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Pastimes : Authors & Books & Comments -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (2096)	10/27/2009 4:12:55 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9626

Our local Agatha Christie aims for the big time. I never started reading this series, but maybe I should... TV show based on Alaska novelist's books in the works By DEBRA McKINNEY adn.com Last Modified: October 27th, 2009 11:14 AM That gutsy Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak and her no-so-little dog, Mutt, are closer than ever to sleuthing their way off the pages of the Dana Stabenow mystery novels and onto television screens. From his state-of-the-art, upper Hillside studio, Mike Devlin of Evergreen Films Inc. announced today that the film production company has bought the rights to the Stabenow series. That means a television show is now officially in the works. And, according to the agreement, it will be filmed in Alaska. A deal like this has been a long time coming for the Alaska-born bestselling author. "I have held out," Stabenow said by phone after arriving here from her home in Homer for the announcement at Evergreen today. "I have had a lot of offers, and I always said I would never sell to anyone who wouldn't put Alaska on the screen next to Kate and Mutt. "My agent is not very happy with me. Sometimes I think I'm too stubborn to live." Stabenow is among the many frustrated that movies and television shows set in Alaska get filmed just about anywhere but. Like "The Guardian," which was filmed in Louisiana, "Mystery Alaska" and "Insomnia" in Canada, and "Northern Exposure" in Washington state. Evergreen, based in Anchorage and Los Angeles, will be among the first to take advantage of the new Alaska Film Incentive Bill, an enticement for filmmakers to do their work here. Sponsored by Anchorage state Sen. Johnny Ellis, tax break legislation was signed into law last year. Stabenow said she's has turned down six-figure offers in the past. She even had Kate Jackson and Demi Moore interested in playing her heroine Kate, the legendary former Anchorage district attorney investigator who operates out of a wilderness homestead after barely surviving a knife fight with a child molester. Stabenow did sign a deal in 2003 with Anchorage-born filmmaker Mike Kelly under the same stipulation. But finding a producer willing to film in Alaska didn't pan out, and the rights expired a year later. The Alaska stipulation isn't written in stone. Stabenow been assured by "many, many, many people" that writing that into a contract is something an entertainment attorney could undo in five minutes. So this is about trust. "I have Mike's word," Stabenow said. "And I believe him. If anyone can get it done, he can." Negotiations began in May, and Stabenow finally signed the contract last Friday. "You have no idea how hard it's been to keep this a secret," she said. "There's a clause in the contract that is devoted specifically to me keeping my mouth shut." A Kate Shugak television series is still way down the road, she said. But this deal means it's finally moving in the right direction. * Kate Shugak Series** stabenow.com