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
A sequel to the 1996 TV movie, Gotti, about mobster John Gotti, is in the works, with Nick Vallelonga and George Gallo signed on to write the script. Armand Assante, who won an Emmy for a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for his portrayal in the original, is set to reprise his title role in Gotti 2: The Final Chapter, Facts Undisputed. (FYI, the 1996 film Gotti is not to be confused with the 2018 John Travolta film of the same name which famously scored a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and stands as one of the review aggregator's worst reviewed movies of all time.)
Cory Hardrict is set to star in the indie thriller, Die Like a Man. Eric Nazarian is writing and directing the pic which is the first part of a street trilogy revolving around themes of masculinity, violence, and gentrification in 21st century America. Hardrict portrays a recently paroled west side gangster who, after serving a decade behind bars, returns to his old west LA neighborhood, now gentrified and redeveloped. All his friends are dead or have moved on, and his only anchor is training his best friend’s son in the ill-fated codes of masculinity on the street that lead to devastating consequences.
Succession star, Brian Cox, is set to star opposite Kate Beckinsale in the Catherine Hardwicke-helmed family drama, Prisoner’s Daughter. The film tells the story of a tough but proud ex-con who’s struggling to find a way to reconnect with his only daughter and grandson; once he begins an attempt at reconciliation, his violent past once again catches up to him.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE
Netflix has greenlighted The Night Agent, a political conspiracy thriller series based on author Matthew Quirk’s 2019 New York Times bestseller. The Night Agent is described as "a sophisticated, character-based action-thriller" centering on a low-level FBI agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office.
Natalie Chaidez (The Flight Attendant; Queen of the South) has acquired the film and TV rights to Oscar "Zeta" Acosta's novels, Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and The Revolt of the Cockroach People, and will executive produce and supervise writing for an upcoming TV series. Acosta was a Mexican-American attorney, politician, novelist, and activist in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement who disappeared in Mexico in 1974—a year after his second novel was released—and is presumed dead. He's also famously known for his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized Acosta as being like "Samoan attorney Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
Michelle Monaghan has been cast in the dual lead role in Netflix's upcoming thriller series, Echoes. Described as a mystery thriller, the seven-episode series centers on two identical twins, Leni and Gina, who have secretly swapped lives since they were children. They share two homes, two husbands, and a child but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing.
Danielle Deadwyler and Whoopi Goldberg are set to star in Till, a drama about the aftermath of the murder of Emmett Till, from Clemency director Chinonye Chukwu. Till centers on Mamie Till-Mobley, who led a pursuit for justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till, choosing to have an open casket at her son's funeral following his gruesome murder in 1955 after he was accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store. Mamie chose to have Jet magazine publish the horrific photos at the funeral, which became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. Deadwyler in the film will play Mamie, while Goldberg will portray Emmett's grandmother, Alma Carthan.
Emmy Award nominee Phillipa Soo has joined the cast of the AppleTV+ time traveling murder mystery series, Shining Girls, based on the 2013 best-selling novel by Lauren Beukes. Soo will portray the intelligent and sure-footed Jin-Sook who works in the research department at the Adler planetarium. She will star opposite Elisabeth Moss, who portrays a Chicago reporter who survived a brutal assault only to find her reality shifting as she hunts down her attacker. The star-studded cast also includes Wagner Moura (Narcos) as a veteran journalist breaking the widening story of a copycat attack, and Jamie Bell as a mysterious loner with a surprising connection to Kirby.
Michael Chernus is set as a lead opposite Rachel Weisz in Amazon’s Dead Ringers series, a reimagining with a gender swap of David Cronenberg’s cult classic 1980s film. Dead Ringers is a modern take on Cronenberg’s thriller (which starred Jeremy Irons), featuring Weisz playing the double lead role of Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twins who share everything: drugs, lovers, and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes, including pushing the boundaries on medical ethics in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s healthcare to the forefront. Chernus will play the series regular role of Tom, a brilliant scientist, working with Elliot (Weisz) on a groundbreaking but perilous new project.
ITV’s adaptation of Louise Candlish’s Sunday Times best-selling novel, Our House, has cast Martin Compston (Line Of Duty), Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey), and Rupert Penry-Jones (The Drowning) in headline roles. Our House tells the four-part story of Fi Lawson (Middleton), who arrives home one day to find a family of strangers moving into her house and her husband, Bram (Compston), has vanished. As the nightmare takes grip, both Bram and Fi try to make sense of the events that led to a devastating crime and how they each are going to survive the chilling truth.
Corbin Bernsen and Alexis Valdés have been tapped for roles opposite Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits Watergate, one of the biggest political scandals in American history. White House Plumbers is based in part on public records and the book, Integrity, by Egil "Bud" Krogh and Matthew Krogh. It tells the true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect. Bernsen will play Richard Kleindienst, the Harvard-educated attorney general that is tainted by the ITT scandal and a contentious confirmation process. He refuses to use his power to shield the Plumbers from investigators. Valdés plays Felipe De Diego, a Cuban-American real estate broker and yachtsman who participates in every Plumbers operation except the one which ends in their arrest.
German actress Christiane Paul (Counterpart) and Carter Redwood (The Long Road Home) round out the series regular cast of FBI: International, the upcoming third series in Dick Wolf’s hit FBI drama franchise on CBS. FBI: International follows the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. Headquartered in Budapest, they travel the world with the mission of tracking and neutralizing threats against American citizens wherever they may be. Not allowed to carry guns, the Fly Team relies on intelligence, quick thinking and pure brawn as they put their lives on the line to protect the U.S. and its people. Paul will play a Europol agent, while Redwood plays a member of the FBI Fly Team in Budapest.
CBS has dropped a first-look teaser for CSI: Vegas, a sequel to the mothership CSI series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The sequel features returning CSI stars William Petersen, Jorja Fox, and Wallace Langham, who are joined by new series regulars Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez and Mandeep Dhillon. CSI: Vegas opens a new chapter in the city where it all began. Facing an existential threat that could bring down the Crime Lab, a brilliant team of forensic investigators must welcome back old friends and deploy new techniques to preserve and serve justice in Sin City.
Showtime has released the first trailer for American Rust, the upcoming series adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Philipp Meyer starring Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney. Set to premiere on Sept. 12, the series is described as a "story of survival and transcendence" centered on Del Harris (Daniels), the chief of police of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town. When news of a murder rips through the town, Harris must decide what lengths he is willing to take to protect the son of the woman he loves. Tierney stars opposite Daniels as Grace Poe, whose son is accused of murder. The cast also includes Bill Camp, David Alvarez, Alex Neustaedter, Julia Mayorga, Mark Pellegrino, and Rob Yang.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, chatted with mega-bestsellers Karin Slaughter (False Witness), Brad Parks (Unthinkable), and Glen Erik Hamilton (Island of Thieves).
Meet the Thriller Author welcomed M. J. Polelle, who is a Harvard Law School graduate, an emeritus professor of the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, and an award-winning legal writer. The Mithras Conspiracy was his first novel, and his latest, American Conspiracy, will be published on July 27.
The latest guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Chris Holcombe, an author of LGBTQ+ historical crime fiction. The Double Vice is the first novel in his Hidden Gotham series, which showcases New York’s lively but criminally under-represented queer world of the 1920s.
Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled the topics of who investigates money laundering and gun trafficking; proving your main character's innocence; and the parallels between the courtroom and show business.
In the latest episode of Red Hot Chili Writers, Vaseem Khan discussed his new book, The Dying Day; there was a discussion of racism in sports films; and Tracy Fenton of TBC (The Book Club) talked about her favorite novels of the year so far.
