I've been meaning to get around to see the Red Riding trilogy, a series of British films about power and police corruption that center around the disappearance of three young girls. But given that the whole thing is over five hours long, and sounds incredibly grim, you can probably understand why I've been putting it off.

And now Ridley Scott is making it so I never have to see it at all! According to Variety, he and Columbia Pictures are planning a remake of the miniseries, with the setting transferred to the U.S. and the five hours somehow trimmed down to a feature running time. (Maybe they can take some hints from John Woo?)

Steve Zaillian, who last wrote the doomed Soderbergh project Moneyball, also wrote American Gangster for Scott, and it sounds like this gritty crime movie might be right up the same alley. If the original is as good as they say it is, Scott will have a lot of good content to choose from. Then again, the last American feature made from an English miniseries was State of Play, so there's a potential cautionary tale in here as well.