THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Keanu Reeves is set to star in Maelstrom, a new Netflix action film from Carry-On‘s Jaume Collet-Serra, taking over the lead from Reacher‘s Alan Ritchson, who exited the project for undisclosed reasons. In Maelstrom, a Federal Marshal assigned to protect the fiancée of an arms dealer turned witness must defend her through one brutal night as a hurricane cuts off communication, strands them without reinforcements, and unleashes the dealer’s men on their safe house. The current draft of the script is by Mark Bianculli; the first draft was by the late Gregory Fitzpatrick. The project has been working its way through the system for many years, dating all the way back to a spec at Warner Brothers in 1993.
Emmy-nominated This is Us star Chris Sullivan has joined Jeremy Holm (House of Cards, Mr. Robot) on the thriller Tessellation as production gets underway in Illinois. The feature directorial debut of screenwriter Michael Moreci follows disgraced puzzle champion and CIA codebreaker Anton (Holm) who is drawn into a conspiracy that forces him to confront the one code he could never crack: the reason his wife had to die. The cast also features Stephen Louis Grush (The Righteous Gemstones) and Winter Williams (Albanian Gangster).
Stoic is launching world sales on Paradise Disturbed, which will see Mindhunter star Holt McCallany return to the serial killer genre. The film is directed by James Khanlarian (The Ghost Trap) and based on the novel by James Robert Fuller. The story follows retired legendary investigator Ron Lee (McCallany), who is pulled back into the dark world he had walked away from when a series of ritualistic murders target him. A tense cat-and-mouse game unfolds as Ron matches wits with a brilliant and sadistic killer who is waiting to unleash their final masterpiece in this game of death. Also starring are Zak Steiner (Euphoria), Lily Donoghue (The Summer I Turned Pretty), and Xander Berkeley (Apollo 13).
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Amazon MGM Studios is developing a series adaptation of The Courier, a new novel from bestselling thriller author Melinda Leigh. A high-stakes international thriller, the series will follow a diplomatic courier named Daisy, who finds herself framed for a plane explosion meant to kill her and cover up a stolen package. Forced to go on the run across Europe to clear her name, Daisy must stay hidden, uncover what was taken, and find out why it was worth her life.
NBC is eyeing a fresh spin on a literary classic, with a partially gender-swapped police procedural take on The Great Gatsby. The series, titled Gatsby, is billed as a modern-day police procedural about Det. Jay Gatsby, a devilishly charming investigator with a con-man’s gift for reading human behavior, and decorated New York State Police Det. Nicole “Nicky” Carraway, who was born to be a cop but dreams of becoming a writer. The gender-swapped character here is Nicky, a female counterpart to bond salesman Nick Carraway, who as neighbor to enigmatic self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby, serves as narrator to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel.
Mike Diliberti is developing a new detective drama series titled Worth for NBC and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. The series revolves around decorated Army Ranger Will Worth, a brash war hero turned bestselling author and pop-culture celebrity who stops coasting on his fame when he returns home to his old job as a detective in Nashville. Other executive producers on the project include Jake Coburn, whose Gatsby police procedural for NBC was just announced, and Jack Carr, the bestselling author whose novel The Terminal List inspired Prime Video’s series starring Chris Pratt.
Netflix has renewed the Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell-led political thriller, The Diplomat, for Season 5, two weeks after its season four premiere. The fourth season heavily featured Allison Janney, who plays President Grace Penn, and Bradley Whitford, who plays her husband Todd as they figure out how to manage the fallout of an assassination attempt of the U.S. President on British soil, while handling the issue of a felled Russian warship. The drama also stars Ato Essandoh, who plays Stuart Hayford, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy, Ali Ahn, who plays Eidra Park, CIA London Station Chief, and Nana Mensah who plays White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah.
The upcoming 20th season of Criminal Minds: Evolution will be the series’ last on Paramount+. Season 20, which will premiere in 2027, wrapped production earlier this fall, so it will not give fans a proper ending, withlongtime Criminal Minds executive producer/showrunner Erica Messer indicating the cancellation decision was sudden and unexpected. This marks the first official cancellation for the new Paramount+ leadership team after the Discovery/Warner Brothers merger.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
On Crime Time FM, David McCloskey chatted with Paul Burke about his new spy thriller London Station, avoiding the polemic but hitting the geopolitical; narcissism and humor, and more.
The Cozy Alchemy podcast spoke with Melinda Mullet, author of A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder, about the joy of costumes, cozy (and witchy) sleep stories, ghost encounters, and more.
Elle Hartford, author of the award-winning Alchemical Tales series that blend cozy mystery with cozy fantasy, stopped by the Sisters in Crime podcast.
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