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

Zachary Levi (Shazam!) is set to lead the cast of Hotel Tehran, a new action thriller marking the fourth feature from writer-director Guy Moshe (Bunraku). Levi plays Tucker, who leads a unit of disgraced, war-torn ex-CIA operators into the heart of Tehran to "take down a life-changing score." Moshe wrote the script with Mark Bacci (Prisoner’s Daughter), from an original idea by Bazzel Baz (The Blacklist), a former CIA special operations group officer. In a statement to Deadline, Moshe said, "Can’t wait to collaborate with Zac on this. He’s not only a great actor but also an insightful partner. We both share the same vision for what we hope and believe will be a special film beyond the confines of the genre."

After winning a bidding rights war, Wayfarer Studios, Meralta Films, and Inked Entertainment are teaming on Errands & Espionage, a feature adaptation of the forthcoming action comedy novel by Sam Tschida. Set to be released in November 2024, the book follows an unassuming, recently divorced housewife who is recruited by the CIA to complete a secret mission her doppelganger died attempting, forcing her to balance her roles as a housewife and novice spy. This is the first installment of Tschida’s new Secret Agent Housewife book series, pitched as "The Flight Attendant meets Miss Congeniality."

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Amazon Prime Video has given a series order to Criminal, a drama based on the award-winning graphic novel series created by writer Ed Brubaker and illustrator Sean Phillips. Brubaker, who also penned the pilot script, will co-showrun the TV series with Edgar Award-winning crime fiction author, Jordan Harper (Hightown). Criminal is described as an interlocking universe of crime stories, a saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.

The BBC is developing an as-yet-untitled drama series about Bible John, one of Britain’s most notorious unidentified serial killers. Nicknamed due to his repeatedly quoting from the Bible and condemnation of adultery while in the company of his final victim, Bible John is thought to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland. He has never been found, although several suspects have been linked to the case.

Netflix has nabbed Covers, a drama from Girls creator Lena Dunham. Inspired by real events, the heroes of Covers are clandestine officials relying on their day jobs as the 21-year-old elites of Oxford University. Per the logline, "Taking us into the hardest to infiltrate boardrooms and bedrooms, our spies will search not only for answers, but for identity and affirmation in a job where identity switches as quickly as an outfit change from class to club."

Jeremy Renner is back in action on the third season of Mayor of Kingstown a year after a snowplow accident nearly claimed his life. The series follows the McLusky family, power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan, where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption, and inequality, the drama provides a stark look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither. The cast also includes Renner, Hugh Dillon, Taylor Handley, Emma Laird, Tobi Bamtefa, Derek Webster, Nishi Munshi, and Hamish Allan-Headley.

A new list of recruits has been added to Netflix's The Night Agent for Season 2, with Berto Colon, Louis Herthum, and Arienne Mandi set as series regulars, and Brittany Snow and Teddy Sears joining in recurring roles. Colon plays Solomon, a former Marine turned right-hand man/fixer for a powerful businessman; Herthum plays Jacob Monroe, an international businessman with powerful global connections that he uses to obtain valuable information; and Mandi plays Noor, a low-level aide in the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York who is looking to leverage her access to top secret information into a better life for her and her family. Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent centers on a low-level FBI Agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast-moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads to the Oval Office. Gabriel Basso will reprise his role as Peter Sutherland, and Luciane Buchanan will return in her role as Rose Larkin.

Hulu has released the trailer for the upcoming series, Death and Other Details, which premieres on Jan. 16. The ten-episode murder mystery stars Violett Beane, Mandy Patinkin, Lauren Patten, Rahul Kohli, Angela Zhou, Hugo Diego Garcia, Pardis Saremi, and Linda Emond. Per the series’ description: "Set amidst the glamor of the global elite, Death and Other Details centers on the brilliant and restless Imogene Scott (Beane), who finds herself in the wrong place/wrong time (okay, it was kinda her fault) and becomes the prime suspect in a locked room murder mystery. The setting? A lavishly restored Mediterranean ocean liner. Suspects? Every pampered guest and every exhausted crew member. The problem? To prove her innocence, she must partner with a man she despises—Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin), the world’s greatest detective."

Netflix has dropped the main trailer for its long-in-the-works mystery series, 3 Body Problem, inspired by the novel of the same name from Chinese author, Liu Cixin. It follows a young woman, whose fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time into the present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists join forces with an unflinching detective to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history. The series will debut on Netflix on March 21, 2024, nearly four years after first being revealed.

Ansel Elgort’s Jake Adelstein is back to expose new crimes in a trailer for the second season of Tokyo Vice, which will return to the Max streaming service with its first two episodes on Feb. 8. Loosely inspired by American journalist Adelstein's true first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, the upcoming 10-episode season, which is filmed on location in Tokyo, will take viewers deeper into the city’s criminal underworld as Adelstein (Elgort) comes to realize that his life, and the lives of those close to him, are in terrible danger.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Writers of Color, Erin E. Adams, author of Jackal, was interviewed by Robert Justice.

The latest episode of Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Jason Kapcala, whose latest book is Hungry Town.

The first It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast of 2024 featured an interview with David Simmons about his book, Ghosts of East Baltimore.

On Crime Time, FM, authors James Naughtie and Shane Whaley chatted with Paul about the Will Flemyng trilogy; spy novels all being about character; James Jesus Angleton's wilderness of mirrors; and Kim Philby's melancholy.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester shared the titles they are most looking forward to in the first half of 2024.

Want to know what medicine is derived from PCP and why its medical use resulted in murder charges and convictions? The Pick Your Poison podcast has the answers.