A featurette for the action thriller Savages has been released by the studio; we've embedded it below. It's basically the film's trailer deconstructed and intercut with brief commentary by the principal actors.
Directed by Oliver Stone from a screenplay adapted from the 2010 crime novel by Don Winslow, co-written by Stone, Winslow, and Shane Salerno, the film features an all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, and Salma Hayek.
Savages opens in theaters July 6th, 2012.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
New Savages Featurette
The Mystery Bookshelf: The Zurich Conspiracy by Bernadette Calonego
The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a world of mystery and suspense, is pleased to feature a new crime novel we recently received from the publisher.
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The Zurich Conspiracy by Bernadette Calonego
AmazonCrossing (Trade Paperback)
Publication Date: June 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1-61109-093-2
About The Zurich Conspiracy (from the publisher): Thirty-something Josefa Rehmer is as smart and ambitious as they come, qualities that have earned her the enviable position of events manager at Loyn, an exclusive Zurich leather accessories company. But when Werner Schulmann is appointed to be her new supervisor, Josefa’s professional ambitions are dealt a serious blow. After all, it was Schulmann’s sexual harassment that nearly derailed her career years earlier. Unable to stomach the thought of working for such a man, Josefa resigns, abandoning Loyn for another local firm. But when Schulmann is murdered and Loyn’s CEO commits suicide, Josefa begins to suspect that something other than sexual impropriety is plaguing her former company. She sets out to uncover the truth and soon realizes the two deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. As she digs deeper, Josefa finds herself caught in a complex and dangerous web of blackmail, corporate espionage, and murder. And if she’s not careful, she will be the next one to take the fall.
(Originally published in 2005 as Nutze deine Feinde.)
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About the author: Bernadette Calonego was born in Switzerland and grew up on the shores of Lake Lucerne. She was just eleven years old when she published her first story, a fairytale, in a Swiss newspaper. She went on to earn a teaching degree from the University of Fribourg, which she put to good use in England and Switzerland before switching gears to be a journalist. After several years working with the Reuters news agency and a series of German newspapers, she moved to Canada and began writing fiction. Visit her website at BernadetteCalonego.com.
Purchase Options for The Zurich Conspiracy:
Review: Barnstorming by Laura Crum
We've just published our Review of Barnstorming by Laura Crum. A Gail McCarthy Mystery. Perseverance Press Trade Paperback, April 2012.
Our rating:
Available to purchase from …
Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120619)
Here is today's list of the top bestselling free Kindle mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers.
We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.
Critics' Choice Television Awards Telemystery Winners
The Second Annual Critics' Choice Television Awards were handed out last night, with Sherlock taking home two awards, for Best Movie/Miniseries and Benedict Cumberbatch for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries.
Breaking Bad won for Best Actor in a Drama Series (Bryan Cranston) and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Giancarlo Esposito).
Homeland won for Best Drama Series and Best Actress in a Drama Series (Claire Danes).
Other telemystery series getting awards include Archer for Best Animated Series and Southland for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series (Lucy Liu).
Beware of Rekall: New Viral Posters for Total Recall
A series of competing viral posters for the action thriller Total Recall have been released by the studio.
In one set, the tagline is "Beware of Rekall. Don't let them blow your mind."
In the other set, the tagline is "Tell us your fantasy. We'll make it real."
There are even competing websites: NoRekall.org and WelcomeToRekall.com, both of which are really well done.
Total Recall is a remake of the 1990 film that stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both are based on the 1966 short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick.
The new version stars Colin Farrell as factory worker Douglas Quaid. Even though he's got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale), who he loves, the mind-trip promised by Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories, sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life — a memory as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police — controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world — Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.
Total Recall opens in theaters August 3rd, 2012.
Sherlock Holmes: Year One by Scott Beatty is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Sherlock Holmes: Year One by Scott Beatty as today's third free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Sherlock Holmes: Year One by Scott Beatty
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
About Sherlock Holmes: Year One (from the publisher): Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's dauntless detective returns in an all-new adventure exploring the sleuth's untold origin! Join Dr. John Watson as he meets young Sherlock Holmes in a fateful encounter that will forever shape both men's destinies! Mysteries and murders most foul abound as we discover clues that reveal just how Holmes became the world's most famous detective.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Death of the Coach Potato's Wife by Christy Barritt is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Death of the Coach Potato's Wife by Christy Barritt as today's third free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Death of the Coach Potato's Wife by Christy Barritt
Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing
This is the first mystery in the "Suburban Sleuth" series.
About Death of the Coach Potato's Wife (from the publisher): Welcome to Boring, Indiana, home to patio cookouts, homeowner dues, carpeted lawns, and neighbors so welcoming they’re dying to meet you — literally.
City slicker turned suburbanite housewife Laura Berry isn’t taking well to life in her new neighborhood. She moved to follow her husband’s dream, and now she can’t tell if she’s clinically depressed or just bored half to death. But Boring becomes anything but when Laura discovers her neighbor Candace Flynn face up on a sofa with her hand buried in a snack bag. With a healthy dose of neighborly suspicion and street smarts, Laura sets out to find Flynn’s killer, but her curiosity becomes desperation when the killer targets Laura.
Someone is determined to stop her from digging deeper into the murder, but Laura is just as determined to figure out who’s behind the death-by-poisoned-pork-rinds.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Three Days to Die by John Avery is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Three Days to Die by John Avery as today's free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Three Days to Die by John Avery
Publisher: Apticon Books
This suspense thriller is adapted from an original screenplay written by the author.
About Three Days to Die (from the publisher): Kidnapped by a psychotic killer, thirteen-year-old Aaron Quinn is forced to participate in a deadly crime spree. What must his beautiful, courageous, single mother sacrifice to save his life?
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, June 19, 2012.
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Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin
A Nicholas Colt Mystery
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
This mystery introduces the Florida-based former rock star turned private investigator.
About Pocket-47 (from the publisher): Fifteen-year-old Brittney Ryan has taken to the streets. Leitha, her older sister and legal guardian, hires private investigator Nicholas Colt to find her and bring her home. Piece of cake, Colt thinks. With Brittney's forbidden boyfriend's address in hand, he plans to make a surprise visit and put this one in the scrapbook.
But something more sinister is behind Brittney's disappearance, and Colt soon finds himself in an ever-widening maze of deceit, betrayal, and murder. When Colt learns what the mysterious phrase Pocket-47 means, he is haunted even more by the plane crash that killed his family and rock band twenty years ago-a crash he now realizes might not have been an accident.
Determined to save Brittney, Colt struggles to untangle the threads of his own tortured past. Unfortunately, one of the most heinous and violent criminals in modern history has other ideas.
Important Note: Amazon.com updates its Kindle book deal every day at approximately midnight PT. The title referenced above is available at a discounted price for Tuesday, June 19, 2012 only.
Download Link(s):
Monday, June 18, 2012
New Line Plans Remake of The Last of Sheila
Back in 1973 a small film was released, directed by Herbert Ross from a screenplay Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, which we didn't discover until probably a decade or so later. Its title: The Last of Sheila. It is, and remains to this day, a gem of a mystery film. It was even honored with an Edgar Award in 1974 for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.
The film stars James Coburn as Clinton Greene, a movie producer, who assembles, Agatha Christie-style, a group of guests — played by Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Mason, Ian McShane, Joan Hackett, and Raquel Welch — aboard his yacht for a week-long Mediterranean cruise. Once underway, he announces that their mini-vacation is actually a game in which they must discover everyone else's secret while protecting their own. And one of those secrets is the identity of who was driving the car that killed his wife in a hit-and-run accident years ago. It isn't long before Clinton is murdered, and the game turns into one in which the guests must determined which one of them is a killer.
Rarely has a film so captured our imagination and entertained us so completely. And though we are usually among the first to decry remakes or reimaginations of films or television series we hold in high esteem, call us hypocrites if you must, but we think this one is perfect for a contemporary update.
And that's just what New Line Cinema is planning. We'll be following this project, if it moves forward, closely. Here's more via The Hollywood Reporter.
The Last of Sheila is difficult to find new on DVD — we still have our original VHS version! — but it is available to rent or own from Amazon Instant Video.
We found a trailer for the film on YouTube, which we've embedded below.
The Savages Interrogation Videos, Week Two
Five new "interrogation" videos have been released by the studio for the upcoming crime thriller Savages, based on the novel by Don Winslow. Rather than post them individually here, we thought it might be easier to simply direct you to the Savages Movie YouTube Channel, where you can watch them, together with the first in the series, if you didn't happen to catch them when they were released last week. (We admit to being a little puzzled by the number of views of the first week of interrogation videos, though all the numbers suggest the film has strong interest by potential viewers. Three of them have received, as of the date of this post, between 188,000 and 240,000 views each while the other two, of Ben and Chon, have received less than 50,000 each. The original trailer, released some two months ago, has over 4 million views.)
Directed by Oliver Stone from a screenplay co-written with Winslow and Shane Salerno, Savages opens in theaters July 6th.
Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (120619)
Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.
See also a list of current mystery and suspense DVD, Blu-ray, or VOD deals on Amazon.com.
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Purchase/Rental Options
Cat Run (2011)
Film Synopsis (from the studio): Anthony always dreamed of being a famous chef. Julian only thought about women. With neither really working out, the childhood best friends decide to start a detective agency. Unfortunately for them, on their first case they must help protect a sexy, high class escort who holds the key evidence to a scandalous cover up. The two bumbling detectives soon find themselves running from the mob, a corrupt US Senator, and a ruthless Mary Poppins-like assassin - all of whom would stop at nothing to hide the truth. It's just an average day for two bumbling losers.
Directed by John Stockwell from an original screenplay by John Niven and Nick Ball, the film runs 102 minutes and is rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content, nudity and language.
Watch a trailer for the film below:
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Purchase/Rental Options
Seeking Justice (2012)
Film Synopsis (from the studio): Nicolas Cage stars as Will Gerard, a happily married family man whose quiet life is turned upside-down when his wife, Laura, is brutally attacked one night while leaving work.
At the hospital, waiting for news about his wife's condition, Will is approached by Simon (Guy Pearce), who proposes an intriguing offer: Simon will arrange to have a complete stranger exact vengeance on Laura's attacker, in exchange for a favor from Will in the near future. Distraught and grief-stricken, Will consents to the deal, unwittingly pulling himself into a dangerous underground vigilante operation. While continuing to protect his wife from the truth, he quickly discovers that his quest for justice could lead to frightening and deadly consequences.
Directed by Roger Donaldson from a screenplay co-written by Robert Tannen and Todd Hickey, Seeking Justice is rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality.
Watch a trailer for the film below:
Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120618)
Here is today's list of the top bestselling free Kindle mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers.
We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.
Quad Poster for Taken 2
The UK quad-sized poster for the crime thriller Taken 2 has been released by the studio (right; click for larger version).
Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a particular set of skills who stopped at nothing to save his estranged teenage daughter Kim from Albanian kidnappers — the storyline from the 2008 film Taken. When the father of one of the kidnappers swears revenge and takes Bryan and his wife hostage during their family vacation in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape, and uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers one by one.
Directed by Olivier Megaton from a screenplay by Luc Besson (Taken, Lockout) and Robert Mark Kamen (Taken, Gladiator), the film opens on October 5th, 2012.
The Killing, Season 2: Post Finale Thoughts
The Killing wrapped up its second season last night with the answer to the question posed for the first season, "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" Here are our initial — and probably final — thoughts on this series, which includes both seasons … as of course it must. (There are no spoilers in this post.)
In considering the series as a whole and as a murder mystery, the primary storyline was well thought out, well structured and well told. Thinking back, clues to the resolution of the crime were indeed peppered throughout, in good whodunit fashion. There were a handful of loose plot threads remaining at the end, but there almost always are in any telling of a reasonably complex story. And there might have been one too many coincidences in terms of people and places and times, but that's more of a quibble than a complaint. Could the murder have been solved in one season, as promised by the original promos by the network? Of course. Should it have been solved in one season? Absolutely. There were 26 episodes in total over both seasons, and at least half of these were tangential to the murder mystery itself and not important. There were also several extended subplots that were completely irrelevant as they didn't provide any important contextual information nor did they advance the primary plot in any meaningful way. An example of one of these would be Linden's prior psychiatric treatment that aired during this second season, which took up maybe a complete episode of time yet added nothing to her character nor was it related in any way to the investigation. Pure and simple filler … and not even interesting filler at that.
We did, however, like the second season a bit more than the first, primarily because the story seemed to be better focused and, probably more importantly, advancing to a resolution at a slightly brisker pace. (The first season will, in our minds, no doubt be forever fatally flawed as a consequence of how it ended — or didn't end, as the case may be — so this probably isn't a fair comparison.) A third season has not (yet) been announced. It wouldn't surprise us at all if AMC doesn't renew the series, but if they do, we would hope that if a promise is made to the viewers at the beginning of the season, it should be kept during that season. The current showrunner has amply demonstrated she is incapable of doing something as simple as that, and it would be a serious mistake to renew the series and retain her in that position.
Telemystery: Charlie's Angels, Dark Blue, Trial & Retribution, New This Week on DVD
Telemystery, your source for one of the most comprehensive listings of crime drama, amateur sleuth, private investigator, mystery and suspense television series, mini-series and made-for-television movies, now available on or coming soon to DVD or Blu-ray disc, is profiling three series being released this week.
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This update of the 1970s series probably wasn't a good idea in the first place — though some reboots work, the currently airing Hawaii Five-0 is a good example — but this contemporary version of the original Charlie's Angels, now set in Miami, seemed doomed from the start, with astonishingly poor casting choices for the angels and Bosley, and Robert Wagner as the voice of Charlie bailing before the first episode began production; he was replaced by Victor Garber. Still, ABC gamely aired four episodes of the new Charlie's Angels before canceling the series.
Charlie's Angels (2011): The Complete Series is available on DVD, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes and consists of eight episodes — only seven of which were actually seen — that originally aired during the Fall of 2011. You can watch scenes from the series — we believe there are two from each of the seven episodes that aired — on ABC's YouTube Channel.
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Dylan McDermott stars as LAPD Lt. Carter Shaw, who leads a special undercover task force in Dark Blue.
Adrift, isolated and frequently faced with situations that strain the line between right and wrong, these officers know that all that matters is loyalty to each other and to the task at hand: bringing down the bad guys.
Dark Blue: Season One is available on DVD, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes and consists of episodes that originally aired on TNT during the Summer of 2009. The series ran for two seasons.
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Created by crime novelist Lynda LaPlante, Trial & Retribution is similar in style and scope to Law & Order in that each episode follows cases from the commission of the crime and the police investigation to the trial of the accused.
Trial & Retribution: Set Five is available on DVD and Amazon Instant Video and consists of two feature-length episodes following the same storyline that originally aired on ITV in June 2002. Detective Superintendent Michael Walker (David Hayman) is assigned to head up a murder investigation after a skeleton is discovered during the demolition of a derelict north London house. The victim is female and in her late teens, but establishing the time of death proves a slow process. Walker is far from happy about working on such a tedious and low profile case and his mood is not improved when his investigating officer turns out to be Jeff Batchley (Paul Kynman), the ex-boyfriend of his partner, Detective Inspector Pat North (Kate Buffery).
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Visit the Telemystery website to discover more television mystery series currently available on and coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray disc, or video on demand.
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