As usual, actual private eye flicks are few and far between, but if you have any leads on current or upcoming P.I.-related theatrical releases (or any films that might be of particular interest to regular visitors to this site), please let me know.
In the meantime, perhaps you should check out our DVD page, to see what's new on the small screen.

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• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  P.I. pickings are so slim these days that the only glimmer of cinematic light is this big budget Hollywood remake of a Swedish film concerning an investigative reporter and a computer hacker with behavioral issues. Fortunately, it looks like it might be a good one. The film's based on the gabillion-selling international publishing sensation, and both the the trilogy of novels by Steig Larsson and the three Swedish flicks based on them have zillions of fans. So while it may be only a glimmer, it's the biggest damn glimmer in years -- certainly one of the most anticipated P.I. movies in years. One question: the Swedish films had this great, downtrodden, gritty vibe and a great cast of people about as exotic looking as your next door neighbour, lead by Michael Nyqvist as the working schmo business reporter in all his beat-down, schlumpy middle-aged glory. In the Hollywood version, he's played by... James Bond? (December 2011)
  
  
• One for the Money
  A big Hollywood feature film based on the first novel in Janet Evanovich's wildly successful series of humorous books about New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, produced by and starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie. It also stars John Leguizamo, Daniel Sunjata and Debbie Reynolds as Stephanie's pistol-packin' Grandma Mazur. Surprisingly entertaining. Nobody will mistake it for Chinatown, but in it's own way, it's an amazing piece of work, unapologetically satisfying., and tthe rare screwball action flick that never overplays its hand or resorts to cheap shots to entertain fourteen year olds.

COMING SOON (HAH!)
P.I. films in various stages of development hell...

• Perry Mason
  Now that he's pissed all over Sherlock Holmes, the buzz is that Robert Downey, Jr. wants to make his mark on another beloved detective hero: Erle Stanley Gardner's slippery shyster, Perry Mason, and he and wants to do it as a period piece. Hmmm... and Johnny Depp has been tinkering with the idea of a Thin Man remake, also in period drag. Just a coincidence, I'm sure...
  
  
• A Cool Breeze on the Underground
  Nick Stahl (The Man Without a Face, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) will play Ivy League student turned private eye Neal Carey in this adaptation of the 1991 novel by Don Winslow. Eric Bress is set to direct.
  
  
• Untitled 
  Miami Vice director Michael Mann is pitching a Leonardo DiCaprio untitled noir drama, written by John Logan, supposedly takes place on the old MGM lot in the 1930s. DiCaprio will play a private eye/studio fixer who cleans up after stars' scandals created by its stars. He's hired to investigate whether a starlet murdered her husband.
  
  
• Hawaiian Dick
  No, really. There's a lot of talk about this retro flick set in Hawaii, circa 1953, about a down-on-his-luck big-city detective who gets involved in a botched kidnapping that leaves a local island girl dead. Only problem is, she won't stay that way. And if the resulting flick is half as good as the comic book by B. Clay Moore and Steven Griffin, this is gonna be a keeper. johnny Knoxville is rumoured to star, if this sucker ever gets made. It's pencilled in for a 2009 release.
  
  
• The Equalizer
  It was announced in early 2007 that crime writers Terrill Lee Lankford and Michael Connelly were writing the screenplay for The Equalizer, a big budget update of the popular TV show from the eighties. The Weinstein Company and Mace Newfeld Productions were set to produce. That version, though, seems to have been scrapped, because by December 2013 it had been replaced by a new production, set to debut in 2013, written by Richard Wenk, with Alex Siskind and Escape Artists producing, and Denzel Washington to star as the guilt-ridden British secret agent trying to atone for past sins. Uh, DENZEL?

Respectfully compiled by film/television editor Chris Baldemor and site editor Kevin Burton Smith.