B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 159
July 2, 2018
Media Murder for Monday
Monday greetings to all and hope you enjoy the latest roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN
The upcoming thriller novel The Whisper Man has been optioned for film as part of a major Hollywood deal. The novel from an anonymous author, who writes under a pseudonym "Alex North," has been snapped up by the production company AGBO, founded by Emmy award-winning directors Anthony and Joe Russo, of various Marvel superhero films and Arrested Development. The plot centers around a grieving father and his seven-year-old son, who move to the quiet town of Featherbank for a fresh start. But 15 years ago Featherbank was stalked by a serial killer, known as the "Whisper Man." The killer was finally caught and imprisoned, but there were always rumors he had an accomplice while the one link between victims is that in the days leading up to their disappearances, each claimed to have heard a whispering at their window.
20th Century Fox announced the premiere dates for two crime dramas, The Woman In The Window (October 4, 2019) and Bad Times At The El Royale (October 12, 2018). Amy Adams stars in The Woman in the Window, an adaptation of A.J. Finn’s hit Hitchcockian-style novel about an agorophobic child psychologist with a drinking problem who one day witnesses a crime take place in the house across the park; and Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, Cynthia Erivo, and Dakota Johnson star in the mystery-thriller Bad Times, where seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Spectrum/Charter Communications has chosen its first scripted series to launch a new lineup of original programming, and it's a project NBC turned down: Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba's cop drama, L.A's Finest. The Bad Boys spin-off series will follow Burnett (Union) as she move to Los Angeles and joins the LAPD, where she's partnered with a Nancy McKenna (Alba), a single mother who envies Burnett's freedom. L.A's Finest is set to premiere in 2019 exclusively on Spectrum.
Netflix has made a deal with Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg, and the Robert B. Parker estate to bring back for a potential series of feature films Spenser, the poetry-spouting, wisecracking former boxer-turned Boston P.I. made famous in 40 novels by Parker (as well as a TV series starring Robert Urich). The first film will be an adaptation of Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, one of the eight Spenser mystery novels written by Ace Atkins, who took over the series after Parker died in 2010. The movie will differ from the novel, in that it begins with Spenser emerging from a prison stretch and stripped of his private investigator license, where he gets pulled back into the underbelly of the Boston crime world when he uncovers the truth about a sensational murder and the twisted conspiracy behind it.
Bryncoed Productions has optioned TV rights to Ian Sansom’s The County Guides series of novels. So far four such novels have been published, but the series is expected to span forty-four books by the time it is finished. The adaptation, which will be known as The County Guides To Murder, will be a multi-part television series, with Steve Thompson (Sherlock, Doctor Who) on-board to to adapt the books. The series follows the idiosyncratic Swanton Morley, a/k/a the People’s Professor, who is compiling a series of guides of the counties of England. Unfortunately, mysterious murders keep getting in the way of his academic endeavors.
Recently, it was announced that James Norton would be leaving the ITV period mystery Grantchester. Norton has played Vicar Sidney Chambers for the first three seasons of the show and will reprise that role in the upcoming fourth season, his last. Now, the network has hired Norton's replacement, Tom Brittney, who will play Will Davenport, Grantchester's new, young parish priest who "channels his boundless energy into a quest for social justice" and whose "own troubled past is unearthed." He will star alongside Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, once again played by Robson Green.
Newcomer Stella Baker has been set as a series regular opposite Lily Rabe, Amy Brenneman and Hamish Linklater in TNT’s thriller drama series Tell Me Your Secrets. Created and written by Harriet Warner (Call the Midwife), the project is described as an intense, morally complex thriller revolving around a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: Emma (Rabe) is a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer; John (Linklater) is a former serial predator desperate to find redemption; and Mary (Brenneman) is a grieving mother obsessed with finding her missing daughter, Theresa (Baker). As each of them is pushed to the edge, the truth about their pasts and motives grows ever murkier, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator. Xavier Samuel, Enrique Murciano, Chiara Aurelia, Ashley Madekwe and Bryant Tardy co-star.
The FX drama Trust is heading to the BBC after Sky dropped the Donald Sutherland-starring U.S. acquisition ahead of its debut in the UK. The series tells the story of the true-life kidnapping of the heir to billionaire John Paul Getty and was created by Simon Beaufoy and executive produced by Danny Boyle, Beaufoy and Christian Colson, with Boyle directing the first three episodes.
Entertainment Weekly profiled author Megan Abbott and wondered if she's Hollywood's next big novelist. The award-winning author has three projects currently in development: a pilot based on her popular novel Dare Me, in production at USA where it's being helmed by director Steph Green (The Americans); You Will Know Me, her 2016 murder mystery set at a gymnastics tournament (optioned directly by AMC); and Give Me Your Hand, which explores the brutal science-academic community, is being developed by Skydance Media and TV-megaproducer Marti Noxon (Dietland, HBO’s star-studded Sharp Objects).
Hugo Speer (The Musketeers, Father Brown) and Sharon Small (Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Trust Me) are set to star in the streaming service Acorn’s first straight-to-series commission. The pair are joined by EastEnders actor Bailey Patrick and newcomer Tori Allen-Martin in the five-part drama, which will tell the story of a team of top murder detectives and be shot like a documentary. Each episode will feature a different murder in addition to a serialized story involving the lead detective’s missing wife. Speer stars as Detective Inspector David Bradford, who comes back to work after his wife goes missing and there are still no significant leads on her case. Small will play ambitious Detective Sergeant Vivienne Cole, who has been running the murder team in David’s absence and is frustrated by David’s approach to their investigations.
Fox announced the fall premiere dates for is new and returning programs, including 9-1-1 on September 23 and Lethal Weapon on September 25.
If you want to know which of your favorite shows from last season have been renewed or canceled, here's a handy list that includes not only the broadcast and cable networks but also several live-streaming services, as well.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Star Chamber co-hosts Michael West, Daniel Dark, and Stephen Zimmer welcomed dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic/military thriller author Peter Welmerink and award-winning crime fiction author Linda Sands for a discussion on writing, the life of writers, their own works, various genres, and a whole lot more.
On The Men Who Explain Miracles podcast, Detection Club President Martin Edwards talks about locked-room mysteries such as Murder of a Lady (1931) by Anthony Wynne and other titles in the British Library Crime Classics series for which he serves as a consultant. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist)
Author Michael Robotham stopped by ABC News Australia for a chat about his writing and latest projects, as well as one profound personal regret: that he never received his father’s praise.
Authors on the Air host Tina Susedik welcomed Simas to Your Book Garden to talk about her up-coming release, Quilted to Die, the fourth book in her Grace Gabbiano Mystery series.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Vest featured a special extended interview with Mark Billingham to talk about his new novel The Killing Habit, Bill Oddie, King Kitten, Theakstons Crime Festival, and much more.
Writer Types spoke with authors Joe Clifford (the Jay Porter series), Lisa Brackmann (the Ellie McEnroe series) and had an exclusive sneak peek at the new true crime podcast, The Long Dance, from Eryk Pruitt.
Spybrary was joined by Jeremy Duns to discuss the myths surrounding one of the Cold War's greatest spy operations and potentially it's greatest spy, Oleg Penkovsky.
THEATER
The Milton Keynes Theatre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire in the UK is staging Love From A Stranger July 3 to 7, a play written by Agatha Christie (with Frank Vosper) and one of Dame Agatha's less well known pieces. Directed by Lucy Bailey, the play tells the story of Cecily Harrington who is swept off her feet by a handsome and charming stranger. She recklessly abandons her old life to settle in the remote and blissful surroundings of a country cottage. However, her newfound love is not all that he seems. Justin Avoth will play the role of Nigel Lawrence and Cecily Harrington is played by Helen Bradbury.
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June 30, 2018
June 29, 2018
FFB: Twelve Women Detective Stories
Oxford University Press put out a series of "twelve" anthologies in the 1990s, including Twelve American Detective Stories (1997), Twelve English Detective Stories (1998), and Twelve American Crime Stories (1998). The only one devoted to female protagonists is Twelve Women Detective Stories, also published in 1988, and edited by Laura Marcus (of Birkbeck College, London), with assistance from Chris Willis. Interestingly, over half of the writers were male and date from the late 19th to early 20th centuries when women detectives came into fashion. The heroines in these stories range from a housekeeper to a secretary, and a pawn-broker in a seedy area of Victorian London to Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk of Scotland Yard.
Arranged in roughly chronological order, the stories included are
W. S. Hayward's "The Mysterious Countess" (1864)
Catherine Louisa Pirkis's "Drawn Daggers" (1893)
Fergus Hume's "The First Customer and The Florentine Dante" (1897)
Grant Allen's "The Adventure of the Cantankerous Old Lady" (1898)
L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace's "Mr. Bovey's Unexpected Will" (1899)
Baroness Orczy's "The Man in the Inverness Cape" (1910)
Hugh C. Weir's "The Man with Nine Lives" (1914)
Anna Katherine Greene's "An Intangible Clue" (1915)
Arthur B. Reeve's "The Clairvoyants" (1916)
F. Tennyson Jesse's "Lot's Wife" (1931)
Gladys Mitchell's "A Light on Murder" (1950)
Henry Cecil's "On Principle" (1948)
Many of these authors are unfamiliar to the average reader (and a few even to me), so this volume serves also as an introduction to their writing. As with all anthologies, the quality of the stories varies quite a bit, with the better stories toward the latter part of the book, including Baroness Orczy's "The Man in the Inverness Cape" (with Lady Molly of the Yard); F. Tennyson Jesse's "Lot's Wife," where his Frenchwoman detective Solange (who has psychic powers that enables her to sense evil) becomes entranced with another woman's beauty; Hugh C. Weir's "The Man with Nine Lives" about a poor devil who has survived eight attempts on his life until famous detective Madelyn Mack discovers there's more to his story than meets the eye; and Henry Cecil’s amusingly cynical "On Principle."
Other female-themed anthologies have superseded this one in quality and scope. But this is still an entertaining read and a good, if limited, overview to the types and styles of female protagonists penned before and during the two world wars.
June 28, 2018
Mystery Melange
Earlier this month, the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance revealed the winners of the 2018 Maine Literary Awards. Congratulations go to In Solo Time by Richard J. Cass, which won the The Book Award for Crime Fiction.
Frankie Y. Bailey will leading a crime fiction writing workshop at the Albany Public Library's Howe Branch on July 9. Bailey is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Albany and has five mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Lizzie Stuart and two police procedurals novels featuring Albany police detective Hannah Stuart. She is a Macavity Award-winner and has been nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Agatha awards. She is also a past executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America and a past president of Sisters in Crime.
My thanks to Janet Rudolph for bringing us the sad news of the passing of Edgar Award-nominated author, Sally Sluhan Wright. Wright was best known for a series featuring Ben Reese, a university archivist who was one of America’s first Rangers and worked for Army Intelligence in Europe in WWII. Her most recent novel was Behind the Bonehouse, the second in her Jo Grant mystery series set within the horse industry in Lexington, Kentucky. A third and final book in that series is due to be released at a future date.
The latest edition of online crime 'zine Yellow Mama is out, with new fiction by Mark Joseph Kevlock, Bill Baber, Paul Michael Dubal, Norbert Kovacs, F. Michael La Rosa, Kenneth James Crist, J. Brooke, Edward Francisco, Paul Beckman, and also poetry by John Grey, Gregory E. Lucas, Meg Baird, Joe Balaz, and the Nielsens. Yellow Mama also serves up its usual complement of illustrations and photography.
Through the years, publishers have tried to boost sales by creating more salacious covers for works, even when it didn't really reflect what the story was about - often in ways that are laughable and cringe-worthy. Rebecca Romney discussed this over at Crime Reads, pointing out detective novels that got the "sexy pulp" treatment, and Emily Temple did the same at Libhub for classic works of literature that were also given pulp covers (who knew Lord Jim freelanced as a romance novel cover model?).
Many people associate the character of Sherlock Holmes with the famous quote "Elementary, my dear Watson" - which is something Holmes never actually said in Athur Conan Doyle's stories. However, there are may other quotes you may, or may not, have heard of that Holmes actually did say, as Book Riot notes.
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Ace" by John Jeffire.
In the Q&A roundup, author John Bowie takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge to talk about a little bit of everything including what he's working on next; the LA Review of Books spoke with author and award-winning journalist Sebastian Rotella about his latest thriller featuring his fictional counterpart Valentine Pescatore, Rip Crew, that delves into the shadowy world of Mexican border smugglers; and LitHub asked author Megan Abbott to discuss the differences between hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
Related StoriesMystery Melange
June 25, 2018
Media Murder for Monday
Monday greetings to you and hope you enjoy the latest roundup of crime dramas to start off the week:
FILM
David Ayer is squeezing in the gritty indie crime thriller, Tax Collector, between directing Bright and its sequel. Although plot details are being kept under wraps, the crime drama is set in Los Angeles and stars Shia LaBeouf and Bobby Soto. Tax Collector is said to harken back to Ayer’s earlier gritty crime thrillers Training Day (which he wrote and Antoine Fuqua directed) and End of Watch.
Quentin Tarantino has hired Scoot McNairy to join the cast of his Sony Pictures film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. McNairy will play the role of a cowboy named Business Bob Gilbert, a character in the Western TV show that's an element of a Pulp Fiction-like tapestry of the summer of 1969 in L.A. set against the backdrop of the Manson Family murders. McNairy joins an all-star cast that is led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Timothy Olyphant, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, Emile Hirsch, Clifton Collins Jr, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Keith Jefferson, and Nicholas Hammond.
20th Century Fox has moved Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, based on the Agatha Christie novel featuring Detective Hercule Poirot, from its planned Nov. 8, 2019 release to Dec. 20, 2019, which means it will go head-to-head against a pair of likely blockbusters: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode IX and Universal’s musical Wicked. Christie's classic story sees Poirot on vacation on the Nile pulled into the investigation of the murder of a young heiress.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Paramount Television, Anonymous Content, and Sugar23 have optioned the rights to Shari Lapena’s bestselling thriller novel The Couple Next Door to develop as a television series. Adapted by playwright/TV writer Lila Feinberg (Younger), the potential series will follow three couples, living in the same apartment building in Manhattan, as their lives intertwine and unfold in the aftermath of a dinner party that ends in a shocking crime.
BritBox has teamed up with the BBC and a number of of other European broadcasters to launch a Spain-set crime drama from the writer behind The Good Karma Hospital and Delicious. With a working title of The Mallorca Files, the ten-part drama is set among the expat community on the sunny Spanish island and features a British and German detective clashing over their very different approaches to policing the island. While self-confessed introverted Brit Miranda Blake takes her career seriously, German Max Wolf is a classic extrovert and unashamedly unconventional, and the two characters battle it out to solve crimes in the sun-drenched setting.
DirecTV has nabbed Latin American pay TV rights to Mediaset España’s hit Spanish primetime drama El Accidente (which is an adaptation of a Turkish TV series). The show tells the story of a woman investigating her husband’s double life after a terrible accident sheds light on his secrets and lies. It stars some of Spain’s most highly-regarded actors including Inma Cuesta, Quim Gutiérrez, and Berta Vázquez.
Former Inhumans star Serinda Swan has been tapped to star in the CBC’s upcoming drama series Coroner, created by Morwyn Brebner (Saving Hope) and inspired by M.R. Hall’s best-selling book series. The project centers on a former Toronto ER doctor turned newly appointed coroner investigating suspicious deaths, Jenny Cooper. The recent passing of her beloved husband has unlocked a primal connection to death that's tied to a secret in her past that is only now coming to the surface.
The new trailer for Aneesh Chaganty’s innovative, award-winning Sundance thriller Searching stars John Cho as David Kim, who starts to go down an Internet rabbit hole when his 16-year-old daughter (Michelle La) goes missing. A local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case, but 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search his daughter’s laptop. It opens a Pandora’s box of clues, truths and secrets that might or might not lead him to his daughter. The thriller also stars Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, and Sara Sohn.
NBC has unveiled its fall premiere dates including the "Chicago" trio of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. back-to-back on September 26, and Law & Order: SVU on September 27.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Suspense Radio Inside Edition welcomed Kelli Clare to chat about her romantic thriller Hidden, which delves into the dark corners of obsession and family intrigue, and also spoke with EC Frey about her latest novel, Entangled Moon, that centers on Heather, a woman who has everything - until a bullet ends the life of an ex-employee whom Heather helped fire.
The Story Blender chatted with Carolyn Wheat, instructor and award-winning mystery writer, who shares her unique insights and explains the difference between mystery and suspense.
Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham discussed Gillian Flynn and the upcoming adaptation of her novel, Sharp Objects, for HBO, as well as taking a look at diversifying crime fiction, and also the words or descriptions that will immediately will cause them to pick up a book.
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June 23, 2018
June 22, 2018
FFB: Nine Coaches Waiting
British author Mary Florence Elinor Stewart was a multi-bestselling author was at the peak of her popularity from the late 1960s through the 1980s. However, her career started back in 1954 with the release of Madam, Will You Talk?, her first foray into romantic suspense. Although best known for her Merlin series, Stewart has legions of fans who appreciate her romantic suspense novels, including This Rough Magic, which I blogged about a few years ago.
Nine Coaches Waiting is a Stewart suspense novel originally published in 1958. It centers on Linda Martin, a young orphaned French expatriate who's been living in England. After ten years in the UK, she returns to Paris to take on the post of governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy. Linda soon forms a fond with Philippe, who is also an orphan living with his Uncle Léon and Aunt Héloïse in the huge Château Valmy situated (of course) far from civilization. From the get-go, an air of foreboding about the place makes Linda decide not to admit that she speaks fluent French. (The de Valmys had insisted that their nephew’s new governess should be an English girl, after all.)
Linda falls in love with the beauty and history of the estate and surrounding countryside and even finds herself falling for the reckless and rakishly handsome Raoul, son of Léon and Héloïse. But then mysterious accidents start to happen, and Linda feels an increasing sense of danger and dread. Little by little she wonders if the accidents are related to the fact that her young charge will inherit the estate when he comes of age. Can she trust the charming but imposing Léon or the cold and aloof Héloïse? Or is the real threat the attractive Raoul? The young governess has to struggle against her fears and suspicions to keep herself and Philippe safe.
As with This Rough Magic, the setting of the story serves as one of the the most impressive characters, as in this passage:
I craned forward to look. The village of Soubirous was set in a wide, green saucer of meadow and orchard serene among the cradling hills. I could see the needle-thin gleam of water, and the lines of willows where two streams threaded the grassland. Where they met stood the village, bright as a toy and sharply-focused in the clear air, with its three bridges and its little watch-making factory and its church of Sainte-Marie-des-Ponts with the sunlight glinting on the weathercock that tips the famous spire.
And as with most of Stewart's protagonists, Linda has to use her wits and deductive reasoning to save the day, rather than any modern kick-ass theatrics. As the author herself once said, "I take conventionally bizarre situations (the car chase, the closed-room murder, the wicked uncle tale) and send real people into them, normal everyday people with normal everyday reactions to violence and fear; people not 'heroic' in the conventional sense, but averagely intelligent men and women who could be shocked or outraged into defending, if necessary with great physical bravery, what they held to be right."
June 21, 2018
Mystery Melange
A dozen works have been longlisted for the 2018 McIlvanney Prize, which recognizes “excellence in Scottish crime writing.” Interestingly, one of the finalists is Liam McIlvanney, the winner of New Zealand’s 2014 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and son of the late author after whom this commendation was named, William McIlvanney. Finalists for the award will be revealed in early September with the winner announced on September 21 during opening ceremonies for the Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival in Stirling, Scotland. (HT to the Rap Sheet)
The Wolfe Pack announced the 2018 finalists for the Nero Award, an annual honor presented to an author for literary excellence in the mystery genre. The award is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet held on the first Saturday in December in New York City. This year's contenders include The Dime by Kathleen Kent; The Lioness is the Hunter by Loren D. Estelman; Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman; August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones; and Blood for Wine by Warren C. Easley.
The Macavity Award finalists were announced this past week. Voted on annually by Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI, the awards celebrate the best in the past year's crime fiction novels, nonfiction and short stories, with winners to be honored at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in St Petersburg, FL, in September. This year's Best Mystery Novel contenders include The Marsh King's Daughter, by Karen Dionne; Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz; Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke; Glass Houses, by Louise Penny; The Old Man, by Thomas Perry; and The Force, by Don Winslow. To see all the finalists, head on over to the Mystery Fanfare blog.
Amazon Books announced its selections for the Best Books of the Year, So Far. Amazon Books editors picked their favorite breakout titles of 2018 and offered them as reading recommendations for summer. You can check out the twenty titles included in the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense category via this link.
The Writers’ Police Academy is continuing its fun Golden Donut Short Story contest in 2018. The rules are simple—write a story about the photograph provided using exactly 200 words, including the title. But you'd better hurry, as the deadline is July 1.
David Barnett's piece in The Guardian takes a look at the writers who are helping to diversify detective fiction and broadening the horizons of a traditionally very white genre.
Writing for the LA Times, author Megan Abbott wondered why readers, especially women, seem to love true crime stories, a topic particularly relevant during the era of the #Metoo moment.
Max Allan Collins, Christa Faust and Gary Phillips discussed the beginnings of noir and recent developments in neo-noir for the online magazine Crixeo.
Cult New York photographer Weegee (the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968) was often found at crime scenes before the police, and his stark pictures gained him notoriety and ultimately fame in the art world. As The Guardian reported, his work has now been turned into the graphic novel Weegee: Serial Photographer by Max de Radiguès and Wauter Mannaert.
For fans of both crime fiction and soccer (a/k/a football to most of the world), Crime Reads has a list of one crime novel for every country in the World Cup, as it celebrates its annual spectacle through July 15.
Crime writers have a hard time keeping up with the latest in forensic technology, but many of those new techniques are potentially helpful to law enforcement, such as a new blood test that could be performed at a crime scene - and help determine the age of a suspect or victim within just an hour.
Speaking of forenscis (or a form thereof), meet the world's "top art forgery detective."
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Life Is Sacred" by Abbey-Rose Chivers.
In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Louise Candlish about her upcoming domestic thriller Our House, in which a woman returns to her family’s South London townhouse one day to discover that her estranged husband has stolen it out from under her; Lesa Holstine interviewed Cara Black for the Poisoned Pen blog, to chat about the latest installment in her Aimee Leduc series, Murder on the Left Bank (complete with some of her research photos); the Mystery People spoke with with Jay Brandon about writing a legal thriller and his latest novel, Against the Law; and Parade Magazine quizzed Vera and Shetland creator Ann Cleeves about crime writing, hit television shows, and creative tips.
Related StoriesMystery Melange
June 18, 2018
Media Murder for Monday
Nice to have you stop by as we start off a new week with the latest crime drama roundup:
MOVIES
Paramount Pictures has closed a six-figure deal for I Am Yours, a spec thriller script by Ryan Belenzon and Jeffrey Gelber described as having "a Fatal Attraction-like stalker vibe." Producers for the project are Tyler Perry and the Platinum Dunes trio of Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, who are coming off the genre hit A Quiet Place.
Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent has been cast in Verdi Productions’ upcoming crime feature Vault. Kent will take on the role of Edie in a story based on true events that follows a group of Rhode Island criminals in the '70s who try to lift $30 million from the mob. Kent joins a cast that includes Theo Rossi, Clive Standen, Samira Wiley, Don Johnson, and Chazz Palminteri.
The star of Netflix's recently canceled series Seven Seconds, Beau Knapp, will star alongside Alexis Bledel (The Handmaid’s Tale), Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight), Luke Hemsworth (Westworld), Jeremie Harris (Legion), and Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) in the money laundering thriller Crypto. Directed by John Stalberg Jr., the indie film is described as "a thriller in the vein of The Firm and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and centers on a young anti-money laundering agent (Knapp) tasked with investigating a tangled web of corruption and fraud in his remote New York hometown, where his father (Russell) and brother (Hemsworth) are struggling to maintain their family farm in a changing economic landscape. The agent quickly finds himself enmeshed in a dangerous underworld populated by a mysterious art dealer (Bledel), a crypto-currency enthusiast turned cyber-sleuth (Harris) and a corrupt accountant doing the bidding of ruthless clients (Kartheiser).
The Japan Society of New York announced the full lineup for JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film 12th Edition, with over 30 films, some never before seen in New York City. The roster includes two crime dramas: Outrage Coda (New York premiere on Saturday, July 28), the third entry in the Outrage yakuza series that finds Takeshi Kitano’s Otomo on South Korea’s idyllic Jeju island running enforcement for Chang (Tokio Kaneda) in regional organized crime; and Last Winter, We Parted (North American Premiere on Saturday, July 21), in which an ambitious, young freelance journalist (Takanori Iwata) takes on the closed case of a famous fine arts photographer (Takumi Saitoh) whose beautiful female subject died on set in a gruesome fire. As details of the artist’s eerie fascinations with physical mortality emerge, the writer pitches the increasingly salacious story to a skeptical editor (Kazuki Kitamura) just as it takes a dangerous turn.
TELEVISION
Media Rights Capital, Stephen King's partner on The Dark Tower, has optioned King's bestselling novel The Outsider and has plans a 10-episode limited series adaptation with Richard Price adapting the script. The story centers on Terry Maitland, one of Flint City’s most storied citizens, a Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls, who's arrested in front of everyone and charged with the grotesque murder of an 11-year old. Even though Maitland has an iron clad alibi — he was at a conference and seen by witnesses — his DNA was found at the murder scene along with fingerprints.
Icelandic crime fiction author Lilja Sigurðardóttir's novel Snare has been optioned for TV. Snare was the first of Sigurðardóttir's books to be translated into English (by Quentin Bates) and released in the UK last year, by Orenda Books. The story follows attractive young mother Sonia is struggling to provide for herself and keep custody of her son following a messy divorce. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland, and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world. As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer, whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies.
Fans of the recently-cancelled Fox supernatural procedural Lucifer will be thrilled to learn that Netflix has picked up the show for a fourth season. The Tom Ellis–starring drama is based on the comic book characters created by Neil Gaiman and centers around the charming, charismatic and devilishly handsome Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar (Ellis) who helps LAPD detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) take down criminals.
WGN America is adding to its Prime Crime slate with the acquisition of two original series in the detective procedural genre — the comedic Carter, which will premiere August 7, and crime drama Gone, to debut in early 2019. Carter revolves around Harley Mackay (Jerry O’Connell), an actor playing a detective on a hit television show until he is forced to retreat to his sleepy hometown after an embarrassing public meltdown in Hollywood. Now that he’s back, he taps into his acting experience to become a real-life detective, partnering with his two best friends, Sam Shaw (Sydney Poitier) and Dave Leigh (Kristian Bruun). Gone follows the story of Kit “Kick” Lannigan (Leven Rambin), survivor of a highly publicized child-abduction case, and Frank Novak (Chris Noth), the FBI agent who rescued her. Determined never to fall victim again, Kick finds her calling when Novak persuades her to join a special task force he created dedicated to solving abductions and missing persons cases. Paired with former Army intelligence officer John Bishop (Danny Pino), Kick brings her unique understanding of a predator’s mind to the team.
Jane Shemilt’s third novel, the suspense thriller How Far We Fall, has been snapped up for development as a TV drama by production company Twelve Town. Due to publish on 28th June, How Far We Fall follows a talented young neurosurgeon, Albie, recently married to the ambitious and vengeful Beth, whose past affair with Albie’s boss puts the marriage at risk. She’ll do everything to keep Albie’s career and her secret safe. But how far will the fall take them?
Nabbing his first English-language role, Mexican star Luis Gerardo Mendez is joining the cast alongside Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in the Netflix whodunit Murder Mystery. The script by Jamie Vanderbilt (Zodiac, White House Down) centers on a NYC cop (Sandler) that finally takes his wife (Aniston) on a long-promised European trip when a chance meeting on the flight with a mysterious man (Luke Evans) gets them invited to an intimate family gathering on the super yacht of an elderly billionaire. When the wealthy man is murdered, they become the prime suspects. Mendez will play a champion Formula One driver but, as with other characters in this murder mystery, he has a secret.
Valor's Matt Barr has been tapped as the male lead opposite Sofia Pernas in Blood & Treasure, CBS’ hourlong serialized action-adventure series set to premiere in summer 2019. Written by Matthew Federman & Stephen Scaia, Blood & Treasure centers on a brilliant antiquities expert, Danny (Barr), and a cunning art thief, Lexi (Pernas), who team up to catch a ruthless terrorist who funds his attacks through stolen treasure. As they crisscross the globe hunting their target, they unexpectedly find themselves in the center of a 2,000-year-old battle for the cradle of civilization.
The Vampire Diaries co-creator/executive producer Kevin Williamson has recruited one of that show's stars, Paul Wesley, for his new psychological thriller series on CBS All Access, Tell Me a Story, which takes the world’s most beloved fairy tales and re-imagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller. Set in modern day New York City, the first season of this serialized drama interweaves “The Three Little Pigs,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Hansel and Gretel” into an epic and subversive tale of love, loss, greed, revenge and murder, with Wesley playing Eddie, a derelict and troubled individual whose petulance is fueled even more by his problems with drugs and alcohol. Although he works as a bartender, he also splits his time as a low-level drug dealer and part-time thief with his older brother Mitch, who never fails to treat Eddie as the lowly delinquent that he is. It was also announced last week that Dania Ramirez (Cinderalla in Once Upon a Time) will join the cast, which also includes previously-announced Danielle Campbell and Kim Catrall.
Defiance alum Tony Curran is set for a recurring role on the upcoming season of Showtime’s Ray Donovan. Season 6 will be changing locations to New York City from Los Angeles, where it has been based for the past five seasons. Last season ended with Ray’s (Liev Schreiber) fractured relationship with his daughter Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) drawing him to New York to make amends for a past wrongdoing, and Curran will play NYPD Sgt. Mikey “Rad” Radulovic, a tough, no-nonsense cop.
Apple has assembled a star-studded cast for its Octavia Spencer series Are You Sleeping and announced last week several new additions including Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, Weeds alumna Elizabeth Perkins, Mekhi Phifer (ER), Michael Beach (Sons of Anarchy), Tracie Thoms (Unreal), Haneefah Wood (One Day at a Time), and Ron Cephas Jones (This is Us). Are You Sleeping is based on the true-crime novel by Kathleen Barber and provides a unique glimpse into America’s obsession with true-crime podcasts and challenges its viewers to consider the consequences when the pursuit of justice is placed on a public stage. Spencer stars as Poppy Parnell, a relentless investigative reporter who looks to uncover the truth behind a decades old questionable murder verdict through her new podcast. Three-time Emmy winner Paul stars as convicted murderer Warren Cave whose guilt or innocence has remained a question in many people’s minds for the past 20 years.
Amazon Prime released the first trailer for its original series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, which sees John Krasinski taking on the iconic Clancy role (previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine in film versions). This is more of an origin story that sees up-and-coming CIA analyst Ryan as he's thrust into a dangerous field assignment for the first time and uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into the center of a dangerous gambit with a new breed of terrorism that threatens destruction on a global scale. Wendell Pierce and Abbie Cornish also star in the series directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game).
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Writer Types started off its new shorter format with special gusts Jennifer Hillier, best-seller Jeffrey Deaver, and Adam Walker Phillips. Plus, this week's Unpanel featured authors from the new Santa Cruz Noir anthology from Akashic books.
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste discussed Lionel Shriver's latest outburst, diversity in publishing, and an update on the CockyGate (trademark) situation. Special guests this week are Katherine Armstrong, editorial director at Bonnier Zaffre, and author Martyn Waites.
True crime podcasts such as Serial, My Favorite Murder, and In The Dark helped to popularize the format, and Bustle finds more fodder for fans in the form of seven British true crime podcasts that are both spooky and totally puzzling.
Destination Mystery was joined by the writing team of Anne Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks who publisher in a variety of genres including the international thriller, Theft of the Shroud and their Jane Larson mystery series.
Dear Texas Radio welcomed Laura Oles, a photo industry journalist who spent twenty years covering tech and trends before turning to crime fiction.
THEATER
Cate Blanchett is joining actor Stephen Dillane (The Tunnel) to head back to the stage in a new play by Martin Crimp at London’s National Theater, When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – Twelve Variations on Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. The play will be directed by Anatomy of a Suicide director Katie Mitchell. The play tells the story of a young maid terrorized and imprisoned by a libertine nobleman in “a dangerous game of sexual domination and resistance” and marks the first time that Blanchett, who lives in the UK, will return to the theater in seven years.
Murder She Didn't Write: The Improvised Murder Mystery is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 1-27. A classic murder mystery is created on the spot from audience suggestions - will the killer be Ms. Violet in the parlor with the flamethrower? Dr. Gold in Debenhams with the canon?
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