Cinemystery: A Kay Scarpetta Film More Likely Now that Patricia Cornwell is with HarperCollins

A movie based on Patricia Cornwell's series character Kay Scarpetta is more likely to happen than not now that the author has moved from Penguin to HarperCollins.

In the press release announcing the transition, Fox 2000 Pictures President Elizabeth Gabler, who is developing a film based on Cornwell's novels, says, "We are tremendously excited about bringing Kay Scarpetta to life in the feature film adaptation of Patricia Cornwell's fantastic books. Scarpetta is one of those rare, larger than life characters — brilliant, intuitive, tough, and sexy — and it is one of our greatest priorities to begin production on the film as soon as possible." (Fox 2000 Pictures, like HarperCollins, is owned by News Corporation.)

Angelina Jolie has long been associated with the simmering film project, and remains the top choice to play Scarpetta in any film adaptation.

Cornwell's first book to be published by HarperCollins under its William Morrow imprint will be in Fall 2014.