THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Oscar winner Nicolas Cage, Alexander Ludwig, Gabriel Basso, and Maria Bakalova are set to star in the true crime movie, The Brand, based on the investigative New Yorker article by journalist David Grann. Directed by Vincent Grashaw (Gangland) and based on a screenplay by Alessandro Camon (The Messenger), The Brand follows Taylor Hartman (Ludwig) as a young lifer taken under the wing of Carter Briggs (Cage), the feared leader of San Quentin’s dominant white prison gang. When authorities attempt to dismantle the gang by transferring its members nationwide, they inadvertently spread its criminal empire beyond prison walls. Taylor rises through the ranks and is forced to choose between his love, Lilly (Bakalova), and his loyalty to his mentor.
Teyonah Parris is set to star opposite Denzel Washington in Amazon MGM Studios’ and United Artists’ untitled thriller with Christopher McQuarrie on board to direct. The film centers on a former police detective (Washington) serving a life sentence who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Granted compassionate release with six months to live, he returns home to the estranged daughter (Parris) he left behind and a grandson he never knew existed. He only wants to make amends and forget his dark past, but that past has not forgotten him. The film, which is penned by Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner, will be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.
Vertical has acquired North American rights to Father Joe, the Venice Film Festival action-thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland, Ever Anderson, Michael Rispoli, and Al Pacino. Written and produced by Luc Besson, the film is directed by Barthélémy Grossmann. The story centers on Father Joe (Sutherland), a man of God unlike any other, who wages a secret war single-handedly busting crime rings and turning the underworld of Manhattan’s Little Italy into his congregation. The cast also includes Fred Melamed, Chris Tardio, and Erik Palladino.
Jeremy Renner will do battle with London gangs in his next project, as he's set to star in the new movie, 12 Bullets. The story follows a mysterious American who must wage a one-man war against rival criminal gangs tearing through London’s supposedly gun-free streets while armed with a single gun. But with only twelve bullets, every shot must count. Sean Ellis (Anthropoid) is directing from a script written by Tim Walker.
Lionsgate has greenlit its anticipated John Wick animated film, with Keanu Reeves inking a deal to reprise his signature role as the iconic assassin in the billion-dollar franchise. Shannon Tindle (Ultraman: Rising, Kubo and the Two Strings) will direct the project, which will go back in time to tell the story of John Wick before the first film, as he completes the Impossible Task in order to free himself from his obligation to the High Table and earn the right to be with the love of his life, Helen.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Chris Pratt is returning as Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander and sniper, James Reece, in Amazon's The Terminal List franchise. The next installment will be adapted from Jack Carr’s novel, Savage Son, the third book in Carr’s series following The Terminal List, which was the basis for Season 1 of the TV series, and True Believer, which was adapted for Season 2. Savage Son is centered on a traitorous CIA officer who has found refuge with the Russian mafia with plans to kill Reece. Meanwhile, Reece is recovering from brain surgery in the Montana wilderness of his youth, learning to live again, putting his life back together with the help of investigative journalist Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) and his longtime friend and SEAL teammate Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper). With an unknown entity inside the U.S. government compromised by Russian intelligence, Reece is forced to recruit a team of former commandos to bring his unique brand of vengeance to the Russian mafia on their home turf, turning the hunters into the hunted.
An ensemble of heavyweight actors has joined the Stieg Larsson adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from Sky, including Jonathan Pryce (Slow Horses) as Henrik Vanger, James D’Arcy (Oppenheimer) as Martin Vanger, Lena Olin (The Housewife) as Isabella Vanger, Camille Cottin (Stillwater) as Erika Berger, Alun Armstrong (The Choral) as Harald Vanger, Jessica Raine (Two Weeks in August) as Cecilia Vanger, and Paul Ready (The Terror) as Birger Vanger. The new cast join David Oyelowo (Silo) and Viola Prettejohn (The Crown), who are playing the lead roles of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander. The long-gestating TV version of the first in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy brings the story into the present day.
Fifty years after the NBC series, Jigsaw John, a new TV show is in the works telling the story of one of L.A.’s greatest detectives through the woman who unexpectedly found herself alongside him. Jigsaw John, whose real name was John St. John, was one of L.A.’s greatest detectives, leading high-profile cases like the Freeway Killer and Black Dahlia. He was with the LAPD for 50 years and ultimately carried its coveted Detective Badge No. 1. In 1982, Jane Howatt was a 35-year-old suburban mother and aspiring writer when she read about St. John receiving the LAPD’s Distinguished Service Medal. With no background in policing or journalism, she picked up the phone and asked one of America’s most formidable homicide detectives if she could write a book about him. What followed was a 13-year journey she took with St. John into the darkest corners of L.A., and Golden Possum Production’s adaptation of her book tells that story.
ITV has commissioned the gripping thriller, Nightswimming, starring BAFTA award-winning actor Lennie James as Matthew, a man who returns to his home in Portugal where he was convicted of the brutal murder of his family years earlier. Weaving between past and present, Nightswimming picks apart the events that led up to the devastating night when Matthew's wife and two teenage sons were brutally attacked in their beachfront home while Matthew was performing his nightly ritual, swimming in the ocean. In the present, Matthew mounts his own investigation into the crime that tore his life apart, confronting old friends, revisiting broken relationships, and interrogating the people who built the case against him. But as he slowly unravels what happened a decade before, he discovers it was someone much closer to home who helped to put him away.
Prime Video has released some first look images and a teaser trailer for Criminal, the upcoming series that features an “interlocking universe” of crime stories based on the graphic novels created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The drama follows two friends who grew up in a life of crime. While one, Leo Patterson (Charlie Hunnam) tries to fight his way out of the world of crime, the other, Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper), is desperate to follow in the footsteps of his father, a legendary outlaw. And when Ricky’s older brother Tracy (Luke Evans) returns home from the Army, their tragic family history comes home with him. Drawn into their orbit are Greta (Adria Arjona), a sharp-tongued car thief from Leo’s past, and Mallory (Emilia Clarke), Ricky’s girlfriend, who fears what he’ll do to get by. The series also stars Richard Jenkins, Kadeem Hardison, John Hawkes, and Logan Browning. Prime Video has the series broken up into two parts, each containing four episodes. Criminal: Part 1 "Coward" arrives on January 13th, 2027. Criminal: Part 2 "Lawless" hits the streamer on January 27th.
Beef creator Lee Sung Jin has launched Lila Pictures and is developing two series for Netflix, including Citizen’s Arrest. The drama was created by Gene Hong, a producer on Beef, who also executive produced other series including Magnum P.I. Citizen’s Arrest follows two longtime friends and neighbors whose obsession with solving a local crime becomes an escape from the private crises neither is ready to face.
The Rockford Files, NBC‘s upcoming reboot of the 1970s series, is getting a special preview on January 2, immediately following the network’s NFL telecast. The crime drama starring David Boreanaz will have its time slot premiere on Thursday, January 7, at 8 pm ET/PT. In the drama, a contemporary update on the classic series, James Rockford (Boreanaz), newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, 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 crosshairs of both local police and organized crime. Michaela McManus, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Jacki Weaver also star.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
Peter James chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new Roy Grace crime thriller, Dead in Three Two One; Brighton crime central; life in a hotel, and more.
On the Spybrary podcast, Nick Harkaway joined Spybrary's Head of Fiction, Paul Burke, to discuss his new George Smiley novel, The Taper Man, Nick’s second novel set in John le Carré’s Circus cycle and the follow-up to Karla’s Choice.
On the latest Murder Junction, thriller writer Louise Candlish stopped by to discuss her latest novel, A Knock at the Door.
The latest episode of the Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with international banking expert and crime fiction writer Carl Vonderau.
The Sisters in Crime podcast welcomed Victoria Gilbert, who turned her early obsession with books into a dual career as a librarian and author. Retired from her position as a library director, she now works full-time as an author, writing the Blue Ridge Library Mystery series, the Booklover’s B&B Mystery series, the Hunter and Clewe traditional mystery series, and the Campus Sleuth mystery series.
On the latest Pick Your Poison podcast: A 30-year-old chemistry PhD candidate develops progressive difficulty walking and speaking months after a seemingly minor laboratory incident. His stroke evaluation, MRI, and lumbar puncture reveal nothing. What toxic exposure can hide for months, cross ordinary laboratory protection, and turn only a few drops into a fatal neurological mystery?
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