THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Ariel Winter (Modern Family) is joining the cast of Don’t Log Off, an indie feature set entirely during the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine. The comedy-thriller marks the directorial debut from the Baer Brothers, Brandon Baer and Garrett Baer. Additional casting includes Luke Benward (Dumplin’), Ashley Argota (The Fosters), Brielle Barbusca (Big Time Adolescence), Sterling Beaumon (The Killing), Jack Griffo (Alexa & Katie), Khylin Rhambo (Teen Wolf), and Kara Royster (Pretty Little Liars). The plot, written by the Baer Brothers, revolves around six friends attending a virtual surprise party when the birthday girl suddenly goes missing.
A trailer was released for Honest Thief, starring Liam Neeson as bank robber Tom Carter, ready to pay back the $9 million he’s stolen throughout a career in crime. Turning himself into law enforcement, he’s ready to do his time, and go straight for the woman he loves (Kate Walsh). There’s just one, huge problem: a pair of dirty agents (Anthony Ramos and Jai Courtney) want to make off with the money for themselves and frame Carter with a murder to make sure he can’t stop them.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The Emmy Award nominations were announced last week and include several spots for crime dramas, including Best Drama Series nods for Better Call Saul (AMC), Killing Eve (BBC America), and Ozark (Netflix); a Best Actor nomination for Jason Bateman (Ozark); and Best Actress nominations for Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) and Laura Linney (Ozark).
The winners of the British version of the Emmys, the BAFTAs, were also announced, with a few crime dramas among the honorees. Best Drama went to the darkly comedic crime caper, The End of the F***ing World; Glenda Jackson won Best Actress in a Drama for Elizabeth is Missing about an elderly woman living with dementia who struggles to piece together a double mystery; Will Sharpe won Best Supporting Actor for the detective drama, Giri/Haji; and Naomi Ackie won Best Supporting Acress for The End of the F***ing World. A BAFTA special award was also given to Idris Elba (the star of Luther) for his role in championing diversity and new talent in the industry.
AMC streamer Acorn TV has unveiled its second original project, the crime drama Cannes Confidential. Penned by Midsomer Murders writer, Chris Murray, the eight-part series is a romantic procedural that blends comedy, mystery and crime detection with a heart-warming love story — all against the backdrop of the Cote d’Azur. Fun trivia: Acorn is billing Cannes Confidential as the first English-language procedural drama to be produced and set on the Cote d’Azur since the 1970s action-adventure comedy, The Persuaders, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.
Acorn TV has also commissioned a second season of Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries after licensing the first season of the Australian crime drama. The show, originally brought to Acorn subscribers last year, is a spin-off of Australian broadcaster ABC’s series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Geraldine Hakewill stars as the charming 1960s detective Peregrine Fisher, who takes up the detective mantle from her aunt Phryne Fisher (featured in the original ABC drama) after the latter goes missing over Papua New Guinea in her light plane.
ABC (the U.S. network) is developing the thriller drama, The Women, from writers Jennifer Johnson and Glenn Porter, producer Mark Pellington, and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment. The Women is described as a propulsive thriller about a conspiracy of powerful and dangerous women who attempt to take over the global power structure before male dominance leads us to ruin, using violence to end violence, corruption to end corruption, and destruction to end destruction.
Showtime is developing an hourlong drama from Brian Grazer, Terence Winter, and Nicholas Pileggi. Written by Boardwalk Empire creator Winter, the untitled series is inspired by Pileggi’s in-depth chronology of organized crime in America — which is also the history of corruption in America — as seen through the eyes of the mafia’s First Family.
Actor Stanley Tucci is to star in Oscar-winner Alejandro Amenábar’s first TV series, La Fortuna, a co-production between AMC and Spain’s pay-TV broadcaster Movistar+. Based on Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral’s graphic novel, El Tesoro del Cisne Negro (The Treasure Of The Black Swan), the story centers on young diplomat Alex Ventura who teams with a combative public official and a brilliant American lawyer to recover treasure stolen by adventurer Frank Wild (Tucci), who travels the world plundering historic items from the ocean.
Fox set a premiere date for the crime drama, L.A.'s Finest. Spawned from the universe of Jerry Bruckheimer’s Bad Boys movie franchise, L.A.'s Finest stars Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba as cops taking on the most dangerous criminals in Los Angeles.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
The staff of the Saint Paul (MN) Public Library have initiated the Adult Storytime Podcast with mystery readings "The Lenten Croft Robberies" by Arthur Morrison; "The Coin of Dionysus" by Ernest Bramah (with blind detective Max Carrados, 1913); and "The York Mystery" by Baroness Orczy (with the Old Man in the Corner, 1902). (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist blog.)
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Charlie Donlea, the USA Today and International bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, and Some Choose Darkness. His latest novel is The Suicide House, about a chilling murder in a prestigious prep school.
Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, got excited about adaptations of The Shining Girls and Magpie Murders, and discussed mystery books by Black authors that they’ve recently picked up.
Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled "Areas of Responsibility, Nolle Prosequi, and GPS Tracking."
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Kate Winkler Dawson, author of The American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI.
The Gay Mystery Podcast welcomed Mark Zubro, the author of thirty-seven novels and eight short stories. His book, A Simple Suburban Murder, won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery.
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