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

Molly Bernard has signed on to star in the indie film, Best Man Dead Man, marking the feature directorial debut of Verner Maldonado. The film is set in the middle of nowhere, as a bachelor party turns into a night of murder and mystery when the best man ends up with a knife in his head. Friends quickly become suspects and only an eccentric, local private eye can solve the mystery. Bernard will play Debra Carnegie, the lead detective with flowing red hair, purple trench coat, green umbrella, and personality to match it all. David Gridley, Ben Fernandez, Jonny Cruz, Dayana Rincon, Leah Kilpatrick, James Heaney, Jack Ireland, Atul Singh, and Matt Ippolito are also set to star.

The cast has been finalized on Borderland, the long-gestating thriller set on the paranoid streets of 1970s London. Confirmed as starring are Aml Ameen and Colin Morgan, who lead an ensemble cast featuring Felicity Jones, Mark Strong, Sophia Brown, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. Borderland is written by Top Boy creator, Ronan Bennett, and the Guard Brothers (Tom and Charles), who are also directing. The film follows an IRA member as he hunts for his wife's murderer while also being tracked by the same killer. The project is currently filming in Glasgow.

Andrew Keegan and Sonalii Castillo have signed on to star in High Tide, a social justice thriller from director Natalie Bible. The film follows Samantha "Sam" Merrick (Castillo), a small-town waitress who endures a brutal hate crime that leaves her badly injured and her younger sister dead. The film is a twisty ride through Sam’s psychological trauma and pursuit for revenge, all while moving through a world that continues to limp along to the tune of systemic racism, inequality, and persecution. Keegan will play Logan Bradford, a tenacious detective with a traumatic past who sets forth on his own quest to help solve the Merrick case and alter a system that is broken.

Face/Off and Hacksaw Ridge producer, David Permut, has acquired Steve Lillbuen’s true crime book, The Devil’s Cinema, about Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell who was convicted of first degree murder in 2011. Twitchell is serving a life sentence for the murder of John Brian Altinger, whom he lured into a "kill room" set up in his garage-turned-film-studio. His arrest and trial attracted substantial media attention since his crimes were inspired by the TV series Dexter and lead character Dexter Morgan, prompting some outlets to refer to Twitchell as the "Dexter Killer."  Brit filmmaker Sam Hobkinson, whose credits include the Netflix mob series, Fear City, has been signed to write and direct the narrative feature.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Paramount+ has given a formal green light to The Turkish Detective, an adaptation of Barbara Nadel’s CWA Silver Dagger Award-winning novels. Haluk Biligner, Ethan Kai, and Yasemin Kay Allen have been tapped to star in the series, set in modern-day Istanbul. Written and executive produced by Ben Schiffer (Skins) and directed by Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), the eight-episode first season is based on the 24-novel series and depicts the lead character, Inspector Cetin Ikmen (Biligner), his partner Mehmet Suleyman (Kai), and Detective Ayse Farsakoglu (Allen) going through ups and downs as they solve crimes. Each crime story is heavily rooted in the varied culture and history of Istanbul and set against the frenzied world of modern-day Turkey.

Jesse L. Martin will star in The Irrational pilot for NBC. The actor, who has played Captain Joe West on The CW’s The Flash for eight seasons, is dropping from series regular to recurring for the ninth season of the superhero series. In The Irrational, Martin will play Alec Baker, a world-renowned professor of behavioral science who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, corporations, and law enforcement. His world is turned upside down when he meets his match in a female domestic terror suspect. The pilot is based on Dan Ariely’s best-selling Predictably Irrational, with the author on board as a consultant.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has joined Natasha Lyonne in the cast of Poker Face at Peacock, a show which hails from Knives Out director, Rian Johnson. There’s a scarcity of plot information available, but Johnson said in a statement last year, "I’m very excited to dig into the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching."

Jill Hennessy is set to star opposite Michael Chiklis in Fox’s straight-to-series crime anthology drama, Accused. Based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, the story opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, Accused depicts how an ordinary person gets caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another until it’s too late to turn back. Chiklis plays Dr. Scott Corbett, a successful brain surgeon, who faces the limits of unconditional love when he discovers his teenage son may be planning a violent attack at school. Hennessy portrays Corbett's wife, who has a tough exterior, yet fragile interior that causes her to ignore many of their son’s violent red flags.

Teri Polo is joining the CBS drama series, NCIS, in a recurring role opposite Gary Cole. Polo will play Vivian Kolchak, NCIS Special Agent Alden Parker’s (Cole) ex-wife, and a former FBI agent who left the FBI following their divorce, taking a Defense Department job as a paranormal investigator. Polo will guest star in the Season 19 finale and return as recurring in the upcoming 20th season. NCIS also stars Sean Murray, Wilmer Valderrama, Brian Dietzen, Diona Reasonover, Katrina Law, David McCallum, and Rocky Carroll.

ITV’s reboot of the classic Euro crime drama, Van Der Valk, is coming back for a third season. The drama, starring Marc Warren as the titular Dutch detective, begins filming in and around Holland this summer. It’s reported that the new series will comprise three, 120-minute episodes.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Cara Black, author of the Aimée Leduc series, to talk about the 20th installment, Murder at the Porte de Versailles, which takes place in November 2001 in a fraught post-9/11 Paris.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Denmark's Sara Blaedel, a former journalist and author of the bestselling series featuring Detective Louise Rick, whose latest novel in that series is A Harmless Lie.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, authors Christie Bunting and Cathi Twiter joined the hosts to talk about the Game of Books podcast, writing lessons learned, motivation, other authors, and, of course, wine. There are also book recommendations from Dan Bronson, Bryan Collins, Susan Wingate, Kevin Tipple, and David Putnam, along with an April update from Lance Wright at Down and Out Books.

​​Tessa Wegert, author of the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to talk about her books, including the latest, Dead Wind.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Philip chatted about the first novel, Murder on Monte Vista, in a new series by David S. Pederson.

On the latest Writers Detective Bureau, host Detective Adam Richardson discussed investigating false allegations made against a detective; what would happen if Alphabet Soup feds barged in to take possession of a decedent; and the realities of investigating the remains of someone who died sixty or seventy years ago.

On Crime Time FM, author Nick Triplow spoke with host Paul Burke about the novels of Ted Lewis and Brit Noir; the film Yellow Submarine; TV cop shows; Z Cars; and Mary Whitehouse.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed thriller-writing legend David Baldacci about his new novel Dream Town, his writing journey, and his fear of orangutans. They also debated the "Oscars slap."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed Joel Schwartz to discuss his true-crime book, Bone Deep: Untangling the Twisted True Story of the Tragic Betsy Faria Murder.

THEATRE

A new stage play adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is being developed with an eye toward the West End and Broadway, with the Tony- and Olivier Award-winning Rob Ashford set to direct. Written by British writing team Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, the new Sherlock Holmes play is described as an original tale offering a "deeply theatrical exploration of the mind of the famous detective," while remaining faithful to the world created by Conan Doyle. Staged as "a mystery within a mystery," the new play is described by producers as involving a case presented to Holmes that forces him to confront his own murky past.

Agatha Christie's renowned murder mystery novel, And Then There Were None, published in 1939 and adapted for the stage by Christie in 1943, is being featured in an off-Broadway staging at The Players Theatre in The West Village, April 19-24. The production is part of Be Bold! Productions' "Murder on MacDougal" series which produced Murder on the Links in 2021 and Murder on the Nile in 2019.