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

In a competitive situation, Fifth Season has landed rights to High Rise, the 2025 thriller novel from bestselling Australian author Gabriel Bergmoser. Bergmoser will pen the feature adaptation, and Patrick Hughes is set to direct, in a reunion with Hidden Pictures and Huge Film following their work on the recent Netflix hit War Machine. Billed as "Die Hard meets The Raid," High Rise follows a rogue ex-cop who tracks down his estranged daughter to a grimy high-rise — only to find she doesn’t want to be rescued, least of all by him. Before either can react, the entire city’s criminal underworld descends on the building with a bounty on his head and no concern for her survival. Floor by floor, a broken father and daughter must fight their way through fifteen stories of killers with only each other to rely on.


Two-time Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Bridesmaids) is in talks to star in Turpentine, a new thriller directed by The Penguin and Mare of Easttown's Craig Zobel. Based on a script by Justin Varava that made the 2024 Black List, Turpentine follows a deadbeat son who hires friends to rob his own parents to pay off a bookie, with disastrous results. Connor Storrie (Heated Rivalry) is also currently in talks to star in the thriller.


Universal Pictures’s upcoming Miami Vice movie officially has its Tubbs and Crocket as well a new title as Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler are set to star in Miami Vice ’85 with Joseph Kosinski directing. The film will be shot for Imax and is slated for a release date of August 6, 2027. The film explores the glamor and corruption of mid-80’s Miami in an all-new version of Miami Vice, inspired by the pilot episode and first season of the landmark Universal Television series that influenced culture and set the style of everything from fashion to filmmaking.

After working together on The Beekeeper and A Working Man, David Ayer and Jason Statham are reteaming on action-thriller John Doe, with Ayer directing from a script by screenwriter Zak Penn (Ready Player One, The Avengers). Statham is set to play the Man With No Name in the film, which will chart the story “of a man with no memory, no past, and no name — and only one face he can’t forget: Eliza. As fragments of his identity return, he discovers he was trained for a mission still in motion and is being hunted by the very people who sent him. With enemies closing in, John must choose between finishing what he started… or protecting the one thing that makes him feel human: love.” 


James Gray's anticipated next film, the gritty crime thriller Paper Tiger, has joined the Palme d’Or race at the Cannes Film Festival, while Neon has snagged North American rights. Written and directed by Gray, the film stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller and follows two brothers who pursue the American Dream, only to become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. As they try to navigate their way through an ever-more dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves and their family brutally terrorized by the Russian “Mafiya.”


TELEVISION/STREAMING

A24 UK won a bidding war to option rights to Nick Brucker’s upcoming heist novel, White Smoke (set to be published in 2027), with plans to adapt it into a TV series. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in the film, which centers on a group of duplicitous con men and thieves determined to steal the Vatican’s most remarkable treasures during a papal conclave. Nick Brucker is the pseudonym of speculative fiction writer Nicholas Binge, whose latest novel Dissolution was hailed as one of the best books of 2025 by the New York Times and is being adapted at Sony Pictures with Eric Heisserer penning the screenplay.


James Mangold is set to co-write, direct, and executive produce a series adaptation of his 1997 movie, Cop Land, from Paramount Television Studios and Miramax Television. The film starred Sylvester Stallone as the sheriff of a small New Jersey town who comes into conflict with the corrupt New York City police officers who live there. The cast also included Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich, and Cathy Moriarty.


The Night Agent  has lined up Bosch star Titus Welliver, Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Li Jun Li (Sinners), and Elizabeth Lail (You) as new series regulars opposite star Gabriel Basso in Season 4 of the Netflix action thriller, which is relocating from New York to Los Angeles for its fourth installment. Welliver is said to be playing Duval, a special DOJ prosecutor; Rhodes is believed to be playing Dom, Peter Sutherland’s (Basso) new partner; while Li is thought to be playing Dom’s wife Min. And, in a reveal The Night Agent fans have long been waiting for, Lail will play Peter’s ex-fiancée Zoe. Dedicating himself to his new career as a Night Agent, Peter swore off romantic relationships after his job had put Rose Larkin, his love interest for the first two seasons, in danger. He may now be thrown back into that arena with his ex-fiancée, Zoe, re-entering his life.


Helena Bonham Carter is departing the latest installment of the HBO drama series, The White Lotus, just over a week after filming began in France. An HBO spokesperson said that, "With filming just underway on season four of ‘The White Lotus,’ it had become apparent that the character which Mike White created for Helena Bonham Carter did not align once on set. The role has subsequently been rethought, is being rewritten and will be recast in the coming weeks." Carter was among the first cast members announced for Season 4 of the Mike White-created murder mystery, following weeks of speculation about her casting. Details on her character remain under wraps, though it was reported to be a central role in Season 4’s plot. The recasting won’t impact production timing, with schedules shifting to focus on the rest of the cast’s stories while recasting takes place.


MASTERPIECE PBS has announced that Marble Hall Murders, the final Susan Ryeland mystery adaptation from best-selling author Anthony Horowitz, will premiere on Sunday, September 6, 2026 at 9/8c. Joining the previously confirmed leads of Lesley Manville (The Crown) as Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan (The Crown) as Atticus Pünd, are Jamie Blackley (The Last Kingdom), Mark Bonnar (Dept. Q), Daniel Cerqueira (A Gentleman in Moscow), Patricia Hodge (A Very English Scandal), Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones), Rupert Penry-Jones (Spooks), Anneika Rose (Line of Duty), Danny Sapani (Killing Eve), and Zubin Varla (Andor). In Marble Hall Murders Editor Susan Ryeland is hired to work on a continuation novel of the Atticus Pünd series, written by a troubled young author (Blackley). When the job leads Susan into another murder case, she unexpectedly finds herself a suspect. PBS MASTERPIECE also announced the premiere date for The Marlow Murder Club Season 3 (starring Samantha Bond) as being Sunday, September 6th.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon spoke with Anthony Horowitz about his new book, A Deadly Episode.


Paul Burke interviewed Matthew Carr on Crime Time FM about his latest historical crime thriller, The Emperor of Seville; Bernardo de Mendoza; sixteenth-century Spain; terrorism; financial thrillers; and white ruff crime.


On Murder Junction, Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with undercover policeman-turned-crime writer Neil Lancaster about his latest Max Craigie novel and the mysterious Scottish grave that led to the series. They also chatted about Neil's previous life guarding nuclear reactors - in the company of dogs.


On Criminal Mischief, DP Lyle spoke with retired detective and story consultant Adam Richardson, who spent seventeen of his twenty-eight years in law enforcement as a detective in California, including assignments to state and federal task forces. He has been helping screenwriters, fiction authors, TV shows, and film productions with the cop stuff in their stories since 2015.


Spencer Quinn discussed his latest novel, Cat on a Hot Tin Woof, with  Barbara Peters for the Poisoned Pen podcast.