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

Nonagenarian director Clint Eastwood has set the thriller, Juror #2, as his next film, with Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette in negotiations to star. While it isn’t official, sources also add that with schedules and budget figured, Warner Bros. (Eastwood’s longtime studio home) is close to officially greenlighting the film. The script hails from Jonathan Abrams and centers on a juror on a murder trial who realizes that he may have caused the victim’s death and must grapple with the dilemma of whether to manipulate the jury to save himself, or reveal the truth and turn himself in. Eastwood has hinted that this may be his last film, although there’s still a small chance that Eastwood decides to tackle another feature.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Legendary Entertainment and Veritas Entertainment have struck a first-look television deal and set their first project together, an adaptation of a Lee Child short story, Ten Keys, which comes from Child's The Cocaine Chronicles anthology. It tells the story of the most dangerous cartel in Mexico that sends their mysterious enforcer only known by his alias, Octavian, to hunt down those who have stolen from them. When Octavian decides to kill his latest target and steal 10 kilos of cocaine from the cartel, he goes from being the hunter to being hunted for the first time in his life.

A Spy Among Friends, the story of British spies Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliott that stars Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, recently premiered on MGM+. The series, which is produced by Sony Pictures Television, is based on Ben Macintyre’s eponymous book. Alexander Cary, who exec produced Lewis-fronted Homeland, created the A Spy Among Friends TV series. Cary and Lewis are now turning their attention to more Macintryre books for the small screen, and first up is an adaptation of The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. The book tells the story of Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB colonel who became a bureau chief in London and was a double agent, providing information to the British secret intelligence service MI6.

In a competitive situation, Sherlock producer Hartswood Films has won the rights to adapt the Cold War magic thriller, The Warlock Effect, into a TV series. The debut novel, written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, creators of the Ghost Stories theatre production, centers on Ludvik Weinschenk, a boy who escapes tyranny in Germany to become the most famous magician in 1950s Britain under the stage name Louis Warlock. His talent for deception attracts the attention of the British secret service and he is thrown into the world of espionage on a mission across

Warner Bros Television has acquired rights to Jesse Q. Sutanto’s latest novel, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films will develop the book for television with Mindy Kaling’s production company Kaling International. The novel follows Vera Wong, a lonely widow living in San Francisco’s Chinatown who wakes up one morning to find a dead body on the floor of her struggling tea shop. No one is more curious than a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands, so Vera decides to start her own investigation.

Amazon Studios is ramping up its production projects for both the large and small screens, including a reboot of Robocop, centering on the futuristic adventures of a Detroit police officer fatally wounded in the line of duty and transformed into a powerful cyborg, which is being talked about for both film and TV (with a TV show possibly first). Additionally, Amazon Studios is actively developing a TV series based on The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, and a Thomas Crown Affair reboot, likely a theatrical release.

NBC has renewed all six of its Dick Wolf-produced shows including the One Chicago franchise (Chicago Med; Chicago Fire; and Chicago P.D.) and the trio of Law & Order dramas (the mothership series; Law & Order: SVU; and Law & Order: Organized Crime) for the 2023-2024 season. All shows have received 22-episode orders except for Law & Order: Organized Crime which will be 13 episodes. In addition, Kelli Giddish is set to return as Amanda Rollins in both Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime.

A trailer was released for True Detective: Night Country, the fourth installment of HBO’s crime anthology series, starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. In Night Country, when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Mark Schorr, who has worked as a bookstore manager, private investigator, nightclub bouncer, newspaper reporter, freelance writer, and is currently a licensed psychotherapist. He is an Edgar-nominated author of 11 mysteries, mystery thrillers, including a series about Red Diamond, Private Eye.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club had Part III of their Agatha Nominee Interviews, this time featuring Nina Wachsman, nominated for a Best First Novel for her book, The Gallery of Beauties, and Martin Edwards. nominated for Best Non-Fiction for his book, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators.

On CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: The Art & Science of Crime Fiction, Dr. D.P. Lyle discussed autopsies to examine a corpse for evidence of the cause and manner of death, including toxicological (drugs and poisons), serology (blood), and any other ancillary testing the Medical Examiner deems necessary.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host, Luca Veste, welcomed Doug Johnstone to talk about his early days growing up in a small town; going to university to study physics; being a member of various bands; becoming a journalist; and how his love of writing jump-started his author career.

Crime Time FM's Paul Burke chatted with Callum McSorley about his new Glasgow-set crime novel, Squeaky Clean; Glasgow; humor in crime; what it's like when your mum see your novel in a bookshop.

Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed former cop turned crime writer Graham Bartlett; investigated the world's oldest police forces; and walked in the footsteps of Napoleon.