After a couple years of publishing, the Hard Case Crime imprint has made a name for itself among old-school crime aficionados. It has a great strategy: resurrect lost works by authors like Lawrence Block, Ed McBain and Mickey Spillane and present them alongside new fiction, all wrapped in sexy new covers for a reasonable price. Even regular joes know a little something about the label, thanks to contributions from big contemporary names like Stephen King.
And now Hard Case has a producing partnership with Papzian-Hirsch Entertainment, which has most recently been unearthing Rome for HBO. (Granted, they also built Nash Bridges.) Their first project is slated to be Little Girl Lost, written by Richard Aleas, about a detective whose ex-girlfriend is found shot to death on the roof of a dirty NYC strip club.
Wait a second…’Aleas’…alias…indeed, Richard Aleas is the pen name of Hard Case originator/publisher Charles Ardai. No surprise that the first picture will come from the guy behind the whole enterprise; let’s hope that it justifies spending more to film some of the classic entries in the series.