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

Gal Gadot will star in Heart of Stone, an original international spy thriller from Skydance Media, that endeavors to put a female spin on action franchises like Mission: Impossible and 007. Tom Harper, who helmed The Aeronauts and Wild Rose, is in talks to direct, while the script is by Greg Rucka (The Old Guard) and Allison Schroeder, who was Oscar nominated for Hidden Figures.

Alex Pettyfer is set to direct and star in the action-thriller, Phantom Of Belgrade, which will also star Oliver Masucci. The original screenplay by David Matillo is based on a true story from the period of former Yugoslav president, Tito, when he was on an official visit to Cuba in 1979. A Belgrade citizen stole a white Porsche and drove around the city for ten straight evenings, forcing the police on a wild goose chase. Thousands of people hit the streets every night to support the gesture, which became seen as a political statement against the government.

Oscar Isaac is set to play the lead role in Metal Gear Solid, which is currently in development at Sony Pictures with Jordan Vogt-Roberts attached to direct. The film is based on the Metal Gear Solid video game released on Sony Playstation in 1998, which follows Solid Snake, a soldier who infiltrates a weapons facility to stop a group of terrorists known as Foxhound from launching a nuclear strike.

Following her role in the romantic comedy, Happiest Season, Aubrey Plaza is switching genres as she is set to co-star with Jason Statham in the Guy Ritchie untitled thriller formally known as Five Eyes. The story follows an MI6 guns-and-steel agent (Statham) who is recruited by a global intelligence alliance to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology that threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with a CIA high-tech expert, the agent sets off on a globe-trotting mission where he will have to use all of his charm, ingenuity and stealth to track down and infiltrate a billionaire arms broker.

How to Get Away with Murder star, Charlie Weber, and Shades of Blues's Victor Turpin, have been added to the cast of Panama, the action-thriller being directed by Mark Neveldine, as they join previously announced stars Cole Hauser, Mel Gibson, and Kate Katzman. The project follows James Becker (Hauser), an ex-Marine who is sent undercover by his former commander, Stark (Gibson), to execute a high-value arms deal with untrustworthy adversaries. Weber will play Hank Burns, a straight-edged ex-Marine also hired by Stark to join Becker’s mission. Turpin will play Brooklyn Rivera, a real-life member of the Contras, the revolutionary rebel group backed by the U.S. in opposition to the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

NBC is developing Vantage Point, a character-driven thriller drama series based on the 2008 Sony movie. The film, which starred Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver, told the story of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States through the vantage points of different characters. Per the show's description: "In the age of fake news, the truth can seem inadequate at best and skewed at worst. By embracing a multitude of different perspectives – ranging from government operatives to civilian informants to innocent bystanders – viewers will find themselves in the unique position of deciding what actually happened."

Chilean author Luis Sepulveda's short novel, Diary of a Sentimental Killer, about a globetrotting hitman with a broken heart, is being developed into a TV series. The plan is for a limited series primarily in Spanish, which marks the first television adaptation of Sepulveda’s work and comes after his premature death from coronavirus at the age of 70. The story follows an unnamed assassin who has been left by his lover the day before he’s set to embark on a crucial hit assignment that will take him to many European and Latin American cities.

Netflix has greenlit a five-part Swedish-language series on Stig Engström, the man who was named as the probable murderer of former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. The Unlikely Murderer, based on a 2018 book by Thomas Pettersson, is from the Swedish producer FLX — also behind the Netflix series Quicksand and Love & Anarchy — and stars Robert Gustafsson as Engström. Following the assassination of Palme in 1986, Engström managed to elude justice right up to his death through a combination of audacity, luck, and a perplexed police force.

Matt Rife and Clare Grant are set to star in the psychological thriller, The Private Eye, joining fellow cast-mates Eric Roberts, Erik Griffin, Denzel Whitaker, Eugenia Kuzmina, Elijah Boothe, Jihad Reeves, King Chip, and Lexy Panterra. Jack Cook will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Hope Ayiyi, Santino Ramos, and Patrick Roe, which is set throughout LA. The mystery drama follows a private investigator named Mort Madison (Rife), whose life is spiraling downward when a beguiling, slightly familiar woman (Grant) hires him for his most unusual case.

Anne Heche has joined the Season 2 cast of the CBS legal drama, All Rise, in a recurring role. Heche will play Corrine Cuthbert, an infamous trial attorney who often is called upon by police unions to defend officers accused of violent crime. She is wicked smart, using humor as a distraction while she verbally destroys anyone who gets in her way. All Rise follows the chaotic, hopeful and sometimes absurd lives of its judges, prosecutors and public defenders, as they work with bailiffs, clerks and cops to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal process.

Coming off his starring role on the first five seasons of the CW’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Brandon Routh has joined ABC’s The Rookie for a potential season-long arc. First appearing in Episode 2 of the show’s upcoming third season, Routh will play Doug Stanton, an eleven-year veteran of the LAPD, whose views prove to be polarizing at the Mid-Wilshire station. He has currently been booked for four episodes, with a possibility for more. The police procedural dramedy stars Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department.

Camille Sullivan, Chad Willett, and Patrick Gallagher are joining ABC's crime drama, Big Sky, in recurring roles. Starring Katheryn Winnick, Kylie Bunbury, and Ryan Phillippe, Big Sky centers on private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt, who team with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt, to search for two sisters mysteriously kidnapped by a truck driver in Montana. Upon learning that the kidnapping isn’t an isolated incident, the law officials must race against the clock to prevent any more abductions. Sullivan and Chad Willet will play Joanie Sullivan and Robert Sullivan, the parents of two kidnapped sisters played by Jade Pettyjohn and Natalie Alyn Lind.

The new CBS drama, The Equalizer, has landed a plum slot for its series premiere airing after CBS Sports’s broadcast of Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021. This marks only the third time (out of the nine times that CBS has carried the Super Bowl since it got back in rotation in 1990) that a scripted series has landed the post-Super Bowl berth. The Equalizer is a reimagining of the classic series and stars Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. Meanwhile, the network also announced that FBI will make its midseason return following the NFL’s AFC Championship Game on Jan. 24, 2021.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Robert Justice, the host of the Crime Writers of Color podcast, interviewed S. A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland, described as "Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist."

It was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Dr. Ian Smith, best known as the author of a series of bestselling diet books, about the first installment of his Ashe Cayne mystery series, The Unspoken.

Read or Dead regular host, Katie McLain, and guest host Nusrah Javed, talked about genre-bending mysteries, the upcoming adaptation of Forty Acres, and some exciting new releases to add to your TBR pile.

This week's guest on Meet the Thriller Author was Eileen Ormsby, a lawyer, author, and freelance journalist based in Melbourne, whose debut book, Silk Road, was one of the world’s first in-depth exposés of the black markets that operate on the dark web.

Bestselling author, Robert Dugoni, stopped by Suspense Radio to talk about his latest thriller, The Last Agent.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, chatted with Susan C. Shea about her Dani O'Rourke mysteries and her French Village cozies.

The Unlikeable Female Characters podcast welcomed feminist noir author and friend of the show, Halley Sutton, to celebrate the release of her debut novel The Lady Upstairs, and to chat about sex scenes.