mountains in Long Lake, NY, the thriller centers on an expecting couple (Gadon and Abbott) who are confronted with an out-of-town guest Abigail (Plaza), a filmmaker suffering from writer’s block who soon finds herself at the center of a twisted love triangle.
Samuel Goldwyn has acquired the Goran Dukic-directed thriller Obsession about an out-of-work mechanic played by Mekhi Phifer who saves an older man (Brad Dourif) then promptly begins to falls for the man's wife (Elika Portnoy). Dourif’s George has plans to build a racetrack, and his wife forms a plot to murder him and rob him of his riches, drawing Phifer’s Sonny into the mix.
Jared Leto is in talks to join the cast of Warner Bros’ Little Things, a cop thriller starring fellow Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, with John Lee Hancock directing from his own script. Washington will play Deke, a burned-out Kern County sheriff who teams with an LA County Sheriff’s Department detective, Baxter (Malek), to reel in a wily serial killer, the role Leto is circling. Deke’s nose for the "little things" (hence the title of the movie) proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. All the while, Deke wrestles with a dark secret from his past.
The first teaser trailer was released for The Irishman, the Martin Scorsese-directed film that stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Ray Romano, and Harvey Keitel. The film will open the New York Film Festival and get a theatrical release by Netflix this fall before it moves to the streaming service. The drama is an adaptation of Charles Brandt’s nonfiction book, I Heard You Paint Houses, and tells the true story of Frank Sheeran, who admitted killing 25 men for the mob, including his friend, the Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Pesci plays Pennsylvania mob boss Russell Bufalino (who according to Sheeran’s testimony ordered the hit), Al Pacino plays Hoffa, and De Niro plays Sheeran. The film, first greenlit three years ago, uses digital technology to de-age seventy-something stars De Niro and Pacino, as well as co-star Joe Pesci.
As Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese ready The Irishman for its premiere at the New York Film Festival, the duo are getting closer to teaming up yet again for the Paramount drama, Killers of the Flower Moon. De Niro is in early negotiations to join Scorsese's other most frequent actor collaborator, Leonardo DiCaprio, in the adaptation of the nonfiction book by David Grann. The project tells the true crime story of multiple murders of members of the Osage Indian tribe in 1920s Oklahoma that occurred after they found oil on their lands.
A trailer dropped for the thriller, The Hunt, which centers on a group of upper-class psychopaths who hunt regular folk for sport. The film stars Betty Gilpin, Ike Barinholtz, Hilary Swank, and Emma Roberts and opens September 27.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
CBS has given a series commitment to a Lincoln Lawyer adaptation from David E. Kelley, which CBS vice president, Thom Sherman, indicated is being targeted for the 2020-21 season. Based on Michael Connelly’s bestselling series of novels, The Lincoln Lawyer centers on Mickey Haller, who is described as "an iconoclastic idealist," who runs his law practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles.
The Expendables and Rocky co-stars Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren have reunited for The International, an action drama series that's being actively pursued by several networks and streaming services. Written by drama veteran Ken Sanzel (Numbers), the series stars Lundgren as a covert operative at the Department of Safety and Security at the UN. He is described as the UN’s secret special agent, a one-man S.W.A.T. team and hostage negotiator.
ABC has put in development Fight Like A Girl, a legal drama from Bull co-executive producers Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and CBS TV Studios. Written by Millard and Price, the series explores what "fight like a girl means" today through the lens of two female trial attorneys who fight with each other as much as they fight for their clients.
The cast has been set for Agatha Christie Limited’s The Pale Horse, the latest TV adaptation from Dame Agatha for the BBC. The Pale Horse centers on Mark Easterbrook (Rufus Sewell) as he tries to uncover the mystery of a list of names found in the shoe of a dead woman. His investigation leads him to the peculiar village of Much Deeping and also to The Pale Horse, the home of a trio of rumored witches. Word has it that the witches can do away with wealthy relatives by means of the dark arts, but as the bodies mount up, Easterbrook is certain there has to be a rational explanation.
Showtime has given a straight-to-series order to Rust, a drama based on Philipp Meyer’s debut novel, American Rust, starring and executive produced by Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom). Oscar nominee Dan Futterman (Capote) will write multiple episodes of the series. Rust is a compelling family drama that will explore the tattered American dream through the eyes of complicated and compromised chief of police Del Harris (Daniels) in a Rust Belt town in southwest Pennsylvania. When the woman he truly loves sees her son accused of murder, Harris is forced to decide what he’s willing to do to protect him.
Showtime also renewed its Kevin Bacon-led drama City on a Hill for a second season. The drama stars Bacon as a corrupt FBI agent who teams with Aldis Hodge’s assistant district attorney. The first season sees the two take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to involve, and ultimately subvert, the entire criminal justice system of Boston. It also stars Jonathan Tucker, Mark O’Brien, Jill Hennessy, Lauren E. Banks, Amanda Clayton, Kevin Chapman, Jere Shea and guest star Sarah Shahi.
Aquaman star Jason Momoa has signed on to topline Sweet Girl, a revenge action film for Netflix, with Brian Andrew Mendoza taking on the project for his directorial debut. The story follows a devastated husband who vows to bring justice to the people responsible for his wife’s death while protecting the only family he has left, his daughter. The screenplay is by crime fiction author Gregg Hurwitz and Philip Eisner with current revisions by Will Staples.
Chris Messina (Sharp Objects) is headed for USA Network to star opposite Matt Bomer in the network's anthology series, The Sinner. In season three, announced back in March, star Bill Pullman reprises his role as Det. Harry Ambrose as he investigates a car crash and uncovers a crime that pulls him into the most dangerous and disturbing case of his career. White Collar alum Bomer stars as Jamie, a Dorchester resident and expectant father who looks to Ambrose for support in the wake of an accident. Messina will play Nick Haas, Jamie's college friend.
Lisseth Chavez (The Fosters) has booked a key recurring role on the upcoming seventh season of NBC’s Chicago P.D. She will play Vanessa Rojas, a street smart, gritty, resilient, fearless undercover cop. The role is reportedly a recurring one with an option to become a series regular.
Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me by Your Name) and Sofia Black-D’Elia (The Night Of) are set to star opposite Bryan Cranston in Your Honor, Showtime’s 10-part legal series based on the Israeli drama, Kvodo. Cranston stars as a respected judge whose son Adam (Hunter Doohan) is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices. Black-D’Elia will portray Frannie, Adam’s girlfriend, while Stuhlbarg will play Tommy, the much-feared head of a crime family.
Amazon will not be bringing back Too Old to Die Young, the series written by Nicolas Winding Refn and Ed Brubaker. It starred Miles Teller as a grieving police officer who, along with the man who shot his partner, finds himself in an underworld filled with working-class hit men, Yakuza soldiers, cartel assassins sent from Mexico, Russian mafia captains and gangs of teenage killers. Augusto Aguilera, Cristina Rodlo and Nell Tiger Free also starred in the series.
Fox has ordered six more episodes of its freshman series First Responders Live, which will move from its original Wednesday 9 p.m. time slot to Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning television journalist Josh Elliott, First Responders Live provides a "raw, in-depth look at the brave American heroes, including firefighters, police officers, EMS technicians and first responders, who put their own lives on the line as they race into danger to save others."
Court TV, which came back on the air in May, has set a 37-part docuseries looking back on the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, which will also mark Court TV’s first foray into the original programming space. The series, titled OJ25, will look back at the "Trial of the Century," with each episode focusing on every week of the 37-week trial. Exclusive new interviews with the key players in the case will take people behind-the-scenes of the trial, providing fresh perspective and insight on legal strategies and maneuverings, missteps, lost opportunities and more.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Laura Lippman was the guest on NPR's Fresh Air as host Terry Gross discussed Lippman's latest novel, Lady in the Lake.
This week's episode of Two Crime Writers and a Microphone featured a live recording from the Theakston's Crime Festival of the game show "Justice A Minute." The show included an amazing array of crime writers, with Mark Billingham captaining one team composed of Marnie Riches, Johnny Shaw, and Adrian McKinty, and Val McDermid captaining the opposition with Paul Finch, Stephanie Marland, and Mason Cross. Craig Robertson served as the independent adjudicator.
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring the fun mystery short story, "Cracking the Case of Humpty Dumpty" written by Chelle Martin and read by actor John Masier.
Writer Types came back from their summer hiatus with nine authors offering up what they've been reading this summer. The guests included Alison Gaylin, David Bell, Ellen LaCorte, Beau Johnson, David Gordon, Jen Conley, Jennifer Hillier, SC Perkins, and Richie Narvaez.
On the latest Read or Dead, hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about Dean Koontz's new Amazon book deal, Scottish mysteries, and more.
The two latest Speaking of Mysteries podcasts featured author Alafair Burke, talking her 18th novel, The Better Sister, and also Rea Frey, discussing her latest book, Because You’re Mine.
Bill Koenig, Chief of Staff at the "Spy Commands" revealed his favorite spy books and spy TV shows on the Spybrary podcast.
The new Criminal Mischief podcast from D.P. Lyle focused on "Common Writing Mistakes."
The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the themes of "Undercover Part II, License Plate Records, and Drug Money" in its one-year anniversary show.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Bookclub welcomed Amy Stewart, author of Girl Waits with Gun and the rest of the Kopp Sisters series, which are based on the true story of one of America’s first female deputy sheriffs and her two rambunctious sisters. The books are in development with Amazon Studios for a television series.
THEATER
The Drury Lane Theatre in Chicago is staging a production of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The iconic play centers around ten strangers who meet on a clandestine island, each hiding a murderous secret. Who will pay the ultimate price, as each is picked off one by one? The play runs through September 1.
In the UK, the Theatre Royal in Nottingham's production of Murder With Love begins August 6 with a run through the 10th. The Francis Durbridge play centers on Larry Campbell, a man hated by all, but none more so than David Ryder. Ryder pursues his wicked vendetta by obtaining a key to Campbell’s flat to kill him. Deceit, suspicion, blackmail and incrimination are woven into the web of crime culminating in a second killing and a tantalizing twist in the tail.
