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

The Arena production studio has preemptively acquired a Keanu Reeves-led adaptation of Oliver Lowe‘s upcoming novel, Kill Current: A Jon Hendricks Thriller. The book is the first installment in a forthcoming thriller series centered on Jon Hendricks, a burned-out CIA officer who is pulled back in to avenge the protégé he trained and lost. Offering a globe-spanning, edge-of-your-seat action thriller about shifting alliances and the race for the world’s most precious and valuable assets, the first novel from Lowe is slated for publication by Zando in May 2027.

Paul Feig (The Housemaid) is potentially gearing up for a new take on The Italian Job. The filmmaker is in early talks with Paramount Pictures to direct a follow-up film to the studio’s 2003 action hit that starred Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, and Jason Statham, and is looking for a writer for the project. F. Gary Gray’s 2003 heist film was inspired by 1969’s original The Italian Job that starred Michael Caine. The 2003 version centered on Wahlberg as Charlie Croker, a master thief who sets out on a revenge mission that involves rounding up his motley team to track down a cache of gold. 

Black Label Media has added Jason Momoa, Tenoch Huerta, Adria Arjona, and Kiefer Sutherland to the cast of its thriller, Copperhead, starring Miles Teller, although character details are being kept under wraps for the new hires. Written by Chad Feehan and J. Todd Scott, Copperhead‘s plot is thrust in motion when an undercover drug deal explodes into violence in West Texas. A veteran detective is then forced to team with a young federal agent to unravel the conspiracy within their elite task force. The movie was set to begin filming in Oklahoma in late summer.

Laura Linney is set to star alongside Michael Keaton and Morgan Freeman in Rode to Ruin, the Western thriller that Keaton will also direct. Set in the Old West, the thriller follows a retired U.S. Marshal (Keaton) whose 40-year search for his wife’s killer leads him to an aging outlaw losing his memory (Freeman), and to a buried truth neither man may survive. Linney’s character, Hedda Tessman, is "a frontier trader who works the territory alone, all grit and composure, and the one person the aging outlaw has allowed close in years. When violence rides in on both men, she proves to be the reckoning neither of them saw coming."


Paramount Pictures is said to be developing a film version of the '60s TV series Hawaii Five-O, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day helmer Destin Daniel Cretton set to direct and Chris Bremner (Bad Boys for Life) writing the script with Noah Oppenheim (Jackie). Created by Leonard Freeman, the 1968-80 CBS series starred Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, the no-nonsense lawman who headed a state police task force in Hawaii. There have been previous attempts to adapt the show into a film, but lawsuits with CBS and rights issues instead led to the hit 2010-20 CBS TV series remake that starred Alex Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim, and Grace Park.


Fresh off his casting as Cyclops in Marvel’s new X-Men movie, Kit Connor has inked a deal to star opposite Diana Silvers (Booksmart) in PRƎPPY, a true-crime film to be directed by Janicza Bravo. Based on an original screenplay by David Levine and Rose Lichter-Marck, PRƎPPY explores events in the summer of 1986 leading to the murder of recent high school graduate Jennifer Levin at the hands of Robert Chambers, a former Manhattan private-school student, in New York’s Central Park. The shocking crime — in which Chambers was dubbed the “Preppy Killer” — captivated a generation and put privilege, class, and sex on trial.   

Miramax is developing a feature adaptation of Everything We Never Said, the YA romantic thriller novel from Sloan Harlow, with Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer aboard to adapt the screenplay. Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 2024, Everything We Never Said follows Ella Graham, who, in the wake of her best friend Hayley’s death, finds herself falling for Hayley’s boyfriend, Sawyer. But when Ella sorts through her late friend’s belongings and uncovers her diary, she’s rattled by the secrets Hayley kept and learns she might be walking into something much darker than she realized.

 
TELEVISION/STREAMING

AMC and French broadcaster Canal+ have greenlit a series based on the iconic Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves surf heist thriller, Point Break. The TV series is set in the present day, over thirty years after the events of the film, and centered on a new heist crew with ties to the notorious Ex-Presidents gang, while the FBI must rely on a mysterious ex-pro surfer with a checkered past to infiltrate them. The eight-part series will go into production early next year. The original movie, which was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by W. Peter Iliff, starred Reeves as rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah, who infiltrates the Ex-Presidents, a gang of Southern California surfers led by Bodhi (Swayze), who wear masks of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon B. Johnson as they rob banks.


Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead franchise) is the latest to join the series-regular cast of Apple TV‘s Disavowed, the upcoming action-thriller created by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Uncharted). Details regarding who Reedus will play are under wraps for now. Disavowed follows legendary CIA Case Officer Brad Griffin (James Marsden), who is abruptly fired in the middle of a global hunt for an elusive assassin responsible for killing his colleague. Disgraced and outcast from the world of intelligence, all bets are off when Brad decides to go after the $15 million federal bounty on the assassin’s head. Since the series has yet to go into production, no premiere date has yet been announced, although it's unlikely to premiere before 2027.


The BBC revealed first-look photos for Tall Tales & Murder, a dark comedic drama adapted from the novels by Caimh McDonnell. The story mixes a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style adventure with an 8th Century tall tale of monks, Vikings, buried treasure, and a priceless holy book. The series stars Ella-Lily Hyland, Casey Walsh, Philippa Dunne, Brian Doherty, Aisling O'Sullivan, Aidan Gillen, and Packy Lee. The nine-part series premieres September 27 on BBC One Northern Ireland and later in the fall on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.


Netflix finally announced the premiere date of November 5 for the second season of the espionage thriller, Black Doves, starring Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire. Season 2 sees Helen (Knightley) still betraying her nation’s secret to the covert organization she serves, known as the Black Doves. After last Christmas’s misadventures, though, and her husband Wallace’s (Andrew Buchan) preparations to become Prime Minister, Helen’s carving an even more treacherous path. Meanwhile, Helen’s handler, Mrs. Reed (Lancashire), is ensnared in a plot to undermine her position in the Black Doves, and Helen is reunited with her best friend, Sam (Whishaw). As the pals search for answers, their loyalties are tested, and trust is shattered as they fight to protect their loved ones.

The Gemma Arterton-led spy drama Secret Service has landed a U.S. home and will stream on MGM+ after the streamer picked up rights for North America, Latin America, and Italy. The five-part series is based on a book by Tom Bradby, a news anchor who hosts the British broadcaster’s News At Ten. The drama stars Arterton as senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, who's involved in a covert investigation and uncovers evidence a high-ranking UK politician may be working as a Russian asset. Rafe Spall and Alex Kingston also star alongside Mark Stanley, Roger Allam, Amaka Okafor, Aoife Hinds, Avi Nash, Alma Prelec and Khalid Abdalla. The premiere date has not yet been announced.


The BBC has released the first trailer for season 4 of Blue Lights. Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster, and Annie Conlon are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control. Meanwhile, the murder trial of Gerry Cliff exposes a dangerous and long-buried secret that leads to chaos both inside the police and across the criminal underworld. The BAFTA-winning crime drama returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer in autumn 2026, with a six-episode fourth series. For viewers in the United States, Blue Lights Season 4 is expected to stream on BritBox.


CBS released first-look photos for NCIS: Origins Season 3, which will see the return of Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs for a season-long arc beginning with the show’s premiere on Tuesday, October 6. Fans will reunite with Gibbs in the premiere episode titled “Don’t You Forget About Me.” Set in the present day, ghosts from the past of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Harmon) finally catch up to him, shattering his peaceful retirement in Alaska. In 1992, the team races to rescue a kidnapped Randy (Caleb Foote) while Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Lala (Mariel Molino) deal with the aftermath of their kiss. 

The cozy crime franchise, Trivia Night Mysteries, is expanding and has wrapped production on its second and third installments, Fit for a Murder and A Fatal Lesson. The Trivia Night Mysteries series follows freelance fact-checker and team trivia champion Sara Keane (played by Morgan Bradley), whose exceptional trivia knowledge and instinct for finding the right answer make her an unlikely but highly effective amateur detective. She works closely with charming, new-to-town lawyer Reid Taggart (Alex Trumble), who becomes her increasingly close partner in crime-solving. The first movie in the franchise, Trivia Night Mysteries: A Question of Murder, makes its TV and streaming premiere in 2027. You can view a trailer via this link.


The Behavioral Analysis Unit will have run-ins with two familiar faces in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution. Wayne Brady and Selma Blair are both set to guest star in the eighth episode of Season 20 when the BAU investigates a series of murders in Los Angeles targeting people tied to the skincare industry. Starring Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Zach Gilford, and RJ Hatanaka with Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster, Criminal Minds: Evolution follows the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, a team of profilers tasked with analyzing and capturing the country’s most dangerous criminals, before they strike again.


Starz has released the trailer for the S.W.A.T. spinoff, Exiles, ahead of its September 25 premiere. Shemar Moore returns from the mothership to reprise his role as LAPD S.W.A.T. Sergeant Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson. S.W.A.T. Exiles revolves around Moore’s Hondo, who spent his career proving that discipline and loyalty can be built, not just born. But after a botched raid ends in the death of a young operator Nico Reyes, Hondo is forced to walk away from the only life he’s known. Until his old commanding officer, Robert Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit), offers him one last shot at redemption: start up a brand-new S.W.A.T. unit, built from LA’s most talented rejects.

Channel 4 has released the first trailer for Pierre, a new six-part crime drama starring Sherwood's David Harewood as the title character, a West London duty solicitor and a force of nature: charming and funny, juggling the pressures of his job, a fragile personal life and just keeping his head above water financially. His resilience is tested when he begins investigating the suspicious death of a young black client whom the police portray as a criminal, leading Pierre to a chilling web of institutional corruption.

ITV confirmed the air date for the new crime drama, The Blame, which is based on the novel of the same name by Charlotte Langley, for September 20th. The story follows DI Emma Crane (Michelle Keegan) and DI Tom Radley (Douglas Booth), who dig deeper into a tragic death that sends shockwaves through the town of Wakestead, only to have their murder inquiry soon spiraling into a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups, and moral compromise. As the clock ticks and trust fractures, Crane must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team. The series also stars Ian Hart (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), Nathan Mensah, Nigel Boyle (Peaky Blinders), Joe Armstrong (Black Mirror), Matilda Freeman (How to Get to Heaven from Belfast), Gavin Spokes (House of the Dragon), Josh Bolt (Masters of the Air), and Ceallach Spellman (Cheaters).


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO/SHORTS

An unusual short-form scripted format from New Zealand is headed to MIPCOM. Alibi is a seven-part, 15-minutes-per-episode crime series in which the same story is told from multiple perspectives. The story is set in the fictional town of Awatahi in New Zealand, where 17-year-old Jodie Hunter is found dead. The six main suspects then give then versions of events to provide their alibi, with each followed over an episode. The first six episodes can be watched in any order, with the seventh and final one revealing the truth. The ensemble cast includes Madeleine Adams (Dealbreakers), Joel Tobeck (Avatar: Fire and Ice), Xavier Horan (Westside) and Melanie Vallejo (All Her Fault).


Criminal Mischief host DP Lyle MD had a fascinating discussion of violent crime and serial killers with Dr. Adam Lankford, a criminologist with expertise on mass shootings and targeted violence. His findings have been cited by The White House, by every major media outlet in the United States, and by international media from over 40 countries.


On Spybrary, Shane Whaley was joined by Swedish historian and author Johan Wennström to uncover the extraordinary story of Sweden’s secret Stay Behind resistance network — a clandestine organization created in 1949 to operate behind enemy lines in the event of a Soviet invasion — which he details in his new book, The Stay Behinds: Sweden's Cold War Guardians.


THEATRE

Alex Winter, who costarred with his old Bill & Ted partner Keanu Reeves last year in the Broadway revival of Waiting For Godot, will return to the New York stage next year in an Off Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s 1964 play, Incident at Vichy. Winter will both star in and produce the one-act play, expected to open in spring 2027. Kanika Asavari Vaish will direct, with additional casting, production dates and venue to be announced. First staged on Broadway in 1964 with Harold Clurman directing a cast that included Hal Holbrook and Tony Lo Bianco, Incident at Vichy was set in 1942 and focused on a group of men undergoing “racial inspection” by German military officers and Vichy French police and examines how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust with so little resistance.