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

Chinese filmmaker, John Woo, will return to Hollywood to direct Silent Night, his first film since 2003. According to The Wrap, Woo is conceptualizing the film, which follows a father (Joel Kinnaman) into the underworld in order to avenge his son’s death, to be without a single word of dialogue.

Ana de Armas is in talks to take the lead role in the anticipated John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, about a young female assassin who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family. The character made a fleeting appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. As previously revealed, Len Wiseman (Underworld) is aboard to direct the action-thriller from a script by Shay Hatten (who also penned John Wick: Chapter 3). It's unclear whether Keanu Reeves will make an appearance in the movie, though there is a hope that he and Anjelica Huston may provide cameos.

Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in Fast Charlie, a hitman thriller from director Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger), which is scheduled to enter production in January. Based on Victor Gischler’s Edgar Award-nominated novel, Gun Monkeys, the story centers on Charlie Swift (Brosnan), who has worked for his aging mob boss, Stan, for twenty years, skillfully operating as a prolific fixer and efficient hitman. When a rival boss moves to eliminate Stan and his entire team, he fails in wiping the team clean. Now on his own, Charlie will stop at nothing to avenge his friend, and has no plans to leave anyone alive.

Daisy Ridley will star in a thriller set in the near future called Mind Fall, from director Mathieu Kassovitz. Written by Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) the project follows Ridley as a drug trafficker whose much sought-after black market "drug" involves memories that can be removed from one person’s brain and implanted into another. She’s forced to try to solve a mystery after being accused of murdering one of her clients, all while battling her own addiction and inability to tell her real memories from the implanted ones.

Martin McDonagh has nabbed big-name actors Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, and Oscar Isaac for his next movie. Few details are known about the currently untitled script, although McDonagh is known for writing quirky thrillers with a comedic touch like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, and as Deadline adds, "we hear that this is a killer script from a writer-director well known for his killer scripts." Apparently, the project has generated enough excitement that it's already attracted four studio offers.

The movie Role Play, starring Kaley Cuoco, has landed French filmmaker Thomas Vincent (the director of Bodyguard) and are planning to begin production in May 2022. Based on an original idea by George Heller, Deadline calls the project, "a stylish action thriller with a franchise-able hook, about a young married couple whose life is turned upside down after secrets are revealed about each other’s past."

Dolph Lundgren is set to direct and star in the action picture, Wanted Man. Lundgren has also penned the script with Michael Worth (Killing Cupid). The film's story is set in motion when a cartel shooting leaves several DEA agents dead, and an aging police officer must retrieve an eyewitness and escort her across the border. But when he learns that the attack was executed by American forces, he must decide whom to trust.

Liam Neeson is set to star in the Ireland-set thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, which will re-team the actor with The Marksman director, Robert Lorenz. Set in a remote Irish village, Neeson will play a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. Ciarán Hinds (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) also stars.

Melissa Leo and Emma Roberts are in final negotiations to topline the thriller, Returns. The story follows a young woman who returns to a fractured home twelve years after her mysterious disappearance to find that family secrets and old grudges haunt her joyous homecoming. The film is set to be directed by George Ratliff from a script by Matthew A. Gossett.

Leven Rambin, Jake McLaughlin, Shane West, Sohvi Rodriguez, and Dee Wallace will star in Homestead, a thriller from writer-director Marcos Efron (And Soon the Darkness), which is currently in production in Knoxville, Tennessee. The film centers on a young couple (Rambin and McLaughlin) who have fled the city in search of peace and serenity in the mountains, but subsequently find that they must contend with myriad dangers—both close to home, as well as on a much larger scale.

Dermot Mulroney and Justin Furstenfeld have joined Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and Ryan Kwanten in the action movie, Section Eight. Based on an original screenplay by Chad Law and Josh Ridgway and directed by Christian Sesma, the movie charts the story of a former soldier who, after avenging the murder of his family, is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.

Kevin Dillon and Sam Asghari are set to co-star in the action thriller, Hot Seat, joining the previously announced headliner, Mel Gibson. James Cullen Bressack directs the tale of an ex-hacker who is forced to break into high-level banking institutions by an anonymous man who planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Gibson plays the man who must try to penetrate the booby-trapped building to get the ex-hacker (Dillon) off the hot seat.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO is developing Londongrad, a limited series based on Alan Cowell’s book, The Terminal Spy, about KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, with Benedict Cumberbatch set to star as Litvinenko. Written by David Scarpa, Londongrad tells the true story of the former KGB agent who was poisoned by the radioactive isotope Polonium-210 in 2006 in England.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to The Missing, an eight-episode crime drama series based on Israeli crime writer Dror A. Mishani’s international bestselling novel, The Missing File, from David E. Kelley, Keshet Studios, and Universal Television. Written by Kelley, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer, The Missing tells the story of NYPD Detective Avraham, whose belief in mankind is his superpower when it comes to uncovering the truth. Guided by a deep sense of spirituality and religious principles, Avraham is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down.

Wyatt Oleff has been cast as the male lead in City on Fire, an Apple TV+ drama series inspired by Garth Risk Hallberg’s novel of the same name. The story centers on an NYU student, Samantha Cicciaro, who is shot in Central Park on the Fourth of July, 2003, with no witnesses and very little physical evidence. As the crime against Samantha is investigated, she’s revealed to be the crucial connection between a series of mysterious citywide fires, the downtown music scene, and a wealthy uptown real estate family fraying under the strain of the many secrets they keep. Oleff will play a friend of Samantha’s who stops at nothing to unravel the mystery of what happened.

Legendary Television is developing a true-crime drama series about the relationship between novelist Norman Mailer and killer Jack Henry Abbott, with Boyd Holbrook slated to star. Set in 1981, the series follows one of the most scandalous events in New York City history, when Mailer helped get Abbott (Holbrook) paroled from prison, leading to Abbott killing again, a nationwide manhunt, and the "trial of the century" in New York.

NBC has given a pilot commitment to Blank Slate, an hour-long drama from The Brave creator Dean Georgaris and The Blacklist producer Davis Entertainment. Written by Georgaris, Black Slate is a high-concept procedural about a government agent who may not be what he seems.

Lindsey Morgan, the female lead opposite Jared Padalecki on the CW’s Walker, will be leaving the hit drama series during its current second season for "personal reasons." The reimagining of the popular CBS drama, Walker, Texas Ranger, 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. Morgan’s Micki Ramirez is Walker’s new partner, one of the first women in Texas Rangers history. In their joint statement, the CW and CBS Studios hinted that Morgan could return to the series for guest appearances.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

NPR's Book of the Day podcast delved into why Hillary Clinton wanted to write a political thriller about her greatest nightmare.

Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief podcast is back with a look at "Three Famous Poisoning Cases."

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Anne Laughlin, author of six crime novels, including her latest book, Money Creek, for The Crime Cafe.

On Writer Types, bestselling authors, Lee & Andrew Child, talked about the latest Jack Reacher novel, Better Off Dead. Wanda M. Morris also discussed her debut novel, All Her Little Secrets, and William Boyle talked about his latest novel, Shoot The Moonlight Out.

Diego Ornelas Tapia stopped by the Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast to talk about his novel, To Dame a Dame.

Writers Detective Bureau returned this week with host, Detective Adam Richardson, translating a bit of legalese; he also discussed the crime of discharging a laser at an aircraft; and how police use warrants to take down multiple gang locations at the same time.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with Clare Whitfield, winner of the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Prize, whose debut re-imagines the Jack the Ripper murders; they also discussed the fate of the PG Tips tea chimps; and investigated awkward plurals.