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

Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) is set to star in the action-thriller, The Good Samaritan, directed by Pierre Morel (Taken) and based on an original screenplay from Rambo: First Blood screenwriter, Matthew Ian Cirulnick. The synopsis reads: “When successful entrepreneur Dr. Rosalind Carver (Ridley) and her husband Matt rescue a wounded man drifting off the coast of Indonesia, they believe they’re saving a life – not stepping into a deadly conspiracy. Within hours, their yacht vanishes, Matt is abducted, and paradise turns into a trap. Hunted by pirates and imprisoned by corrupt officials, Rosalind’s only hope lies in Sean Fuller, a private military contractor whose motives are as mysterious as his past. Together, they must navigate a maze of deceit and violence in a land where no one can be trusted.” Production is being lined up for spring 2026 in Brisbane, Australia on the Gold Coast.


Christian Bale is in talks for a major role alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Michael Mann's Heat 2, based on a script Mann co-authored with Meg Gardiner. It was not immediately clear which role Bale will play. The 1995 heist movie Heat starred Al Pacino as Detective Vincent Hanna, Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, and Val Kilmer as Shiherlis. Heat 2, the book, was penned by Mann and Gardiner but not as a novelization of the film—instead telling the story of everything that happens to the principal characters before and after. The book jumps between two time periods: one following Shiherlis and Hanna, trying to evade the LAPD following the bank robbery gone bad; and a second, which takes readers back to Chicago in 1988, when McCauley, Shiherlis, and their high-line crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the U.S.-Mexico border, and in the Windy City.


Director and cinematographer, Gabriel Beristain, will helm the psychological thriller, Mia: See Clearly. Golsa Sarabi’s Golsa Enterprises will produce, with Sarabi in the title role. The story follows Mia, a brilliant but disillusioned former intelligence operative, who becomes entangled in a vast surveillance conspiracy. She uncovers a syndicate capable of manipulating perception itself. As events unfold, Mia is pursued across Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans as she races to expose the truth. Along the way, she faces her ultimate adversary: an AI-created doppelganger who has all of her knowledge but none of her humanity.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

OneGate Media bought the international rights to the crime thriller, Blind, which is based on Swiss author's Christine Brand’s bestselling Milla Nova series of novels. The upcoming TV drama adaptation is much anticipated—so much so that Swiss broadcaster SRF is developing a second season of the TV adaptation ahead of the launch of the first season next year. The plan is for a returning drama, with each season based on one of Brand’s books. Blind follows Nathaniel, a visually impaired bartender who claims a pregnant woman was kidnapped from his bar. Investigators find signs of a struggle but no trace of the victim, and Inspector Bandini identifies Nathaniel as the prime suspect. Determined to prove his innocence, Nathaniel finds an ally in investigative journalist Milla. Together, they uncover a web of lies, secrets, and hidden connections.


In a bidding war, Netflix has nabbed Trigger Point, starring Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams) with a straight-to-series order. The action crime drama, which has been picked up for eight episodes, comes from writer Harrison Query (Heads of State), director Jeremy Saulnier (Rebel Ridge), A24, and producer Joe Hipps (Ozark). Trigger Point follows a group of former Tier One Special Forces Operators who sell their elite skills to the criminal underworld behind the front of a private military contracting firm — and the FBI agent who’s hunting for them. Edgerton will play the lead, Red, an ex-Tier One Operator-turned-criminal.

Lupin creator George Kay is penning the thriller, Gone, for ITV starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Eve Myles (Keeping Faith). Set against the backdrop of a prestigious private school, a foreboding forest, and the quiet sprawl of Bristol, Gone follows local Headmaster Michael Polly (Morrissey), who becomes the prime suspect in his wife Sarah’s disappearance. An upstanding member of the community, Michael is inscrutable and likes order and precision in his working life, but then he encounters gutsy Detective Annie Cassidy (Myles), and a compulsive game of cat and mouse begins as she chips away at his veneer in search of the truth. The series is inspired by the career and work of a former Detective Superintendent for Gloucestershire Police, Julie Mackay, and ITV Crime Correspondent Robert Murphy, and partly inspired by their book, To Hunt A Killer.


The BBC announced the third series of Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning hit drama, Time, set in a young offenders' institution. The three-part drama will be led by new addition to the cast, David Tennant (Dr. Who, Thursday Murder Club) as Prison Officer Bailey, with Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley, Out of the Dust) reprising her role as Marie-Louise, a prison chaplain.


NCIS: New Orleans alumna Necar Zadegan is returning to CBS as a series regular on the network’s upcoming drama series, CIA, headlined by Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss. Zadegan will play one of the leads in the FBI offshoot, the Chief of Station role originally played by Michael Michele, who departed the series earlier this month.


CBS has unveiled its 2025-2026 midseason lineup which features the series premieres of FBI offshoot CIA; Harlan Coben’s Final Twist; and the returns of Watson, Tracker, the NCIS franchise and more. CIA, initially scheduled for a fall premiere in the Monday 10 PM slot, was moved to midseason amid a showrunner change and will now premiere on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m., following mothership FBI at 9 p.m. Meanwhile, Watson is moving back to its original night, premiering its second season on Sunday, March 1 at 10 p.m. It follows Tracker, which shifts to a new 9 p.m. time slot. The new true-crime series Harlan Coben’s Final Twist debuts Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 10 p.m.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On the latest Poisoned Pen podcast, Barbara Peters was in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado about their new thriller, The Grave Artist.


On Crime Time FM, Abigail Dean (Girl A) and Jennie Godfrey (The List of Suspicious Things) discussed true crime, second book syndrome, and what it's like to have a smash hit debut.


Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with crime writer Alexandra Benedict, dubbed the "Queen of the Christmas Thriller" about her latest book, The Christmas Cracker Killer, on the latest episode of Murder Junction.


Twin brothers Allen and Brian Manning stopped by Meet the Thriller Author to discuss their John Stone action-thriller series.


Authors on the Air welcomed Peggy Townsend to talk about her new mystery, The Botanist’s Assistant, which features Margaret Finch—six feet tall, fiercely organized, lover of schedules, and proud inhabitant of a tiny cabin in the woods. Her obsessive attention to detail makes her indispensable in her university botany lab… and it may also put a target on her back when she decides a recent death is no accident.


The Get to Know podcast spoke with Mary Anna Evans, author of two nonfiction books on Agatha Christie, as well as the Justine Byrne Historical Mysteries and the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries.


Criminal Mischief chatted with Robert T. Kelley, who spent 30 years in the technology industry, as well as publishing the quarterly literary journal, The Maine Review, and blogging for Maine Crime Writers, about his debut novel, the technothriller, Raven.


On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser profiled a toxin that has killed thieves robbing houses and what pesticide is so poisonous it depletes the ozone layer.