THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
In a preemptive and very lucrative deal, Sony Pictures and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures have optioned Don Winslow’s upcoming crime trilogy epic, beginning with City On Fire. That first novel, which follows the template of Homer’s Iliad, will be published by William Morrow in September. The follow-up, City of Dreams, will follow a year later, and the third installment, City in Ashes, will be published in September of 2023. The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno will produce the films. The trilogy focuses on two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of Rhode Island and have led a peaceful lucrative co-existence until a modern-day Helen of Troy tears them apart and starts a brutal war. The protagonist, Danny Ryan, is forced to grow from a street soldier into a ruthlessly efficient leader to protect his friends, his family, and the home he loves. Fighting the Mafia, the local cops, and the feds, Danny will build a dynasty or die trying.
Star Trek's Zachary Quinto and Euphoria's Jacob Elordi will star together in He Went That Way, a road trip crime thriller set in the ’60s and based on a true story. Jeffrey Darling, a commercial director, will make his feature film directorial debut. He Went That Way centers on a strange road trip that involves a serial killer, an animal handler, and a TV chimpanzee star named Zippy. The film is inspired by how animal trainer Dave Pitts and the famous TV chimp Spanky (the centerpiece of The Ice Capades in the ’60s), had a fateful three-day encounter with serial killer, Larry Lee Ranes. Quinto will play the animal trainer, and Elordi will take on the role of the serial killer.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's Donnie Yen has signed on to appear in John Wick: Chapter 4. Yen will play an old friend of John’s who "shares his same history and many of the same enemies."
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced winners of their annual BAFTA Awards. The crime-themed drama, Save Me Too, won Best Drama Series, and star Michaela Coel won Best Leading Actress for her role in the show. Rakie Ayola also won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Anthony, about the life of a black teenager murdered in a racist attack.
Jamie Lee Curtis’s Comet Pictures and Blumhouse Television have secured the rights to the Kay Scarpetta novels by author Patricia Cornwell and are developing them as an hour-long drama series centered on the eponymous forensic pathologist. The deal marks the latest development in a long-road to screen for Scarpetta, which ten years ago saw Angelina Jolie attached to play her in a feature film from Fox 2000, which never got off the ground. Similarly, in 1992, Columbia Pictures optioned Cruel and Unusual, the fourth book in the series to make as a film with Demi Moore in the lead role. Scarpetta is inspired by former Virginia Chief Medical Examiner, Marcella Farinelli Fierro.
Miramax Television and Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village are teaming to develop a series adaptation of Alex Michaelides’ upcoming novel, The Maidens. British writer-actor Morwenna Banks (Damned) is attached to pen the script. In the book, a brilliant but troubled therapist travels to Cambridge to comfort her niece when the niece's best friend is murdered. But the therapist finds her alma mater has changed, and a cult like group of students led by a new professor has overtaken the culture.
Gerald McRaney, who has recurred on NCIS: Los Angeles since 2014, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming 13th season of the CBS drama series. McRaney plays retired Adm. Hollis Kilbride, who advises and counsels the Los Angeles division of the NCIS Special Projects unit during their undercover operations.
Sophie Turner has joined the cast of the limited-series adaptation of The Staircase at HBO Max. Turner joins Colin Firth and Toni Collette in the project from Antonio Campos (who will direct six of the eight episodes) and Maggie Cohn (who will co-write the series with Campos). Firth stars as Michael Peterson, who was convicted in 2003 of murdering his wife and spent eight years in prison, as documented in the true crime docuseries of the same name by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. Collette plays Peterson’s wife, Kathleen, and Turner will play Margaret Ratliff, one of Michael Peterson’s adopted daughters.
Amazon’s conspiracy thriller series, The Terminal List, added a trio of actors to its cast including LaMonica Garrett, Alexis Louder, and Tom Amandes, who will appear in recurring roles. They join previously announced regulars Chris Pratt, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Constance Wu, Riley Keough, Taylor Kitsch, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Based on Jack Carr’s bestselling novel and written by David DiGilio, The Terminal List follows James Reece (Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.
Tori Anderson and Kian Talan are set as series regulars opposite Vanessa Lachey in the upcoming CBS drama series, NCIS: Hawai’i, the first installment in the NCIS franchise with a female character at the center. Created/executive produced by NCIS: New Orleans executive producers/showrunners Christopher Silber and Jan Nash as well as SEAL Team writer-producer Matt Bosack, NCIS: Hawai’i is set in the Aloha State. It follows Jane Tennant (Lachey), the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor, and her team as they balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security, and the mysteries of the island state itself.
Chris Petrovski (Madam Secretary) has joined the cast of the forthcoming Ray Donovan feature-length film for Showtime. Petrovski will play rising Hollywood star Sean Walker in the movie, which will continue Ray’s journey following the hit drama series’ seven-season run on Showtime. Star Liev Schreiber returns in his titular role and is co-writing the script along with series showrunner David Hollander, who will also direct.
Judy Greer has been tapped for a key role opposite Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history, Watergate. Greer will play Fran Liddy, G. Gordon Liddy’s unflappable wife who has a misplaced faith in her husband’s intelligence and abilities.
Unforgotten, the cold case crime show airing as part of MASTERPIECE Mystery!, will begin airing its new season Sunday, July 11 at 9/8c. Fans can look forward to six new episodes, starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan. To date, very few details have been released about the new season, though an official trailer was released.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Michael Connelly is helming a new documentary podcast series, The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood, which will launch on Amazon’s Audible on July 1, around the 40th anniversary of the horrific crimes. Connelly has created and written the series and will exec produce alongside LAPD homicide veteran, Rick Jackson, as well as Jen Casey, and Nick Gilhool. Named for the street in Laurel Canyon where the murders took place inside the house of a small-time drug gang, it’s a gruesome crime that "reflected its time, disrupted a mythology, and tells a broader story of Los Angeles, the American dream machine, and when justice does – and doesn’t – work."
June is the 3rd anniversary of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast, so this month, there will be more episodes than usual to celebrate. The latest features the first chapter of Sprinkles of Suspicion by Kim Davis, read by actor Karina Balfour
Writer Types welcomed authors David Swinson, Josh Malerman, Joani Elliott, Eli Cranor, and Stephen Mack Jones to the podcast to talk about their latest books.
Read or Dead tackled books that will appeal to readers of true crime.
Robert Justice interviewed Aya de Leon, author of A Spy in the Struggle, for Crime Writers of Color.
This week's guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Lev Raphael, author and co-author of 27 books in a dozen genres from memoir to mystery. His suspense novel, Assault with a Deadly Lie, was a Midwest Book Award finalist.
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Kiersten Modglin to chat about her psychological thrillers; her writing process; marketing; indie and trad publishing; and a lot more.
Wrong Place, Write Crime spoke with SA Cosby about his novel, Blacktop Wasteland, and his novella, Ride Like Hell.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed Fatal Intent by Tammy Euliano.
The latest episode of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast has longtime EQMM contributor, Michael Z. Lewin, reading a story featuring his Indianapolis detective Sergeant Leroy Powder.
On CrimeTime FM, Tom Bradby spoke with Paul Burke about his new novel, Triple Cross; his character Kate Henderson; what makes a great modern spy novel; and the relationship between Western democracies and Russia and China that underpin his writing.
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