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
Mark Molloy has been tapped to direct Beverly Hills Cop 4, the latest sequel in the crime comedy franchise, to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and distributed by Netflix. Eddie Murphy is expected to reprise his role of Axel Foley, a Detroit cop who first appeared in the blockbuster 1984 film that took him to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of a friend. That film was so successful, it spawned two sequels in 1987 and 1994. Molloy takes the place of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who left Beverly Hills Cop to direct Warner Brothers’s Batgirl.
Scott Free Productions has optioned the film fights to the thriller novel, Outside, from bestselling Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson, with Henrik Hansen in talks to direct the project. The story follows four friends seeking shelter in a small abandoned hunting lodge during a deadly Icelandic storm. Miles from help, and knowing they will die outside in the cold, they break open the lock and make their way inside, hoping to wait out the storm until morning. But nothing can prepare them for what they find behind the door. Ridley Scott is among those serving on the producer team for the project.
Paramount+ has acquired Finestkind, the crime thriller from Oscar winner, Brian Helgeland, which stars Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, and Jenna Ortega. The story takes place in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the biggest commercial fishing port in the U.S., and follows two brothers (Foster and Wallace) from opposite sides of the tracks who are reunited as adults during one fateful summer. When desperate circumstances force them to strike a deal with a dangerous Boston crime syndicate, a young woman (Ortega) finds herself caught in the middle. Along the way, sacrifices must be made, and bonds between brothers, friends, and a father (Jones) and his son are put to the test.
Screen Media has acquired North American rights to the psychological thriller, Cordelia, starring Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Johnny Flynn. Cordelia centers on Campbell-Hughes’s character of the same name, a young woman living in London with her twin sister, who quickly becomes suspicious of a mysteriously alluring neighbor Frank (Flynn) when she meets him for the first time. With her sister out of town for the weekend, the anxious Cordelia, alone and consumed by her many fears, begins to unravel and sink back into past traumas the more Frank tries to charm his way into her life. Joel Fry, Michael Gambon, and Catherine McCormack also star in the film.
Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi is the last addition to the cast of the action-thriller, Silent Night, from iconic action-director John Woo (Face/Off). He’s set to star alongside Joel Kinnaman, Harold Torres, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. The film, which is currently in production in Mexico City, centers on Godlock (Kinnaman), a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was tragically caught in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve. Shot and nearly killed while in pursuit of the murderers, Godlock vows to avenge his son by any means necessary. Mescudi will portray a detective named Dennis Vassel.
Amazon Studios has landed Ending Things, an action adventure vehicle for Anthony Mackie and Priyanka Chopra. Said to possess a True Lies style premise, the story centers on a hit-woman who wants out of the assassin business. But when she tells her "business" partner she’s ending their personal relationship as well, she comes to realize she doesn’t want to end that part of their bond. In order to survive the breakup – and their last job together – they must join forces for one last night out.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES/SERIES
Jessica Alba has closed a deal to executive produce and headline a series based on Lisa Unger’s international bestseller, Confessions on the 7:45, which is in development at Netflix. Charise Castro Smith, co-writer and co-director of Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto, is attached to adapt Unger’s novel. Confessions on the 7:45 is a psychological thriller in which a working mom (Alba) meets a stranger on a train, as she is commuting home, who upends her life. As betrayals are revealed, she questions whether we can ever truly know the people closest to us.
S.W.A.T is coming back for a sixth season, according to star Shemar Moore, who revealed the news on social media. The action drama is produced by Sony Pictures Television and CBS Studios. Based on the 1975 series of the same created by Robert Hamner, the fifth season premiered in October and runs through May. The show also stars Alex Russell, Lina Esco, Kenny Johnson, Peter Onorati, Jay Harrington, David Lim, Patrick St. Espirit, and Amy Farrington.
Netflix released first-look photos of The Lincoln Lawyer, its series based on the bestselling novels by Michael Connelly, and announced a premiere date of May 13. The Lincoln Lawyer tells the story of Los Angeles-based attorney, Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia Rulfo), who runs his legal practice from the back of his Lincoln Town Car. In the first season, Mickey is trying to find his footing again after spending time away from practicing law. He returns to Los Angeles where he finds himself dragged back into the business with a mystery to solve. The 10-episode series also stars Becki Newton and Neve Campbell as Haller's two ex-wives, as well as Krista Warner, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, Christopher Gorham, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Michael Graziadei, and Jamie McShane.
HBO Max and Warner Bros. are looking to build a Sherlock Holmes film-TV universe in the mold of the TV series offshoots of Suicide Squad and The Batman. Executive produced by Team Downey’s Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, who are also behind HBO’s Perry Mason, each of two different proposed series would focus on a different character to be introduced in the next Downey film installment, Sherlock Holmes 3. As of now, no details have been disclosed on who will play Holmes or Watson or who the central characters might be.
A Killing Eve spin-off based on MI6 spymaster Carolyn Mertens is in the works at BBC America and AMC Networks. It’s unclear whether the new show would air on BBC America, as per its progenitor, or another AMC Networks-owned channel or streaming service. Carolyn, played by Fiona Shaw, began the original show as the ruthless and enigmatic head of MI6’s Russia desk and played a major role in all four seasons of the cat-and-mouse drama. The spin-off will focus on her early life in the British Secret Service.
Peacock is developing a 1960s crime saga set in Hawaii titled The Islands, from The Eternals writers Kaz and Ryan Firpo, Fast & Furious director Justin Lin, and The Walking Dead star, Steven Yeun. Inspired by true events, the series said to be a story about American Imperialism, the fall of a kingdom, and the changing of a way of life.
Fox's The Cleaning Lady will be back for a second season after the network announced the show's renewal last week. Written by Miranda Kwok, The Cleaning Lady stars Élodie Yung as Thony, a whip-smart doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her ailing son. But when the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she refuses to be beaten down and marginalized. Instead, she becomes a cleaning lady for the mob and starts playing the game by her own rules. Yung stars alongside Adan Canto, Oliver Hudson, Martha Millan, Jay Mohr, Liza Weil, and Shiva Negar.
West Duchovny is set as a lead opposite Victoria Pedretti and Josh Bonzie in Saint X, Hulu’s eight-part series from writer Leila Gerstein and director Dee Rees. Based on Alexis Schaitkin’s novel, Saint X is a psychological drama told via multiple timelines and perspectives that explores and upends the girl-gone-missing genre. It’s a show about how a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth. Duchovny will play Alison, a smart and charismatic young woman who is beginning to look at her own privilege through a critical lens as she vacations with her family at a beautiful island resort.
Abhi Sinha is set as a series regular opposite Matt Passmore and Floriana Lima in Blank Slate, NBC’s drama pilot. Blank Slate draws some parallels to the long-running NBC series, The Blacklist, and centers on Special Agent Alexander McCoy, a legend in law enforcement, the agent we all hope is out there, the agent we’d all like to be. The only issue is — he doesn’t actually exist. He’s a ghost, a phantom. So what happens when a man claiming to be Alexander McCoy (Passmore) walks through the door with all of his skills and knowledge but with an agenda nobody will see coming? Sinha will play Cornelius Kepler, the tech specialist on Maya’s Homeland Security team who uses his advanced IT skills to get whatever information they need. In addition to Passmore and Lima, Sinha joins previously announced series regular Dave Annable.
ABC released a trailer and has set Sunday, April 24, for Part 1 of a two-part event that will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff of The Rookie. Part 2 will follow on May 1. The spinoff follows the premise of The Rookie, which stars Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. As previously announced, Niecy Nash will guest star as Simone Clark, a force of nature, the living embodiment of a dream deferred – and the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy.
Walt and Jesse are coming back. AMC confirmed that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will return in some capacity in the upcoming final season of the Bob Odenkirk-fronted show, Better Call Saul. The actors first returned to the roles of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the 2019 Netflix sequel film, El Camino, written and directed by Breaking Bad creator, Vince Gilligan, which picked up immediately where the Breaking Bad finale left off to provide additional closure to Jesse Pinkman’s arc. The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul premieres on April 18 on AMC, but the season is being split up into two parts (Part 2 premieres in July), so it’s unknown during which part Cranston and Paul appear.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, spoke with Aaron Philip Clark about his novel, Under Color of Law, featuring Black rookie cop Trevor "Finn" Finnegan.
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring an excerpt from Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico aka Ellen Byron, read by actor Ariel Linn.
Read or Dead hosts Katie and Nusrah talked about locked room mysteries and all that the sub-genre has to offer.
On the Crime Writers of Color podcast, Wanda Morris, author of All Her Little Secrets, was interviewed by Robert Justice.
In It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club's final installment of their series of Agatha Award nominee interviews, the show chatted with Judy L. Murray, nominated for Best First Novel, and Jan Brogan, nominated for Best Nonfiction.
On Queer Writers of Crime, Justene recommended Twelve Days of Murder by Jason Wrench, where the mystery gets rolling after someone finds something they weren't shopping for in an iconic store in New York City.
My Favorite Detective Stories spoke with Bridget Finnegan, illustrator, designer, animator, and publisher. She's also author of the novel, Odettes: A Quality Men's Club, which sports a unique setting and unusual private detective in the form of former prostitute, Jessamyn Jakes, who forms her own private eye firm.
Writers Detective Bureau host, Detective Adam Richardson, talked about what happens if a homicide detective has personal ties to a homicide victim; if chalk outlines are really used; whether cops can serve on a jury; and how reviewing this podcast on Podchaser.com can raise money for ChefsForUkraine during the #Reviews4Good campaign.
On Crime Time FM, Timothy J. Lockhart chatted with Paul Burke about his novel, Unlucky Money; Norfolk Virginia; hardboiled crime; and "Brit Grit."
