FROM THE PAGE TO THE SCREEN

'Get Shorty' TV Series Ordered By EPIX Epix has set its third original scripted series, handing out a 10-episode order to Get Shorty, a  reimagining of Elmore Leonard’s 1990 bestselling thriller comedy novel previously directed by Barry Sonnefeld’s in 1995 starring John Travolta, Danny DeVito, Gene Hackman and Rene Russo. Written by Davy Holmes, Get Shorty centers on Miles Daly, who works as muscle for a murderous crime ring in Nevada. For the sake of his daughter, he attempts to change professions and become a movie producer, laundering money through a Hollywood film. But instead of leaving the criminal world behind, he accidentally brings it with him to Los Angeles. More Nesbo... Jake Gyllenhaal and the production company behind his critically-acclaimed turn in Nightcrawler are joining together to bring a popular crime novel to the big screen. Nine Stories which has a first-look deal with its partner Bold Films are developing a feature adpatation of Jo Nesbo’s crime novel The Son with Sicario director Denis Villeneuve set to helm More Hap & Leonard? SundanceTV is close to renewing Hap And Leonard for a second season. The network is looking for a new showrunner, we’re hearing, so all the pieces haven’t formally come together yet. But if it does, James Purefoy, who plays blue-collar ex-con Hap Collins, and Michael Kenneth Williams as his unlikely partner and Vietnam vet Leonard Pine would both return. Like Season 1, Season 2 would be for six episodes. Bourne Again   Watch the official trailer to Jason Bourne Fear is the Key     Cassian Elwes and Andre Gaines are producing a remake of the 1972 classic revenge thriller Fear is the Key after closing a deal to acquire the rights from StudioCanal. The story, based on a book by Alistair MacLean, takes place in Louisiana and follows the character of John Talbot as he plots an elaborate revenge scheme on the people who killed his family in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico. By pretending to be a criminal, Talbot gets close to the culprits, helping them retrieve the priceless cargo of the lost plane from the bottom of the Gulf. Previous MacLean novels include The Guns of Navarone and When Eight Bells Toll, which were also adapted into classic adventure movies.

Criminal Snippets

Gerald Gilbert in The Independent explains why the adaptation of John Le Carré's The Night Manager was worth the twenty-year wait. Meanwhile Jasper Rees in the Telegraph explains why the final episode of The Night Manager had a superb climax.

Also in the Independent Max Wallis lists the 10 best spy novels.

If you are a mystery buff as well as a traveller then you will be interested in Deutsche Welle’s Travel Tips for Mystery Buffs.

According to The Bookseller the debut crime series by former criminal barrister Helen Fields is to be published by Avon and introduces readers to half French half Scottish former Interpol officer Luc Callanach, and detective inspector Ava Turner.  The first book in the series Perfect Remains will be published in December 2016.

Transworld are according to The Bookseller to republish the late James Crumley’s classic novel The Long Good Kiss with a new introduction by Ian Rankin.  First published in 1978 the new edition will be published in April 2016.

The latest Jason Bourne book is to be published by Head of Zeus.  According to The Bookseller.  Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Enigma, will be published this summer.

Headline have also according to The Bookseller bought the rights to a psychological domestic noir thriller Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen.  Initially due to be published in digital in November it will be published in mass market in April 2017.

According to the BBC, Tim Roth and Samantha Morton have been cast in a new three part series of Rillington Place, which will be filmed in Scotland and London.  The three-part drama is based on the real-life multiple murders undertaken by John Christie in Notting Hill in the 1940s and Fifties.

ITV have commissioned an eight-part thriller Paranoid. A conspiracy thriller, Paranoid, tells the story of a female GP who is murdered in a rural children’s playground with an abundance of eyewitnesses. A group of detectives embark on what seems to be a straightforward murder investigation, but as they delve deeper into the case they are quickly drawn into the twists and turns of an ever-darkening mystery, which takes them unexpectedly across Europe.

Sad to hear that on 19 March Japanese mystery writer Shizuko Natsuki whose 1973 novel (Johatsu) Disappearance won the Japanese won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award has died.

Best of???  According to Taste of Cinema the 10 Best Sherlock Holmes movies can be found here.  The 20 best South Korean thriller movies are here.

Interesting article in the Concord Monitor commenting on the fact that police shootings of blacks influence the crime fiction genre.

Alison Flood in The Guardian reviews Jonathan Moore’s novel The Poison Artist.

With the new ITV Maigret being shown this evening (28 March) French Today published sometime ago (which is certainly worth reading) an essay on how to follow in the footsteps of the fictional Maigret in the City of Light. 

Sarah Paretsky talks to Prose ‘n’ Cons about her writing and the state of publishing today.