Casey Anthony Prosecutor's Book In Development At Lifetime

The book isn’t yet published yet, but Lifetime is already in the development stages for a TV movie based on Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony by Casey Anthony prosecutor Jeff Ashton. Promising all kinds of dirt on the trial of the year -- perhaps of the decade, though the decade is too young to call -- the book is already a bestseller and it hasn’t even hit shelves.

Shockwaves ran through the country when Casey Anthony walked away with a not guilty verdict in her trial for the murder of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. Casey had already been prosecuted and found guilty in the eyes of the public, but the actual prosecutor was unable to get a guilty verdict from the jury. The book promises to delve into the details of how the prosecution built their case and where they may have gone wrong. After it was announced in August, it jumped to number one on the BarnesandNoble.com sales rankings.

With so much interest in a book that isn’t even published, it’s not surprising that a TV movie is already in the works according to The Hollywood Reporter. Even less surprising is that the TV movie is being developed by Lifetime, a network known for melodramatic TV movies. A woman who may have murdered her daughter and gotten away with it? That’s Lifetime’s bread and butter.

The movie doesn’t have the green light just yet, but Alison Cross, who wrote Roe V. Wade starring Holly Hunter back in the '80s, is on board to write the adaptation and will share executive producer duties. Of course, the big question is who will play the 24-year-old mother and defendant -- it has potential to be a big role for an up-and-coming starlet. Whoever it is, she’ll be hard-pressed to be as good an actress as Anthony herself, who, in spite of partying and getting upbeat tattoos during the weeks following her daughter’s disappearance, appeared the grieving mother at the trial.