Patricia Cornwell on why it’s taken decades to bring Scarpetta to the screen

This article first appeared in Radio Times journal.

Had I identified it might have taken 37 years – and the sheer willpower of Jamie Lee Curtis – to bring Kay Scarpetta to the screen, I’d have been very disheartened. I bought my first Scarpetta e-book, Postmortem, whereas I used to be working as a pc analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia and it was first optioned as a film in 1989, proper earlier than it was revealed. Ever since then, it has been out and in of choices.

I requested Jodie Foster if she’d play Scarpetta not lengthy after The Silence of the Lambs got here out in 1991. She checked out me and stated, “Don’t you see why that would be a really bad idea?” I did not; I believed it was the finest concept ever. But it did not go wherever – she wasn’t concerned with that form of position again then. Around 1997, I spent a number of days with Helen Mirren in New York. I’ll by no means recover from the privilege of hanging out with such a tremendous, unassuming and beautiful lady. The studio execs have been frightened about Prime Suspect being so excessive profile… anyway, nothing ever got here of it.

Demi Moore was hooked up for some time. I talked to Susan Sarandon. Angelina Jolie was hooked up to Scarpetta for the higher a part of eight years, however she has all the time fallen aside at the writing stage; nobody appeared to perceive his job as a health worker and so the script by no means labored.

It additionally did not occur as a result of Scarpetta is not a person. In the early days of the sequence – earlier than my books bought over 120 million copies in 36 languages ​​– lots of people had a tough time together with her being a lady. One bookseller instructed me that he could not deal with the concept of ​​a lady coping with the grim stuff that Scarpetta offers with. I reread Postmortem and adjusted all the pronouns to “he”, however that did not work, both.

Scarpetta being a lady is what makes the e-book sequence distinctive, as opposed to it being a unique model of Quincy. But the reality stays that if Scarpetta had been a person, and somebody like Tom Cruise had performed him, he’d have been a family title a very long time in the past. I think that TV sequence would have been very profitable.

Having stated that, I’m thrilled that Jamie Lee Curtis is championing Scarpetta and we now have two seasons commissioned. She stepped in 4 years in the past when she moved into producing and he or she did not notice Scarpetta was obtainable. She took it on and, due to who she is, she has been in a position to entice large expertise, together with Nicole Kidman.

In reality, Nicole circled this undertaking way back, however as soon as once more it sadly fell aside at the script stage. So now now we have the gifted Liz Sarnoff as showrunner [Deadwood; Barry]Nicole Kidman as my heroic protagonist Scarpetta, Jamie Lee Curtis as her outrageous sister Dorothy and Bobby Cannavale as Pete Marino, who works alongside Kay. I’ve all the time beloved Bobby, cute as he’s, and all bets are off about whether or not Marino and Scarpetta can have an affair. Ariana DeBose is stellar as Lucy and who would not love the concept of ​​Simon Baker as Benton?

Before going on set [look out for Cornwell’s cameo in the first episode]I warned Jamie that I’d most certainly flip into slightly puddle on the sidewalk. I used to be so overwhelmed. I do not truly watch many crime reveals, other than Only Murders in the Building, as a result of I do not like to be reminded of what I do for a dwelling when I’m watching TV and making an attempt to loosen up.

Following my early failures – Postmortem was rejected by nearly each main publishing home in New York earlier than Scribner took it on for $6,000 – I discovered not to have excessive expectations, so seeing Nicole Kidman play Scarpetta on TV is magnificent and completely price the wait.

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All episodes of Scarpetta can be found from Wednesday 11 March on Amazon Prime Video.

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