With Partricia Cornwell’s murder-mystery medical examiner ,Dr. Kay Scarpetta, one of the most famous literary characters around at the moment, it’s a surprise no one’s made a film based on her before. Sony used to own the screen rights to the character, but let them expire. They were then picked up last April by producer Mark Gordon, who announced that he’d got Angelina Jolie to agree to to star.
Now comes news (via RiskyBiz) that Kerry Williamson has been hired to write the script. Quite why it’s taken so long to find someone to pen the screenplay is anyone’s guess, but at least there now seems to be some movement on the Scarpetta film.
Although Williamson hasn’t had any films make it to the screen yet, her script, Fork In The Road, is in development with Alexander Payne attached to direct, while Darren Aronofsky is involved with Breaking From The Bank, which she penned based on a Sports Illusrtrated article.
Apparently the screenplay will draw from the world and characters Cornwell has created, but not from any of the 17 novels’ specific plots. To be honest, that seems an odd choice, as you’d think that with millions of copies sold, taking one of the stories from the book would be the way to go. Hopefully they know what they’re doing though.