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

Oscar-nominated actor Alec Baldwin and Blade actor Stephen Dorff are starring in the indie action-thriller, Cold Deck. The movie, directed by Brian Skiba and produced by Corey Large and Eric Bromberg, completed production before the SAG-AFTRA strike commenced on July 14. The story, from Joe Perruccio, follows a team of loggers who stumble upon a meth cook site deep in the forest and find themselves in a fight for survival as they’re hunted down by a drug cartel. Cold Deck also stars Clive Standen (Vikings), Tom Welling (Smallville), Jesse Metcalfe (Fortress franchise), Lochlyn Munro (Riverdale), and Lucy Martin (Vikings).

TELEVISION/STREAMING

With two Hollywood strikes, it’s unclear when CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted will return for a fifth season, but when it does, it will be without series regular, Alexa Davalos, who plays Special Agent Kristin Gaines, a former Office of Naval Intelligence officer. When she came on board the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force, the team was led by Jess LaCroix, played by Julian McMahon who exited during Season 3 and was succeeded by Dylan McDermott as the squad’s new leader, Remy Scott. In the Season 4 finale, Gaines was part of the all-hands-on-deck team that helped Remy (McDermott) capture his brother’s real killer, Benji, who was trying to escape to Canada by train. It is unclear how Gaines’s exit will be explained in the upcoming fifth season, which has not been written because of the WGA strike, or whether Davalos would be invited back to wrap up her character’s arc.

Although there isn't a lot of news about new programming in the pipeline, thanks to the ongoing dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes in Hollywood, programs that were already produced prior to the strikes are releasing teasers for their upcoming premieres. Case in point are the production photos from the adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher, which Netflix has slated for Thursday, October 12. Starring Bruce Greenwood (who replaced Frank Langella as the lead back in April 2022 after Langella was fired following a misconduct investigation), the story centers on ruthless siblings Roderick (Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell) who have built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire of wealth, privilege and power. But past secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth. The cast also includes Carl Lumbly as Detective C. Auguste Dupin (with Malcom Goodwin playing the detective as a young man), as well as Carla Cugino, Mark Hamill, and more.

Netflix also revealed an official trailer for Dear Child, a new crime series from Germany, based on Romy Hausmann's bestselling novel of the same name, which follows a woman being held captive who finally escapes―but can she ever really get away?

Paramount+ released the first teaser trailer for Taylor Sheridan’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves, which stars David Oyelowo as the titular character. Reeves (Oyelowo), a former slave, was known as the greatest frontier hero in American history, working in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory and capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded. Future iterations will follow other iconic lawmen and outlaws who have had an impact on history.

Peacock dropped a trailer for the John Wick prequel series, The Continental, which is set to hit the streamer next month as a three-part event debuting September 22. The project follows Colin Woodell as a young Winston Scott in his path to becoming the proprietor of The Continental, a chain of hotels that are safe havens for legal assassins.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Nicola Monoghan chatted with Paul Burke about her new thriller, Wish You Were Here, and its protagonist, DNA analyst Doctor Sian Love; the city of Nottingham, where Monoghan is studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham; fellow Nottingham author, Alan Sillitoe; and DNA.

Spybrary interviewed debut novelist and ex-CIA officer, I.S. Berry, whose new book is titled The Peacock and the Sparrow, "the best spy novel published in 2023."

On the Read or Dead podcast, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester talked about books by women in translation.

On Criminal Mischief, Dr. D.P. Lyle discussed "Victimology," i.e., how evaluating the victim can add to the offender profile and might offer valuable information to narrow the search for the killer.

The Pick Your Poison podcast discussed the nerve agent Novichok; how a man dropped dead in minutes of a potent toxin applied by people wearing no PPE—without the poisoners suffering any symptoms; and what the antidote might to these poisons.