THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
The coronavirus scare is also taking a toll on Hollywood, most notably the postponement of Daniel Craig's last James Bond outing, No Time to Die, from April 10 to November 25, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Several other industry events, festivals, film productions, and even movie theatre closings have already been announced, with more likely to come.
The forthcoming indie mystery-thriller, Awaken, has assembled an impressive slate of actors including Charles Agron, who also wrote the script that Don FauntLeRoy (Gates of Darkness) will direct. The story follows Oliver Cook (Agron), a wealthy businessman dealing with the loss of his only child and the mystery as to whether she was murdered or kidnapped. No one has a clue in this tale of murder and revenge that involves Oliver’s wife (Ford v Ferrari's Alyona Khmara), his lawyer (Saw star Tobin Bell), a person from the past (Aliens's Lance Henriksen), a stripper (Ad Astra's Kayla Adams), a recluse (Ed Asner) and a mysterious woman (Dane Hoffman). As Oliver begins to unravel the mystery, he learns that events of the deep past have a direct bearing on his family’s survival.
Grammy winner Busta Rhymes and Entourage alum Kevin Dillon will star in Red Money, an indie thriller which is being produced and directed by former NYPD officer-turned-filmmaker Steve Stanulis. The film follows Detective Brian Strictland (Dillon) and Detective Clark (Rhymes) as they track down people illegally trying to get rid of their green money after the President of the United States declares that all "green money" must be submitted to the government within one year to be turned into legal "red money." The demands of the President and government create a non-stop intense crime spree throughout the country.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
CBS’s drama pilot, Out the Door, has been put on the back burner due to difficulties casting the lead in the short time frame allotted by the broadcast pilot season. The project, from 24 veteran Evan Katz and Jerry Bruckheimer Television evokes elements of Lethal Weapon, which means it has a larger-than-life character at the center that requires spot-on casting. The project's logline reads: "Upon learning that his impending retirement is being pushed off by several years, an LAPD detective who just wants his pension so he can go off and live the good life decides to do everything in his power to get fired, but his bad behavior only leads to surprising success at solving cases."
Former Pitch star Kylie Bunbury has been tapped as the lead in The Big Sky, ABC’s straight-to-series drama created and executive produced by David E. Kelley and based on The Highway, the first book in C.J. Box’s Cassie Dewell series of novels. In the procedural thriller, private detective Cassie Dewell (Bunbury) partners with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. When they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another victim is taken.
Succession star Ashley Zukerman is set to take on the title role in Langdon, NBC’s drama pilot based on Dan Brown’s best-selling thriller novel, The Lost Symbol. Zukerman takes on the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie trilogy The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno. Langdon follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Zukerman), who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy.
Following lengthy negotiations, Veep alum Reid Scott has closed a deal for the male lead opposite Janina Gavankar in the NBC drama pilot, Echo. The project is described as "a high-concept, genre procedural" revolving around a team of investigators who solve the highest-profile crimes by sending our heroes into the past — in the body of the victim. They assume the victim’s identity and must race against time to prevent the crime before it happens. Scott will play David, a member of the FBI who volunteers for the most dangerous undercover assignments. For The People alum Wesam Keesh is also set as a series regular.
Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Deuce) and Bill Heck (Locke & Key) are set as two of the leads alongside star Jeff Bridges in FX’s drama series The Old Man, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. It centers on the aforementioned Dan Chase (Bridges), the titular "old man," who absconded from the CIA decades ago and now lives off the grid. When an assassin (Akinnagbe) arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. Heck will play Dan Chase thirty years prior to the events of the pilot and replaces Austin Stowell who had been originally tapped for the role.
Glee alumna Vanessa Lengies has been cast as a series regular opposite Josh Peck in Turner & Hooch, Disney+’s reboot of the classic 1989 buddy-cop comedy feature. She'll play Erica, the chief trainer at the US Marshal K-9 facility.
Netflix has rounded out series regulars for the forthcoming female-driven spy thriller series, In From The Cold, with Ivana Sakhno, Cillian O’Sullivan, Lydia Fleming, Charles Brice, and Alyona Khmelnitskaya. The actors join previously announced Margarita Levieva who is set to lead the eight-episode series. Levieva plays an American single mom whose life is turned upside down while on a European vacation when the CIA forces her to confront her long-buried past as a Russian spy—who was the product of a classified KGB experiment granting her special abilities.
Once Upon a Time alum Jeff Pierre is set as a series regular opposite Lindsey Morgan and Jared Padalecki in Walker, a reimagining of CBS’s long-running 1990s action/crime series Walker, Texas Ranger. Pierre will play Trey Barnett, an Army medic recently back from his deployment and doing his best to adjust.
The first trailer is out for the mystery series Home Before Dark, which will premiere Friday, April 3 on Apple TV+. The 10-episode series is inspired by the reporting of young investigative journalist Hilde Lysiak. It follows a young girl (Brooklynn Prince) who moves from Brooklyn to the small lakeside town her father (Jim Sturgess) left behind. While there, her dogged pursuit of the truth leads her to unearth a cold case that everyone in town, including her own father, tried hard to bury.
Showtime has found its missing President. Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) has been cast in the key role opposite David Oyelowo in The President Is Missing, Showtime’s drama pilot based on the novel by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson. The story centers on a powerless and politically aimless vice president (Oyelowo) who unexpectedly becomes president when President Jillian Stroud (Dowd) goes missing. He walks right into a secret, world-threatening crisis, both inside and outside the White House.
Tory Kittles (Colony) is set to co-star opposite Queen Latifah in the CBS drama pilot The Equalizer, a re-imagining of the classic 1980s series. Queen Latifah stars as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic figure who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. Kittles will play Detective Marcus Dante, a highly intelligent, soft-spoken yet powerful and shrewd NYPD detective, with a cultivated veneer.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, chatted with criminologist and true-crime writer, Judith Yates.
Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Jason Pinter to discuss his book, Hide Away, the first in a new series featuring vigilante Rachel Marin.
Suspense Magazine's Beyond the Cover spoke with Rhys Bowen, author of more than forty novels, including The Victory Garden, The Tuscan Child, and the World War II-based In Farleigh Field.
Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro grilled Holly West about her Mistress of Fortune series; her new novella, The Money Block; and conferences.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured special guest Bruce Goldfarb, executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland, in a discussion of his first book of popular nonfiction, 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics.
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured "One Too Many," by Edith Maxwell about a hyperpolyglot—someone with an extraordinary ability to quickly learn many different languages—who turns her talent to criminal purposes.
Listening to the Dead hosts, author Lynda La Plante and CSI Cass Sutherland, discussed "Fire Investigation Forensics" on the latest episode.
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