Media Murder for Monday
[image error]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
A trailer was released for The Alto Knights, which sees Robert De Niro playing not one, but two gangsters, in the film that reunites De Niro and director Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog; The Wizard of Lies). Written by Goodfellas screenwriter, Nicholas Pileggi, The Alto Knights sees De Niro take on the dual roles of real-life crime bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Once the closest of friends, a series of betrayals has torn the two apart, and they now battle for control of New York, which promises to reshape the Mafia forever.
NOIR CITY 22 is set for January 24 through February 2 at Oakland, California's historic Grand Lake Theatre, with a highlight on the fabulous femmes fatales who made the genre so spectacularly saucy, sexy, and sinister. Film Noir Foundation founder, Eddie Muller, will be joined by his TCM colleague, Alicia Malone, as they present legendary noirs such as Out of the Past (1947), The Narrow Margin (1952), and Detour (1945), alongside an array of dark gems and little-seen rarities like Hell's Half Acre (1954), The Sleeping City (1950), and the 3D noir Inferno (1953). In addition, the festival will be filled with special onscreen features, live music, and special guests. All proceeds from the festival go to the Film Noir Foundation's mission of rescuing and restoring lost examples of the genre, which to date includes more than thirty restorations and preservation of films once feared lost.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
After playing Harry Bosch for a decade on Bosch and Bosch: Legacy, Titus Welliver is taking on a new leading character for a TV crime drama. CBS announced that Welliver and Juani Feliz (Harlem) will star as the two leads of a spinoff from The Equalizer, with the Queen Latifah procedural introducing the two new characters in Episode 516 this season. Welliver will play Hudson Reed, a former top CIA operative with a dark secret who is connected to Robin McCall (Queen Latifah) by an old mentor. Feliz plays Samantha Reed, who has been trained by her father to be a weapons expert, skilled martial artist, and true chameleon, all while hiding a mysterious past.
Kyrie McAlpin (Birdie; Cheaper By The Dozen) has joined the cast of ABC's Will Trent for Season 3 in the recurring role of Sunny, a smart and resourceful tween—and also the daughter of a criminal—who now finds herself in the care of the deputy director of the GBI. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling crime fiction series, Special Agent Will Trent (Ramón Rodriguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. Now, he uses his unique point of view in the pursuit of justice and has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.
Richard Jenkins has been tapped to co-star opposite Jason Bateman and David Harbour in DTF St. Louis, HBO's seven-episode limited series from writer, director, showrunner, and executive producer, Steve Conrad. The darkly comedic series is about a love triangle among three adults experiencing middle-age malaise that leads to one of them ending up dead. Jenkins plays a police detective who is investigating the death.
The CBS drama series, Elsbeth, has added Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show) and Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious) to its growing list of guest stars for Season 2, with new episodes returning on January 30 at 10 p.m. Based on the character featured in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, the series follows Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), the astute but unconventional consent decree attorney working with the NYPD to catch New York's well-heeled murderers utilizing her unique point of view. Ullman will portray Marilyn, a professional psychic with elite Manhattan clients who won’t make a move without consulting her first. Brewster will play Chloe, a beautiful, elegant "lifestyle consultant," who will do anything for her clients, even murder.
Fox has given a Season 2 renewal to its crime series, Murder in a Small Town, starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk. The Canadian-made series is based on the Edgar Award-winning, nine-book Karl Alberg series. Murder in a Small Town, whose eight-episode first season ended its Fox run in November, follows Karl Alberg (Sutherland), who moves to a quiet, coastal town to soothe a psyche that has been battered by big-city police work. He quickly learns that this gentle paradise has more than its share of secrets, and he will need to call upon all the skills that made him a world-class detective in solving the murders that, even in this seemingly idyllic setting, continue to wash up on his shore.
PODCASTS/RADIO
Robert Crais was the latest guest on Speaking of Mysteries, discussing his new book, The Big Empty, which sees Elvis Cole and Joe Pike involved in finding the missing father of a popular influencer known as The Muffin Girl.
On Crime Time FM, Rob Parker chatted with Paul Burke about The Troubled Deep: A Cam Killick Norfolk Mystery; Ben Bracken; Audible Books; working with young minds; PTSD; knee injuries; and kismet.
Crime writer Matt Cost joined Crime Time Cafe host Debbie Mack to discuss how Matt manages to write and publish three books a year, in various series.
On the latest edition of Murder Junction, hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee welcomed author Tom Hindle to chat about his latest novel, Death in the Arctic, based on the true unsolved arctic mystery of Charles Francis Hall; an age when airships ruled the skies and the demise of the Hindenberg; and an escapist tortoise.
Meet the Thriller Author spoke with J.D. Barker, the New York Times and international best-selling author of numerous novels, including Dracul and The Fourth Monkey. His work has been broadly described as suspense thrillers, often incorporating elements of horror, crime, mystery, science fiction, and the supernatural, and he's a frequent collaborator with James Patterson. (Their latest novel, The Writer, will be published on May 17, 2025.)
Pick Your Poison profiled a disease that's more common in the Emergency Department in the month of January and has often been called "Jitterbug," and why Veterans Hospitals used to have whisky on the formulary.
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