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

The upcoming feature film, Flavia, based on the books by Alan Bradley, has started principal photography and released a first-look image. The project features Sherlock star Martin Freeman opposite Molly Belle Wright (Deep Water) as the precocious 11-year-old detective, Flavia, Toby Jones (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Karan Gill (The Decameron), Annette Badland (Ted Lasso), and Jonathan Pryce (Slow Horses) also star. The storyline is set in motion when Flavia finds a dead body at her decaying British manor house and her father is accused of the murder. Flavia dives into her own wild and fearless investigation, unearthing long held family secrets and pitting herself against the true killer.

Alex Pettyfer (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) and Karl Markovics (The Counterfeiters) have joined Clive Owen in the historical thriller, Kristallnacht, which Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) is directing. Set on the brink of World War II in Berlin, the true story unfolds in a city turned into a powder keg after the assassination of a German attaché in Paris, which is wrongfully branded a "Jewish terrorist attack" by Nazi propaganda. Pettyfer plays Kai Lehmann, a young and impressionable police officer, who, alongside his superior Lieutenant Krützfeld, played by Owen, navigates the turbulent streets of Berlin as citizens turn violently against the perceived "enemy within" descending on Jewish neighborhoods. Markovics portrays Isaac Roth, a Jewish man caught up in the day’s terror as he is wrongfully accused of murder. As chaos engulfs Berlin over a harrowing twenty-four hours, Krützfeld and Lehmann are confronted with a profound moral dilemma: uphold the system or take a stand for what is right.

Gabriel LaBelle (Saturday Night) and Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) have signed on to star opposite the previously announced Chloë Grace Moretz in Dutch & Razzlekhan, the forthcoming true crime love story directed by BAFTA nominee, Jon S. Baird (Tetris). The pair take over roles originally announced as being played by Lewis Pullman and Ariana DeBose, who have departed the project due to scheduling conflicts. Based on the 2022 Business Insider article, "The $4.5 Billion Question" by Rob Price and Becky Peterson, Dutch & Razzlekhan details the most expensive heist in history, with Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan (Moretz) and Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein (LaBelle) — lovers, hipsters, and aspiring rapper-entrepreneurs — at its center. Merced plays Carla Vargas, the master hacker who was blackmailed by the FBI to help track down the duo. After stealing over $4 billion worth of cryptocurrency, the millennial couple was caught by the Department of Justice and charged with conspiracy to launder the stolen bitcoin in February 2022. The pair were convicted the following year and are set to be sentenced this month.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired writer-director Eric Nazarian’s Los Angeles-set crime thriller, Die Like A Man, for U.S., Canada, and international rights. The coming-of-age journey follows Freddy, a 17-year-old Westsider who is given a gun and asked to prove himself to a veteran gangster he idolizes. Miguel Angel Garcia (The Long Game) stars as the conflicted teen, Cory Hardrict (Tyler Perry’s Divorce in Black) as ruthless gang father figure Solo, and Mariel Molino (NCIS Origins) as love interest Luna. Nazarian called Die Like A Man "an honest tale about the doomed codes of machismo culture that has spiraled into worsening gun violence and inner city warfare. Freddy’s journey explores the destructive power of internalized rage and the road towards atonement."

TELEVISION/STREAMING

CBS has ordered a full season of NCIS: Origins. The freshman drama added a new dimension to the NCIS franchise with an origin story of Leroy Jethro Gibbs and a cinematic ’90s experience that features distinct characters, stories, and crime solving. It stars Austin Stowell as the young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS, and is narrated by Mark Harmon, who played the older character in the original series.

UKTV released a selection of first look images for the upcoming series, Bookish, which will air on specialist crime drama channel, Alibi. The brand-new series has been created by Emmy Award-winning writer Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), with Gatiss starring as the erudite and unconventional Gabriel Book who, from his antiquarian bookshop, helps the police to solve a variety of mysterious crimes. With three main cases in the series, each story line spans two-episode installments. Further cast members include Polly Walker (Bridgerton) as Book’s colorful wife, Trottie, alongside Connor Finch (Everything I Know About Love) as Jack, Elliot Levey (Quiz) as Inspector Bliss, Blake Harrison (World on Fire) as Sergeant Morris, and Buket Kömür (Our House) as Nora.

The BBC announced that Ludwig has been renewed for a second series. The show follows John "Ludwig" Taylor, whose identical twin brother James mysteriously vanishes. John takes on his brother’s identity to uncover the truth behind his disappearance. But there’s a twist: John has lived a quiet, uneventful life, designing puzzles and avoiding the outside world, while his brother is a high-flying DCI leading a major crimes team in Cambridge. Filling in for James leads to hilariously high stakes and serious crime-solving. For the second series, David Mitchell returns as Ludwig, alongside Anna Maxwell Martin as Lucy Betts-Taylor, the wife of John’s missing brother James.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, Dominic Nolan chatted with host Paul Burke about character, tone, London, villainy, and his fourth novel, White City.

The Spybrary Spy Podcast featured the untold story of Robert Bruce Lockhart, a Scottish diplomat, spy, and writer, who led a life filled with adventure and intrigue, as told by guest Professor James Crossland, author of the first ever biography on Lockhart, Rogue Agent.

Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed thriller writer, Erin E. Adams, about her debut, Jackal, and discussed the "black horror" genre in film and books.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Noelle West Ihli, an author known for her gripping psychological thrillers, whose latest work, None Left to Tell, is an historical thriller based on the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "Two Birds, One Stone" by Roger Johns, as read by actor Ariel Linn.