According to Variety magazine, Fox 2000 is close to finalizing a deal that will unite the talents of media matriarchs Angelina Jolie and Patricia Cornwell. Patricia Cornwell is the author of the best-selling series of crime mysteries based on the character Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a sleuthing former medical examiner, to be played by Jolie.
There are 16 Scarpetta novels, meaning a franchise is hoped for, but this film won’t be tied to a specific Cornwell mystery title. Much the way that Jason Bourne morphed into an action hero in plots not rigidly locked into the Robert Ludlum book series, the opera-loving coroner Scarpetta will be the lead in a suspense thriller in the vein of “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Seven.”
Patricia Cornwell, whose most recent novel “Scarpetta
Jolie and Cornwell seem like a perfect pairing to me – you have one of Hollywood’s biggest box office draws signing on to a franchise that doesn’t require perpetual youth and already has at least 16 well-written stories waiting. (Let’s be honest, the sexist ageism of moviegoers will allow for a sixty-five-year-old Indiana Jones, but the same can’t be said for Lara Croft) I look forward to renting a DVD and grossing out my grandkids by remarking how hot Angelina Jolie looks without her reading glasses. (Would that make me a Dr. Scarpettaphile?)
