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
Matthew McConaughey is in talks to star in Skydance’s feature film based on the iconic private eye, Mike Hammer, from a script by Nic Pizzolatto, who collaborated with the actor in True Detective. Hammer is the protagonist of a series of hardboiled detective novels by Mickey Spillane (later continued by Max Allan Collins), starting with 1947’s I, the Jury, becoming one of the most popular figures of the genre. Collins will executive produce, with Jane Spillane serving as co-producer.
Filipino-American actor KC Montero has joined the cast of the upcoming neo-noir thriller, Shadow Transit. The cast already stars UK-based singer-songwriter, Qymira, and US-based, Indonesian-born actor, Yoshi Sudarso. Shadow Transit is the first English-language film from Pedring Lopez, who previously helmed the Netflix original action film, Maria, which also starred Montero. Shadow Transit follows a grief-stricken photojournalist and a haunted DJ who are forced to navigate the underbelly of Manila and Hong Kong, while evading a powerful crime syndicate.
Succession alum and Tony nominee, Juliana Canfield, has landed the female lead opposite Brandon Sklenar in F.A.S.T., the action thriller from Warner Bros. Character details for Canfield's role have not been disclosed. In the film, marking the feature directorial debut of veteran DP Ben Richardson, a former special forces commando is tapped by the DEA to lead a black op strike team against CIA-protected drug dealers.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Former Bosch star Titus Welliver is back on the cop beat as a lead opposite J.K. Simmons in The Westies, MGM+'s upcoming period crime drama series from co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner, Chris Brancato. Co-created by Brancato and Michael Panes, The Westies is set in the early 1980s when the construction of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center on the Westies’ home turf in Hell’s Kitchen promises a financial windfall for the Irish-American organized crime gang. Despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the Five Families of the Italian mafia, the Westies’ legendary brutality and cunning have given them the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente. Welliver will play Glenn Keenan, a troubled NYPD officer who grew up with the Westies crew, torn between loyalty to the law and love for his wayward son.
CBS's Boston Blue has cast another key member. ER alumna Gloria Reuben has been tapped as a series regular on the upcoming Blue Bloods universe series, joining previously cast Donnie Wahlberg, Sonequa Martin-Green, Ernie Hudson, and Maggie Lawson. In Boston Blue, Wahlberg will reprise his Blue Bloods role as NYPD Officer Danny Reagan as he takes a position with Boston PD. Once in Boston, he is paired with Detective Lena Silver (Martin-Green), the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family. Reuben will play Mae Silver, Boston’s District Attorney and the matriarch of a blended family of law enforcement professionals. The widow of a judge who was murdered on the courthouse steps, Mae endeavors to put family ahead of work whenever possible.
Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) will lead Apple’s legal drama Presumed Innocent for Season 2. The series hails from multi-Emmy Award winners David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams, and executive producers Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel Rusch Rich, Erica Lipez, and Matthew Tinker. Led by Gyllenhaal, Season 1 was inspired by Scott Turow’s courtroom thriller of the same name and tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorney's office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. The book was published in 1987 and was turned into a 1990 feature starring Harrison Ford as Rusty Sabich, the same role Gyllenhaal took on. As reimagined by Kelley, Presumed Innocent will explore obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.
Starz has ordered Fightland, a new eight-episode crime drama series from Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. The series, which is set in the high stakes world of British boxing, follows a disgraced, formerly incarcerated boxing champion who returns to London to seek vengeance against the crime family he thinks betrayed him.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester recommended mysteries and thrillers for Pride Month.
Fiona Cummins chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about Some of Us Are Liars, Saul Anguish, Essex inspiration, sisters, celebrity, and being the best writer you can be.
Authors on the Air welcomed award-winning authors Jeff Ayers and Jon Land, who teamed up to co-author the National Park Thriller series, the latest of which is Cold Burn.
The Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast featured the first chapter of The Language of Bodies by Suzanne DeWitt Hall, read by actor Cady Mejias. In honor of Pride month this one features an LGBTQ+ main character.
On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser investigated what hitchhikers have to do with toxicology; exposure to what animal has been mistaken for a drug of abuse; and what substance costs $40 million dollars per gallon.
