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Lifetime Nears ‘Glass Lake’ Deal

Mar 7, 2005  •  Post A Comment

Lifetime is close to a deal to acquire the rights to Irish novelist Maeve Binchy’s “The Glass Lake” for a two-hour original movie, sources said.

Ms. Binchy also is the author of “Circle of Friends,” which was made into a feature film in 1995, and “Tara Road,” which is currently in production. “The Glass Lake” explores a mother-daughter bond in a small country town. The film will be produced by Granada Entertainment and executive produced by Frank Konigsberg, who also produced Lifetime’s “Caught in the Act” and “Like Mother, Like Son.”

ICM is brokering the deal. Lifetime had no comment.

The project is illustrative of the ongoing programming efforts at Lifetime despite the leadership gap left by former President and CEO Carole Black, whose replacement has not yet been named. Executive VP and General Manager Rick Haskins is making programming decisions in the meantime.

In the past two weeks Lifetime has announced the second-season pickup of its reality series “How Clean Is Your House?” and bought the cable syndication rights to the CBS sitcom “Still Standing” for a 2006 debut.

After a fourth-quarter gain of 8 percent when stacked against the same period last year, Lifetime widened its growth margin with its January and February slates. Led by “More Sex & the Single Mom” last month, Lifetime’s prime-time average was up 15 percent over last year.

Last month also saw the announcement of a slate of scripted originals from Lifetime, both half-hour comedies and one-hour dramas in a wide range of genres. Titles include the Carol Leifer-produced comedy “Thicker Than Water,” sci-fi drama “Female Astronauts” and gender studies-inspired comedy “Tripping the Prom Queen.”