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

John Swab has been tapped to helm the Netflix thriller, Fast and Loose, starring Will Smith, a film project that also sees Smith reuniting with his Bad Boys producer Jerry Bruckheimer after Michael Bay left the project due to creative differences. The film is about a man who wakes up in Tijuana with no memories. As he pieces together his past, he learns he’s been living two lives: one as a crime kingpin and the other as an undercover CIA agent. The film is based on a script by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Eric Pearson, and Dave Callaham.

Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons is returning to the Miramax and Amazon MGM Studios action movie sequel, The Beekeeper 2. In the original movie, Irons played Wallace Westwyld, a former CIA director serving as the head of security for Danforth Enterprises. Directed by Timo Tjahjanto and written by Kurt Wimmer, the project stars Jason Statham as the former agent of the secretive Beekeepers organization who embarks on a ruthless revenge mission, unleashing his lethal skills against those who wronged him.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

After a decade's absence, SkyShowtime is resurrecting the Polish crime drama The Cop, focused on the Homicide Department of the Warsaw Metropolitan Police. The Cop. A New Chapter (sic) will launch on October 16 in over 20 territories on SkyShowtime, which is a joint venture between Comcast and Paramount. Time has moved on, but the Homicide Department continues to be busy in the new series. Joining the seasoned detectives Banas (Maciej Stuhr) and Józwiak (Jacek Braciak) is a young, ambitious police officer, Tamara Rudnik (Nela Maciejewska). Per the synopsis: "Right from the start, Rudnik is thrown into the heart of the brutal Warsaw underworld, where the lines between good and evil often blur dangerously. As each investigation raises more questions than answers, the officers must face not only ruthless criminals but also their own inner demons."

Sian Clifford (Fleabag) and Mark Bonnar (Dept. Q) have joined Season 2 of the BBC's crime comedy-drama, Ludwig. The series stars David Mitchell in the title role of John "Ludwig" Taylor, a reclusive puzzle-designer who seeks to unravel the mystery of his twin brother James's disappearance by taking his brother's identity as DCI on Cambridge's major crimes squad. In Season 2 he no longer has to masquerade as his brother, but his twin is still missing. Now that he’s an official employee of the station, John is forbidden from using any police resources to look for his brother or uncover exactly what he was investigating. The show also stars Anna Maxwell Martin, Dipo Ola, Dylan Hughes, Dorothy Atkinson, Ralph Ineson, and Karl Pilkington.

NCIS is crossing over with its Origins prequel series this fall, bringing the shows together across timelines in a special episode set for Nov. 11. A logline for the crossover reads: "Gibbs and team investigate the small-town death of a naval officer in the '90s on NCIS: Origins—a case that’s unexpectedly re-opened in the present day on NCIS. The 1990s-set spinoff is also set to honor one of the franchise’s most beloved characters this season. CBS previously announced a tribute episode to Ducky (the late David McCallum) that will also air this fall and feature the return of Adam Campbell as a young version of the character.

Nick Gehlfuss (Chicago Med) and Michael Michele (New York Undercover) are set as leads alongside Tom Ellis on CBS’s upcoming crime drama series, CIA. The FBI offshoot centers on two unlikely partners – a fast-talking, rule-breaking loose cannon CIA case officer (Ellis), and a by-the-book, seasoned and smart FBI agent (Gehlfuss) who believes in the rule of law. When this odd couple are assigned to work out of the CIA’s New York Station, they must learn to work together to investigate cases and criminals posing threats on U.S. soil, finding that their differences may actually be their strength. Michele is believed to be playing the series’ third lead, the head of the CIA’s New York Station. CIA is scheduled to debut in midseason 2026.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Ayesha Rascoe spoke with author Ken Jaworowski on NPR's Author Interviews about his new book What About The Bodies, a thriller in which three characters' troubles converge in a small Rust Belt town.

On Crime Time FM, Donna Morfett chatted with Paul Burke about her novel, The Masquerade of Murder; Luton & Dunstable; revenge on the page; misogyny; and self publishing.

Cops and Writers host, Patrick J. O'Donnell, welcomed three authors who write crime thrillers with K9s: Jodi Burnett, Kathleen Donnelly, and Margaret Mizushima.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed dark academia novels.