Media Murder for Monday

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

AWARDS

The nominations for the 92nd annual Academy Awards were revealed early this morning. Crime dramas are represented by Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (Best Picture; Best Director: Quentin Tarantino; Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino); Best Actor: Leonardo DiCpaprio); Joker (Best Adapted Screenplay: Todd Phillips & Scott Silver); Best Picture; Best Director: Todd Phillips; Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix); The Irishman (Best Picture; Best Director: Martin Scorsese; Best Supporting Actor: Al Pacino and Joe Pesci; Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve Zaillian); and Knives Out (Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson).

The British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) nominations (easy at-a-glance list here) were announced last Tuesday amidst some controversy over the lack of diversity. The nods for crime dramas included most of the same entities that have swept the other awards thus far, including The Irishman (Best Director, Best Supporting Actor), Joker (Best Director, Best Actor), and Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor). One new addition is Margot Robbie, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sharon Tate in Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. Rian Johnson (Knives Out) and Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood) also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay, and Steven Zaillian (The Irishman) and Todd Phillips, Scott Silver (Joker) for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Crime dramas honored by the Writers Guild of America in their list of nominations for the year's best films include Knives Out, written by Rian Johnson for Best Original Screenplay and The Irishman (screenplay by Steven Zaillian, based upon the book, I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brand) and Joker (written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver, based on Characters from DC Comics) for Best Adapted Screenplay. Because of WGA rules, the Quentin Tarantino-penned Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood wasn't eligible for Original Screenplay.

The Directors Guild Award television nominations included Ava DuVernay (When They See Us), and Vince Gilligan (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) in the Movies for TV and Limited Series category.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Writer-director Rian Johnson is already working on a follow-up to his hit original whodunit, Knives Out, lining up a potential franchise for Lionsgate. Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter at a Lionsgate's pre-Golden Globes party that he was developing a sequel centered on Daniel Craig's Southern detective Benoit Blanc investigating a new case. The filmmaker added that he was eager to make the pic quickly, ideally in the next year.

The X-Men's Nicholas Hoult will join Tom Cruise in the upcoming Mission: Impossible sequel, according to director Christopher McQuarrie via Instagram. His exact role is unknown, but Hoult is expected to play a villain. Cruise is reprising his role as the globe-trotting secret agent, Ethan Hunt, in the seventh and eighth follow-ups, while McQuarrie is writing and directing both (and plans to shoot them back-to-back).

Protagonist Pictures has boarded world sales on Sundance-bound drama-thriller, Surge, starring Ben Whishaw. The film sees Whishaw as a man trapped in a soulless job, living a life devoid of emotion and meaning. After an impulsive act of rebellion, he unleashes a wilder version of himself and is propelled on a reckless journey though London, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has closed a deal for Clarice, a crime drama series project based on the iconic Thomas Harris character, Clarice Starling, which is set after the events in The Silence Of the Lambs. The project, written and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, has received a "big series commitment" and is described as "a deep dive into the untold personal story of Clarice Starling, as she returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C."

Synchronicity Films has optioned Craig Russell’s "Lennox" book series and will adapt the period Scotland-set thrillers for TV, with Robert Murphy (DCI Banks, Inspector George Gently, Vera) attached to handle the adaptation. The series is set in tough inner-city Glasgow in the 1950s where the titular Lennox is a private eye billed as "a damaged man in a hard city at a hard time" who finds himself caught between three Glasgow crime bosses.

Legendary Television has closed a deal to develop the Jonathan Lethem novel, Gun, for a TV series. Johan Renck, coming off his Emmy-winning work on the acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl, has been set to direct and will also serve as executive producer with David Flebotte (The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire), who’ll be the showrunner.

The first trailer dropped for Season 4 of Fargo on FX featuring Chris Rock as the head of a 1950s-era crime syndicate in Kansas City. It was also announced last week that Yellowstone's Kelsey Asbille has also recently been added in a key role in the upcoming fourth installment of the network’s anthology series.

FX has also set premiere dates for the spring, including the limited series, Devs (March 4), about a young software engineer who investigates her boyfriend's apparent suicide only to discover a technology-based conspiracy that could change the world, and Fargo’s much-anticipated return for a fourth installment on Sunday, April 19 at 10 p.m.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts, Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, featured their annual look at the Bad Sex Awards (previous nominees have included Stephen King, George Pelecanos, and Lee Child).

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover featured Tosca Lee to chat about A Single Light, book two in the "Line Between" series.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, welcomed Libby Klein to talk about her Poppy McAllister series and cozy mysteries in general.

Writers Detective Bureau host, Det. Adam Richardson, offered up a tip on a great new forensic science resource and answered questions about getting a warrant signed by a judge and the realities of knock and notice.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Bella Ellis, author of the recently released novel, Vanished Bride. The story sets Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë as detectives investigating the disappearance of a young wife and mother.

THEATRE

The Good Company Players are presenting Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure on stage at the 2nd Space Theatre in Fresno, California. The Steven Dietz adaptation of the 1899 William Gillette play (which introduced the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” which was not in the original stories) blends a lot of the Irene Adler story of "A Scandal in Bohemia” with the schemes of the nefarious Moriarty from "The Final Problem." (HT to Kings River Life)

A production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is heading to the Court Theater in Chicago on January 16. The classic tale centers on a group of strangers - one of whom is a murderer - stranded in a boarding house during a snow storm.

The Genesian Theatre Company in Sydney, Australia will stage The Ladykillers with opening night on January 18. Adapted by Graham Linehan from an Ealing comedy-mystery film, the play centers on a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing.
 

The New Wimbledon Theatre is the latest stop for a touring UK production of the John Kander/Fredd Ebb/Rupert Holmes musical mystery, Curtains, opening January 14. Local detective, Frank Cioffi, is called in when Jessica Cranshaw, star of the new Broadway-bound musical, Robbin Hood, has been murdered on stage on opening night.

On January 14 at the Richmond Theatre in London, Dial M for Murder will have its opening night. Made famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s world-renowned film of 1950, the drama centers around a husband who plans "the perfect crime" when he suspects his wife of being unfaithful.