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:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Jason Priestley is attached to star in Fear The Worst, an adaptation of Linwood Barclay's thriller novel of the same name.  Fear The Worst portrays a divorced father whose quiet life is shattered when his 16 year old daughter mysteriously disappears. His search takes him on an agonizing journey through a twisted underworld, faced continually with the unrelenting fear of never finding his daughter.

Kevin Bacon has come aboard Andrew Baird’s action thriller, One Way, joining the previously announced cast Colson Baker and Travis Fimmel. The story centers on Freddy (Baker) who goes on the run with a bag full of cash after a robbery of his former crime boss goes wrong. With a potentially fatal wound, he slips onto a bus headed into the unrelenting California desert. After a call for help, Freddy’s estranged father (Bacon) betrays him, notifying the crime boss where he is. With his life slipping through his fingers, Freddy is left with very few choices to survive. Production is expected to commence in February in Los Angeles and Tulsa, OK.

Josh Duhamel has signed on to star in Bandit, a heist thriller directed by Allan Ungar and written by Kraig Wenman. Wenman’s script centers on the true-life exploits of Gilbert Galvan Jr., a notorious American bank robber who escaped from prison and crossed into Canada. There, he embarked on a robbery spree that set a record for the most consecutive robberies in Canadian history and would get him dubbed the "Flying Bandit."

Netflix has put together its ensemble cast for Munich, which will be led by Jeremy Irons. The World War II movie is set to be directed by Christian Schwochow (The Crown) and is based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Robert Harris. The story centers on British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's (Irons) desperate plan to find a peaceful solution to thwart WWII. British civil servant Hugh Legat (George McKay) and German diplomat Paul von Hartmann (Jannis Niehwöhner) are sent to Munich for an emergency conference. As they see if war can be averted — and at what cost — the two old friends find themselves at the center of a political plot, with their own lives in danger.

Noomi Rapace (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) is returning to Scandinavia and her native Sweden to star in an action thriller titled Black Crab, in the works at Netflix. Adam Berg will direct the feature adaptation of the novel by the same name written by Jerker Virdborg. The project is an action thriller set in a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by climate change and war. During an endless winter, six soldiers are sent on a dangerous mission across the frozen sea to transport a package that could finally end the war. Equipped with ice skates, unaware of what they’re carrying, or whom they can trust, the mission challenges their beliefs and forces them to ask: What are they willing to sacrifice for their own survival?

Zac Efron (The Greatest Showman) has boarded the survival thriller, Gold. Actor Anthony Hayes (Animal Kingdom) will direct and co-star in the project, which is based on a screenplay Hayes wrote with Polly Smyth. The film follows two strangers traveling through a desert who stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever found. They hatch a plan to protect and excavate their bounty with one man leaving to secure the necessary equipment. The other man remains and must endure harsh desert elements, ravenous wild dogs, and mysterious intruders, while battling the sinking suspicion he has been abandoned to his own fate.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked up North American rights to James Kermack’s action thriller film, Knuckledust, with a planned release later this year. The movie stars Moe Dunford, Kate Dickie, Phil Davis, Alex Ferns, Olivier Richters, Jaime Winstone, Gethin Anthony, and Sebastien Foucan. In Knuckledust, police discover an elite fight club where they find seven underground levels, filled with the dead bodies of fighters from around the world. Only one man is found left alive, and the task force has to work out if he’s a mass murderer or the lone survivor.

Disney has officially pulled a couple of their 20th Century Studios movies off the December calendar, including Death on the Nile, starring Kenneth Brannagh as Hercule Poirot in the Agatha Christie novel adaptation. As Deadline notes, this stands as a grim reminder that the holiday moviegoing season is not going to be a gift for either Hollywood or moviegoers.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Kurt Wallander is set to take on more cases after the European drama, Young Wallander, based on Henning Mankell’s novels, was renewed at Netflix for a second season. The prequel series stars Swedish actor, Adam Pålsson, as the eponymous detective as he's just starting out his police career in the increasingly violent environment of present-day Sweden. In the first season, after he was unable to save a teenager from a gruesome attack, Wallander had to learn to cope with his guilt in order to solve the crime.

Irish public broadcaster RTÉ and Scandinavian streamer Viaplay have lined up an all-star cast including Game of Thrones and Project Blue Book star, Aidan Gillen, and Daredevil’s Charlie Cox for the crime drama, Kin. The series charts the lives of a fictional Dublin family embroiled in a gangland war and speaks to the enduring unbreakable bonds of blood and family.

CBS All Access will not move forward with a second season of the experimental police drama, Interrogation. The 10-episode series centered on a case in which a young man was charged and convicted of brutally murdering his mother. The non-linear series was structured such that viewers were allowed to watch the episodes in any order, which CBS All Access billed as an opportunity for viewers to “follow the evidence like a cold case detective, abandon the linear narrative and determine their own investigative path.” Peter Sarsgaard, Kyle Gallner, David Strathairn, Kodi Smit-McPhee starred in the series, with Vincent D’Onofrio as a recurring guest star.

Chris Labadie has booked a recurring role opposite Jared Padalecki on Walker, the CW’s Walker, Texas Ranger reboot from CBS Studios. The series centers on Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a widower and father of two with his own moral code, who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years, only to discover there’s harder work to be done at home. Labadie will play Jordan, a hardened, tough ex-con who is in the Green Thumb and Grace program – and he’s also involved in a heroin smuggling operation.

The second season of Anthony Horowitz’s spy thriller, Alex Rider, (Amazon Prime) is set to start shooting at the beginning of next year. Sony is yet to officially confirm Season 2, but Deadline reported that the drama is slated to begin a 22-week shoot starting January 25 in Bristol, southwest England, which is later than originally intended due to Covid-related delays. Otto Farrant stars as Alex Rider, a British teenager who has been trained as a spy since childhood. Stephen Dillane and Vicky McClure also feature in the series as members of The Department, an underworld offshoot of MI6.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Read or Dead celebrated Nonfiction November with some great nonfiction reads; talked about the great casting in the new Jane Harper adaptation; and were pleasantly surprised by the Goodreads Choice Awards.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed K. A. Perry to talk about her environmental thriller, The Green Beach File.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Gary Lippman about his novel, Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Susan Spann, the award-winning author of CLIMB and the Hiro Hattori mystery novels featuring ninja detective, Hiro Hattori, and Portuguese Jesuit, Father Mateo.

The Tartan Noir Show welcomed Gordon Brown, the author of eight crime thriller novels set in Spain, Scotland, and the US. The latest in his Morgan Cry series is Thirty-One Bones.

The Gay Mystery Podcast talked with Grant Atherton, who lives in a small sleepy town on the east coast of England after moving down from London ten years ago. The fictional town of Elders Edge in his books is based very much on his home town with a few minor changes to suit the plots.

In GAD We Trust discussed "Appeal and Deception in Golden Age Detective Fiction" with Scott K. Ratner.