Ostar Productions Acquires Laura Lippman's IN A STRANGE CITY For TV

Ostar Productions has acquired the television rights to Laura Lippman's IN A STRANGE CITY, the sixth of the Tess Monaghan novels. Academy Award Nominee Jay Cocks will write the pilot episode for the new series which is expected to go into production for the 2011 Season.
The role of the sharp-witted private detective has yet to be cast.

Ostar Productions' Bill Haber (TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, Rizzoli & Isles, Moguls and Movie Stars; Broadway's The History Boys, Behanding in Spokane and Monty Python's Spamalot) said, "I am thrilled that the character of Tess Monaghan will be finally seen on series television. Laura has created one of the most powerful and interesting women in contemporary crime fiction and I know her many fans, and well as those new to her work, and going to be truly excited and engrossed by this character and the dangerous world in which she lives.
"I'm also delighted that multiple Academy Award nominee Jay Cocks is onboard to establish and launch the series and that Tina Brown joins us as Executive Producer."

IN A STRANGE CITY is set in the back alleys and waterfront of the city of Baltimore. Ace investigative reporter, Tess Monaghan, becomes a private eye, accidentally, when the newspaper she is writing for collapses and she needs to find a new line of work.

The adventures of Laura Lippman's resourceful heroine have been told in ten best-selling novels and numerous short stories. Ms. Lippman has received every major American prize for mystery writers including the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, the Quill, Gumshoe and Barry awards, among others. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages.

Author Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The Baltimore Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published several Tess Monaghan novels before leaving daily journalism in 2001.

Former critic for TIME and Rolling Stone, Jay Cocks has been nominated twice for an Academy Award for the scripts of Martin Scorcese's Age of Innocence (1994) and The Gangs of New York (2003). Other films he has written for Scorcese include Made in Milan (1990) and Silence, which is in production currently. He also wrote the screenplays for De-Lovely (2004) and Strange Days (1995).

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