Potempa: Valpo author’s books airing as TV movies
Last week, I included an item about author Kate Collins, who hails from Valparaiso, and the release of “Moss Hysteria,” ($7.99 Penguin), book No. 18 in her popular Flower Shop Mysteries series.
As readers quickly reminded me, not only has Collins, who is now a New York Times best-selling author, hit the flowerpot jackpot in the publishing world, but she’s also a growing success in the medium of movies.
Collins signed a contract last year for the film rights for her Flower Shop Mysteries book series and the production company began filming last October.
In January, her first book, the 293-page “Mums the Word” released in 2004, aired as a made-for-TV movie on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries cable network and starring Brooke Shields as the book’s female lead character, Abby Knight.
And now the second movie in the book-to-film series, “Snipped in the Bud,” is ready to air at 8 p.m. April 24 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries with more intrigue and fun with Shields once again portraying heroine Abby, a law-school drop-out turned floral designer and would-be detective.
Collins, formerly an elementary teacher from Hammond, said originally, she had Abby as a lawyer, but editors liked her second pitch with the heroine being a florist.
“Besides Brooke Shields back as Abby, actor Brennan Elliott returns as boyfriend Marco with Kate Drummond as Nikki and Beau Bridges as Abby’s dad, along with a few others, all as the regular cast,” Collins told me.
“Brooke is also an executive producer of the series. My son and I got to visit the movie set in November and had an amazing experience. Boy, did I get a new appreciation for the hard work actors do. We enjoyed having a beer with Brooke in the hotel bar after filming one night.”
She said Brad Krevoy, president of Motion Picture Corp of America, is who first contacted her about the proposed movie deal.
“So far he’s optioned 15 of the books and three have already been filmed and at least two more are planned for this year,” Collins said.
“Talk about feeling blessed. It’s a dream come true.”
Read more by Phil Potempa in Chicago Tribune