Posted on 08/22/2003 4:10:06 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife
After months of negotiations, CBS has given the go-ahead to a TV movie about Elizabeth Smart and is set to announce a deal that would bring the story of the Salt Lake girl's kidnapping and eventual rescue to a nationwide audience.
CBS is targeting the telefilm for the November sweeps period — close to the scheduled late October release date of the family's book, "Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope."
Both the book and movie will tell the story of Elizabeth's kidnapping and safe return through the experiences of her parents, Ed and Lois Smart.
"The focus of the book is how we dealt with the whole nine months, the ups and downs, how we filled different roles, how we felt differently about things but how we worked together and relied on each other to make it through," Ed Smart told the Deseret Morning News Thursday.
Ed Smart would not say how much money his family was paid for the book and movie deals. Early industry reports from unidentified sources said the Smarts could get $400,000 to $500,000 for the story, the Associated Press reported. Former Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas estimated the family received more than 100 book and film proposals following Elizabeth's safe return.
CBS has signed a deal with Von Zerneck/Sertner Films and Patricia Clifford Productions, which acquired the rights to Ed and Lois Smart's story.
Ed Smart referred any comments about the film to CBS.
"We're happy that they're doing it," he said of the television network.
According to sources at CBS, the movie will focus on the search from the perspective of Elizabeth's parents. There will be some information about Elizabeth's ordeal in captivity, but the network and the producers have committed to avoiding exploitation of the story as much as possible.
The movie deal does not include any exclusive interviews with 15-year-old Elizabeth, her father said.
"We haven't made any promises to anyone with regard to Elizabeth, and we are not planning on anyone interviewing her," Ed Smart said. "Her privacy is something we have been trying to secure, and her life has had so little privacy that we felt it's important for her to be able to keep the little bit that she has."
Elizabeth will start her sophomore year next week at East High School, where she plans to compete as a member of the school's cross country team, her father said.
"She can hardly wait," Ed Smart said.
Elizabeth's parents have spent several hours doing interviews and crafting the book with collaborator Laura Morton. The book will also include family photos previously not released to the public, Ed Smart said.
"There will probably be a couple of comments from Elizabeth (in the book), but overall it's a pretty in-depth look at how we made it through that nine months," he said.
Then 14 years old, Elizabeth was kidnapped from her bedroom at knife-point in the early morning hours of June 5, 2002, sparking a massive search. The teen was found last March 12 walking down State Street in Sandy with her alleged captors, Brian David Mitchell, 49, and Wanda Barzee, 57.
Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who authorities say snatched Elizabeth so he could take her as a plural wife, and Barzee are both charged with aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated burglary and two counts of aggravated sexual assault. All five charges are first-degree felonies. Mitchell and Barzee are also facing one second-degree felony count of attempted aggravated kidnapping in connection with the attempted abduction of one of Elizabeth's cousins.
Both are still undergoing competency evaluations to determine if they're able to stand trial. Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom said Thursday the evaluations could be completed by early October, after which a court hearing would be scheduled, AP reported.
CBS and the movie's producers are in the last stages of casting the major roles, but Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost will star as Elizabeth's parents. Amber Marshall, who co-starred in the CBS movie "The Christmas Shoes" last year, will play Elizabeth. Baker's credits range from the Tom Hanks-Paul Newman film "The Road to Perdition" to the sitcom "The Pitts." Besides TV, Frost had a supporting role in the thriller "The Ring."
Writer Nancey Silvers, daughter of TV legend Phil Silvers, has written a number of teleplays, including such TV movies as "Moms on Strike," "Christmas Every Day," "The Deidre Hall Story" and "Battling for Baby." She consulted with members of the Smart family while working on the script.
The producers have long and varied TV-movie credits. Frank von Zernek and Robert M. Sertner have produced comedies, dramas, horror, fact-based crime stories and historical pieces. They've even done one other Utah-related biopic — "Inside the Osmonds."
Clifford has a similarly varied list of credits that range from high-class productions ("To Dance with the White Dog") to productions for MTV ("The Def Leppard Story") to yet another Utah-tied movie — the 1991 "Aftermath: A Test of Love," which exploited the 1974 Hi-Fi murders in Ogden.
For the most part, however, the team's credits stay away from exploitation — something Ed and Lois Smart are looking to do.
The Smart TV movie will not be produced in Utah but in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, a common practice in the entertainment industry because of lower costs north of the border. Filming is slated to begin on Sept. 2.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth's uncles, David and Tom Smart, are writing their own account of the kidnapping story with the help of Deseret Morning News columnist Lee Benson. Tom Smart has been working on his portion of the book during a four-month leave of absence from his job as a photographer with the Deseret Morning News.
The book won't be released until after the conclusion of Mitchell and Barzee's trial so as not to interfere with the release of Ed and Lois Smart's book and movie, he said.
"Ed and Lois have wanted to tell their story, and that's what they're going to tell," Tom Smart said. "We just had different journeys. They are two different stories as far as what happened. We haven't really talked to publishers or signed anything with an agent yet. We've just been kind of waiting for Ed and Lois to do what they were going to do."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.