A Hollywood actress has signed on to produce a TV series based on a local author's books.
Casey Lyall, a branch assistant with the Middlesex County Library in Strathroy, is overjoyed by the interest in her work.
"The whole Howard Wallace, PI series has been optioned by Entertainment One and The Mother Company, and Drew Barrymore's company Flower Films has signed on as executive producer," said Lyall. "I'm really excited to see what they're going to do. The plan is to turn it into a half-hour comedy."
Lyall said she had no idea the actress was involved until the production companies released the information.
"I had all kinds of messages from my agent, saying 'Call me!, Check your e-mail!,' so I got on the phone with her and opened up her email and saw the article from DEADLINE and my first reaction was like 'am I reading this right? Is this the real thing? Is this actually happening?' and I had to keep clarifying and checking with her that this was the real truth."
The 36-year-old said she expects it will still be some time before the series reaches our screens.
"It's kind of a funny thing when you're the author because you're not as involved in the process as you are with writing the books, obviously. I believe that they're going to be working on trying to find someone to work on the script, but I'm not sure how that process is going to go. I'm sure I'm going to find out eventually, but right now this is the first major hurdle."
Lyall's first Howard Wallace PI novel was released in 2016 and followed by two sequels; Shadow of a Pug and Sabotage Stage Left.
The series is geared to young adults and is about a Grade 7 student detective who teams up with the new girl in town to solve mysteries.