TV series about Aleut private eye?

Kate Shugak may be headed for television

By Debra McKinneyThat gutsy, savvy, Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak and her not-so-little dog, Mutt, are closer than ever to sleuthing their way off the pages of the Dana Stabenow mystery novels and onto television screens.

Mike Devlin of Evergreen Films bought the option to bring the Alaska based Kate Shugak Alaska P.I., series, by author Dana Stabenow, to television.

From his state-of-the-art, upper Hillside studio, Mike Devlin of Evergreen Films Inc. announced Tuesday that the film production company has acquired the option to develop the Stabenow series. That means a television show is now in the works. And, if it all eventually works out, the show will be filmed in Alaska.

A deal like this has been a long time coming for the 57-year-old Alaska-born bestselling author.

Stabenow said she's had money waved in her face for years and has turned down six-figure offers. She even had Kate Jackson and Demi Moore interested in playing Kate, the legendary investigator for the district attorney's office who retreats to her wilderness homestead after a life-altering knife fight with a child molester.

She did sign a deal in 2003 with Anchorage-born filmmaker Mike Kelly, with the promise that filming be done in Alaska. But finding a willing producer didn't pan out, and the rights expired a year later. Since then, she's held out.Comment:  Kate Jackson and Demi Moore...really? Apparently these people are clueless about playing Natives in "redface"--i.e., misappropriating Native identities.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians and The Best Indian Books.