Movie Make-out

It must be awesome to be best-selling novelist Patricia Cornwell.

Because as Variety noted, Cornwell, who writes a series of mystery novels with a female medical examiner as the main character, is so protective of Dr. Kay Scarpetta that only after getting to meet Angelina Jolie in person and have discussions about how one would bring the project to life in a screen version would she allow Fox 2000 to acquire the rights to her book series.

The very idea that Cornwell has so much creative control that she can make Angelina Jolie come to her just gives me the shivers, you know?

There are 16 books in the series which screams “Franchise!”, but the article states that the first movie won’t be specifically tied to any one of the movies. It sounds like any movie version would be “inspired by” rather than “based on” and I really don’t know how Cornwell fans would feel about that.

There are also going to be two non-Scarpetta books being made into TV movies for Lifetime (At Risk and The Front), and part of me wishes that Cornwell were so protective of those books that she didn’t sign the contract.

I’m a huge Nora Roberts fan, so when Lifetime recently did showcased four movies based on Roberts’ properties, I was so excited because I’d read two of the books, and the actors were people I thought were okay.

I don’t have DVR so I couldn’t tape the shows, but when I did get to sit down to catch a showing of Midnight Bayou one Saturday, I ended up turning off the TV in disgust.

Here’s hoping the Fox 2000-Angelina Jolie-Kay Scarpetta triad has more success as a live-action movie.