Latest news with #CarlHiaasen
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Scott Speedman To Headline ‘RJ Decker' ABC Pilot As He Eyes ‘Grey's Anatomy' Return
EXCLUSIVE: Scott Speedman has been tapped for the lead in RJ Decker, ABC's drama pilot from Elementary creator Rob Doherty based on the 1987 novel Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen. Speedman will play the title character in the 20th Television pilot, written by Doherty and directed by Paul McGuigan. The casting expands Speedman's existing relationship with ABC and 20th TV through his role as Nick Marsh on Grey's Anatomy. He has been recurring on the ABC/20th TV medical drama after a Season 18 series-regular stint. The RJ Decker casting is not expected to impact that, and I hear the plan is for him to be able to do both should the pilot go to series. More from Deadline ABC Boss On 'RJ Decker' Fitting In With 'The Rookie', 'Will Trent' & 'High Potential' And Ordering More Pilots ABC Orders 'RJ Decker' Drama Pilot From 'Elementary' Creator Based On Carl Hiaasen's Novel 2025 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming RJ Decker centers on the eponymous RJ Decker (Speedman), a disgraced newspaper photographer and ex-con who starts over as a private investigator in the colorful-if-crime-filled world of Carl Hiaasen's South Florida. He tackles cases that range from slightly odd to outright bizarre with the help of his journalist ex, her police detective wife and a shadowy new benefactor — a woman from his past who could be his greatest ally … or his one-way ticket back to prison. RELATED: Speedman's RJ Decker is described as someone who has charm to spare and the owner of a short fuse and a restless soul. Doherty executive produces the pilot alongside Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman of Timberman-Beverly Productions as well as McGuigan and Hiaasen. 20th Television is the studio. I hear Speedman likely would segue to filming appearances on the upcoming 22nd season of Grey's Anatomy after wrapping RJ Decker. At the time of the Season 21 finale in May, Deadline asked Grey's Anatomy executive producer/showrunner Meg Marinis whether Speedman would be back next season. 'Obviously, deals haven't been made yet, but we love Scott, and his character Nick and Meredith are still together,' she said of one of the show's most popular couples, played by Speedman and Grey's star Ellen Pompeo. 'He was also at the star ceremony supporting Ellen, so it was really great to see. Oh, and the fans were so excited to see him there with her.' RJ Decker is the only pilot ordered by ABC in 2025 so far. Greenlighted in May for midseason 2026 consideration, it feels like a good fit for crime shows with a light tone — and a singular lead — on the network such as High Potential, The Rookie and Will Trent. Felicity alum Speedman most recently starred in the Peacock horror series Teacup. He previously was a lead in the TNT drama series Animal Kingdom and had a major recurring role on Season 3 of Netflix's You. In features, he is known for his work in the Underworld franchise. Speedman is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far Everything We Know About The 'Reminders of Him' Movie So Far Everything We Know About The 'Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping' Movie So Far
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bad Monkey EP Bill Lawrence Offers Season 2 Update, Confirms ‘Razor Girl' Adaptation On Hold in Favor of New Story With Same Cast
Eight months after Bad Monkey's Season 1 finale, and six months after the Vince Vaughn-led detective comedy was renewed at Apple TV+, executive producer Bill Lawrence tells TVLine that writing on Season 2 is nearly complete, and cameras will officially start rolling this fall. 'They're almost done in the writers' room,' the EP says. 'We already had to shoot a scene from Season 2 [in Florida, since production is] moving to California, and that starts production in earnest towards the end of September.' (In other words, don't expect a release date any sooner than 2026.) More from TVLine Zach Braff: Scrubs Revival Will Capture Same 'Humor and Heart,' Show How JD Has Been 'Beaten Down by the System' Shrinking Boss Bill Lawrence Tees Up Reunion With His 'Hero' Michael J. Fox, Shares Favorite Spin City Memory Shrinking EP Tees Up Brett Goldstein and Cobie Smulders' Returns, Michael J. Fox and Jeff Daniels' Season 3 Arcs As for the premise, Lawrence confirms that, while they fully intend to adapt the second Andrew Yancy-centric novel, 'Razor Girl,' for a future season, Season 2 will tell a wholly original story, with input from author Carl Hiaasen. ''Razor Girl' is a great novel for people who want to read it, but it's kind of a break from the characters of the first [book],' Lawrence explains, 'and we wanted to have some of the characters from the first season more front and center in the second' — including Natalie Martinez's Rosa. '[Season 2 is] an original story, but we're all Carl Hiaasen aficionados — and, also, Carl consults on the show and has been helping us a ton.' Vaughn stars as the aforementioned Andrew Yancy, a police detective who in Season 1 investigated a bizarre crime in the Florida Keys while on suspension from the force. Martinez co-starred as coroner Rosa, who emerged as a love interest for Yancy, with Rob Delaney and Meredith Hagner playing married scammers Nick and Eve Stripling. The ensemble also included Ronald Peet as Neville, John Ortiz as Ro, Jodie Turner-Smith as Gracie (aka the Dragon Queen) and Michelle Monaghan as Bonnie. Bad Monkey wrapped Season 1 in October. The finale found Yancy and Rosa agreeing to part ways, and Yancy's friend Ro tempting him to look into another case. Its freshman run was based on Hiaasen's 2013 novel, 'Bad Monkey,' while 'Razor Girl' was published in 2016. Ted Lasso Season 4: Everything We Know View List Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
Toronto Star
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
New crime novels feature a locked-room mystery, a Scarborough stabbing and a Jan. 6 insurrectionist
Fever Beach Carl Hiaasen Alfred A. Knopf, 384 pages, $39.99 It's a weird time in American politics, which means it's a perfect time for Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to plumb the satirical depths of corruption and malfeasance in his home state. His last novel, 2020's 'Squeeze Me,' suffered from a subplot that attempted to satirize the once-and-current occupant of the White House, a Falstaffian spray-tanned figure so outrageous as to be almost impervious to satire. For 'Fever Beach,' Hiaasen wisely steers clear of POTUS and his inept administration, preferring instead to focus on wanton corruption at a lower level. 'Fever Beach,' by Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. Knopf, $34.99. The new novel begins with a meet-cute on an airplane between Twilly Spree and Viva Morales. Twilly is a stock Hiaasen character: an independently wealthy Florida do-gooder who spends his time making life miserable for folks who litter, antagonize the local wildlife or otherwise cause environmental or social havoc. Viva's job is administering the foundation of a couple of rich right-wing octogenarians whose fundraising operates as a money-laundering front to finance the campaign of far-right (and profoundly stupid) congressman Clure Boyette, in hot water with his obstreperous father over a scandal involving an underage prostitute named Galaxy. Add in Viva's landlord — a Jan. 6 insurrectionist named Dale Figgo who heads the Strokers for Freedom (a white nationalist militia whose name is a rebuke to the Proud Boys' insistence on refraining from masturbation) — and his cohort, the violent and reckless Jonas Onus, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Hiaasen caper. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Big Bad Wool: A Sheep Detective Mystery Leonie Swann; translated by Amy Bojang Soho Crime, 384 pages, $38.95 Twenty years ago, German-born author Leonie Swann debuted one of the most delightful detective teams in genre history: a flock of sheep on the trail of the person responsible for killing their shepherd with a spade through the chest. After a two-decade absence, Miss Maple, Othello, Mopple the Whale, and the other woolly sleuths are back on the case, this time on behalf of their new herder, Rebecca, the daughter of the early book's victim. 'Big Bad Wool,' by Leonie Swann, Soho Crime, $38.95. Rebecca, her intrusive Mum, and the sheep are overwintering in the lee of a French chateau where there are rumours of a marauding Garou — a werewolf — that is responsible for mutilating deer in the nearby woods. Among other strange occurrences, Rebecca's red clothing is found torn to pieces and some sheep go missing — and soon enough there's a dead human for the flock, in the uncomfortable company of a group of local goats, to deal with. 'Big Bad Wool' is a charming romp, whose pleasure comes largely from the ironic distance between the sheep's understanding of the world and that of the people who surround them. ('The humans in the stories did plenty of ridiculous things. Spring cleaning, revenge and diets.') Their enthusiasm and excitement results in prose that is a bit too reliant on exclamation points, and some of the more heavy-handed puns (like the sheep's insistence on 'woolpower') seem forced, but this is nevertheless a fun variation on the traditional country cosy. Detective Aunty Uzma Jalaluddin HarperCollins, 336 pages, $25.99 Romance novelist Uzma Jalaluddin takes a turn into mystery with this new book about amateur sleuth Kausar Khan. A widow in her late 50s, Kausar returns to Toronto from North Bay to help her daughter, Sana, who has been accused of stabbing her landlord to death in her Scarborough mall boutique. The police — including Sana's old flame, Ilyas — are convinced Sana is the prime suspect, but Kausar is determined to prove her daughter innocent. 'Detective Aunty,' by Uzma Jalaluddin, HarperCollins, $25.99. Her investigation involves a couple of competing developers, both of whom want to purchase the land on which the mall stands, along with members of the dead man's family and fellow shopkeepers. On the domestic front, Kausar finds herself concerned with Sana's deteriorating marriage to her husband, Hamza, and her teenage granddaughter's sullenness and mysterious nighttime disappearances. Jalaluddin does a good job integrating the various elements of her plot, and the familial relationships are nicely calibrated. The momentum is impeded, however, by a preponderance of clichés ('Playing devil's advocate, Kausar asked …'; 'Kausar's blood ran cold') and a tendency to hold the reader's hand by defining every easily Googleable Urdu word or greeting too programmatically. More attention to the writing on the line level would have helped move this one along. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The Labyrinth House Murders Yukito Ayatsuji; translated by Ho-Ling Wong Pushkin Vertigo, 272 pages, $24.95 Yukito Ayatsuji's clever postmodern locked-room mystery was first published in Japanese in 2009; it appears for the first time in English translation, which is good news for genre fans. 'The Labyrinth House Murders,' by Yukito Ayatsuji, Pushkin Vertigo, $24.95. Ayatsuji's narrative is framed by Shimada, a mystery aficionado, who is presented with a novelization about murders that took place at the home of famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro, found dead by his own hand soon after the manuscript opens. Miyagaki has left a bizarre challenge for the writers gathered at his Byzantine Labyrinth House: each must write a story featuring a murder, and the victim must be the writer him- or herself. The winning author, as adjudicated by a group of critics also convened at Labyrinth House, will inherit Miyagaki's sizable fortune. As the writers compete for the reward, bodies start falling in real life and Ayatsuji has a grand time playing metafictional games with his readers, challenging them to figure out who the culprit is in the context of a story that owes more than a small debt to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None.' But Ayatsuji does Christie one better; it is only once the afterword, which closes the framed narrative, has unfolded that the reader fully understands how cleverly the author has conceived his multi-layered fictional trap.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carl Hiaasen's 'Fever Beach' lampoons far-right extremism and Florida politics
Author Carl Hiaasen joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book 'Fever Beach,' which lampoons white supremacy, far-right extremism, dark money, billionaires, and our polarized culture, with Florida as the story's cultural backdrop.
Washington Post
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
From Florida's finest writers, some sunshine for our times
Between them, Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen are authors or co-authors of more than 70 books,with many millions of copies sold. Their works have been adapted into movies, TV shows and plays. Yet their latest offerings — a memoir by Barry, another novel by Hiaasen — feel especially timely. This matched set of Florida's finest writers comes at our fraught, conflicted times with confidence and clear eyes.
