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
 
Benjamin Bratt (Andor) has signed on to star alongside Viola Davis and Jason Clark in Ally Clark, the new thriller from Amazon MGM Studios. The film will take viewers from the towering skyscrapers of New York City to the sweltering bayous of Louisiana and the icy peaks of Alaska, following investigator Ally Clark (Davis) as she embarks on a perilous inquiry into an international conglomerate following the suspicious death of a close friend. Phillip Noyce is directing from a script by Jose Ruisanchez and Irwin Winkler.


Netflix announced a new feature film, The Cackling of the Dodos, which will be directed by Jason Bateman (Ozark). The project follows small-town farmer George, who has a truly terrible day when he discovers a corpse chilling out in a grain bin and he is unwittingly forced into a chaotic, sloppy cover-up by his boss Denny. Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Woody Harrelson (The People vs. Larry Flynt) will star in the movie, which is based on an original screenplay by novelist Rye Curtis (Kingdomtide).


Prime Video has unveiled a teaser for the sequel movie, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War, in which the everyday hero played by John Krasinski returns to the world of espionage for what its creators have called his “most personal and dangerous mission yet.” He is joined in the feature by new cast member Sienna Miller. Operating in real time with lives on the line and the threat escalating at every turn, Jack reunites with battle-tested CIA operative Mike November (Michael Kelly) and former CIA boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce). Their combined experience is the only edge they have against an enemy who knows their every move. Backed by an unlikely new partner – razor-sharp MI6 officer Emma Marlowe (Miller) – Jack and the team navigate a treacherous web of betrayal, facing a past they thought was long put to rest.


Searchlight Pictures has released the trailer for Wild Horse Nine, the latest film from Oscar winner Martin McDonagh. Per the official logline, "shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris and Lee are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ. Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone’s trust to this remote island paradise sideways." John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell lead the cast as CIA agents Chris and Lee, respectively, while Steve Buscemi plays their bureau chief. Other cast members include Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

South Africa’s International Emmy-nominated production house Both Worlds and Paris-based Paradoxal have entered into an exclusive rights agreement with bestselling South African author Deon Meyer to develop two of his most celebrated properties as premium TV series. Umzingeli (The Hunter) is a contemporary, multi-territorial spy thriller centered on Thobela "Tiny" Mpayipheli, a KGB- and Stasi-trained assassin whose character spans four of Meyer’s novels. Now living under a false identity in Bordeaux, he’s put his past behind him — or so he believes. Noah Stollman (Fauda, Our Boys) is attached as lead writer and showrunner. The other project is Dead at Daybreak, an adaptation of Meyer’s breakthrough novel and winner of the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policère. A noir series set in Cape Town in 1996, at the cross-section of the old South Africa and the new, it centers on Zatopek van Heerden, a former cop turned private investigator — a man trying to rebuild himself in a country doing the same.

James McAvoy is leading a Sky adaptation of comedian Frankie Boyle’s novel, Meantime. McAvoy is joined by Benedict Wong, Mark Bonnar, and Christopher Eccleston in the project, which follows Felix McAveety (McAvoy), a full-time addict whose best friend is found murdered in a Glasgow park, leaving him as the police’s most convenient suspect. In a fog of intoxication and paranoia, Felix sets out to clear his name, enlisting the help of an aging former Detective Inspector turned crime novelist (Josette Simon) and a chaotic friend (Jamie Michie).

Universal Television has optioned Lights Out, the bestselling sports thriller by former national TV reporter-turned-author Elise Hart Kipness, for development as a series. The story follows a former Olympic athlete and sports reporter who isn’t sure how much more tumultuous her life can get. She’s been put on temporary leave from her job, then NBA superstar Kurt Robbins is killed, and the prime suspect in his murder is none other than his wife…and Kate’s best friend. Kate knows that Yvette’s marriage wasn’t exactly stable, but her friend is no murderer, and Kate is determined to prove it with her own investigation. While she tries to salvage Yvette’s life, Kate’s own personal and professional lives continue to unravel—and then her estranged father suddenly reenters her life as a detective assigned to Kurt’s homicide case.

Krysten Ritter has teamed with writer-producer Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant, Dead Boy Detectives) and Berlanti Productions for Retreat, a series adaptation of her novel of the same name. Retreat is an ongoing hourlong darkly comedic thriller featuring Liz Dawson (the role intended for Ritter) — a chameleon-like grifter who is always in control — until she’s cornered into assuming the identity of a wealthy dead woman in Punta Mita, Mexico. Suddenly, Liz finds herself in the middle of a sun-bleached Hitchcockian mystery, desperate to keep up her act. And then people start dying.

Lang Fisher (The Four Seasons, Never Have I Ever) is currently in development on a TV adaptation of the Elle Cosimano novel, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, at Peacock. The story follows a struggling novelist and single mom, on the verge of losing custody of her kids, who is mistaken for an assassin and offered life-changing money for one kill. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first book in Cosimano’s popular book series, “Finlay Donovan Mysteries,” which has a total of six books, with a seventh due to hit stores this month.


Prime Video has renewed the hit thriller series Cross for an eight-episode third season. Created by Ben Watkins and based on James Patterson’s bestselling novels, Cross stars Aldis Hodge as the brilliant and complex detective Alex Cross. Season 3 will continue to expand the high-stakes world of the iconic character, according to Prime. In addition to Hodge, Matthew Lillard, Isaiah Mustafa and Alona Tal, Season 2 cast includes Jeanine Mason and Wes Chatham, alongside Samantha Walkes, Juanita Jennings, Caleb Elijah, Melody Hurd, and Johnny Ray Gill.


Production has begun on Season 5 of Netflix‘s The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the books by Michael Conelly, with eight new recurring stars: Diane Guerrero (Doom Patrol) as Natalia, Teresa Maria (Narcos Mexico) as Tina Perez, Richard Cabral (Mayans) as Benny Perez, Steve Howey (Shameless) as Brian Cunningham, Patty Guggenheim (Twisted Metal) as Allison Finch, Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law) as Richard Finch, Chris Diamantopoulos (The Sticky) as Frank Silver, and Iker Garcia (The Pitt) as Rafa Wagner. Additionally, Cobie Smulders has been promoted to series regular. In Season 5 of The Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller’s world is upended when the half-sister he never knew existed, Emi (Smulders), comes to him with a plea to help free a wrongfully convicted woman. In a season defined by blood ties and buried secrets, Mickey takes on a grueling habeas petition to overturn a six-year-old murder conviction, but the deeper he digs, the more nefarious the forces arrayed against him become.


Lorenza Izzo (Hacks) is set as a lead opposite Taylor Schilling and Michiel Huisman in NBC‘s crime drama pilot, What The Dead Know, from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. Written by Beth Rinehart, the procedural is based on former New York City death investigator Barbara Butcher’s memoir of the same name. What the Dead Know centers on highly intelligent, hyper-vigilant death Investigator Ava Ledger (Schilling) as she teams with the NYPD to solve their toughest cases. Izzo will play Det. Danielle Castillo, a computer crimes specialist with the NYPD who has recently been reassigned to homicide. Huisman portrays William Grant, an experienced NYPD homicide detective who thinks justice is simple – black and white.


Felix Solis (The Rookie, Ozark) is the latest to join the cast of NBC‘s The Rockford Files reboot pilot, which also includes the previously announced cast led by David Boreanaz, and also includes Michaela McManus and Jacki Weaver. The project is a contemporary update on the classic series of the same name. Newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford (Boreanaz) returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles. It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the cross-hairs of both local police and organized crime. Solis will play Rockford’s best friend, Nitty, who turned his life around and became a successful South L.A. defense attorney. Weaver plays Rockford’s longtime trailer park neighbor; she’s a tough, outspoken activist and think-tank analyst. McManus plays Kate, an East Hollywood detective whose romantic relationship with Rockford got complicated after he publicly accused fellow officers of framing him.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

DP Lyle and Kathleen Antrim interviewed best-selling author Adam Plantinga on the Get to Know podcast about his life, career, and his latest book which is nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel.


Murder Junction hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee welcomed  bestselling thriller writer Sabine Durrant to discuss her latest novel Dead Heat, and her delight in setting her murder thrillers in sun-soaked destinations.


Samantha Dooey-Miles chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her debut thriller, Under the Hammer; satire; the housing crisis; daytime TV; para-social relationships; marketing; stalkers; rage and humor.

NPR's Book of the Day podcast featured two new murder mystery novels that let readers into hidden worlds: one underground (Ruby Falls by Gin Phillips) and the other among the wives of serial killers (The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives by Lizzie Pook).


Debbi Mack's latest guest on the Crime Cafe podcast was Graciela Kenig, discussing her debut novel, The Plans They Made.


Michael Frost Beckner joined Bruce Dravis on the Spybrary podcast to unpack Kaleidoscope; the Spy Game universe; CIA family legacies; his influences; moral ambiguity; and the hidden machinery of intelligence.


In the latest episode of Meet the Thriller Author, Alan Petersen interviewed Chad Boudreaux, a former U.S. Department of Justice insider turned thriller novelist, including his latest novel, Mob Justice: A Scavenger Hunt Thriller, which takes readers into the modern Chicago mafia.


On the Poisoned Pen podcast, host John Charles interviewed two different authors, Mark Stevens discussing Two Truths and a Lie, and Megan Chance talking about her latest, The Vermillion Sea.