Oline Cogdill

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I have long thought that television and film waste a wonderful source of good drama by not tapping more into the crime fiction genre. Look at how long it took Michael’s Connelly’s Harry Bosch series to make it be filmed. (Details here.)

So I am always pleased when I hear that network executives are at least considering crime fiction as a source.

The latest that may make it to the small screen—and I say may because nothing is ever in stone when it comes to TV or film—is a series based on Randy Wayne White’s Doc Ford novels.

CBS has put in development the appropriately named Doc Ford series based on White's series of 20 novels.

Marion “Doc” Ford is a retired NSA agent who is now a mild-mannered marine biologist who lives in a tight-knit marina in Sanibel Island, which is located on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Doc Ford is mild-mannered and unassuming, except, of course, when he is seeking justice for those in need or called back into service to use his very special skills. Of course, Doc Ford is called back into service a lot.

White’s series began with Sanibel Flats in 1990 and includes Night Moves, published last year. Gerolmo (Mississippi Burning, The Bridge) is writing the TV adaptation.

White’s series has the potential to make great TV. The novels include lots of adventure, an interesting hero, and a wide range of supporting characters. (A profile of White ran in Mystery Scene’s Winter 2010 issue, No. 113)

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The Sanibel Island and Captiva areas of Florida are just gorgeous—pristine waters, land that hasn’t been overdeveloped, and beautiful beaches. Since Florida has a number of very good actors, the producers should make good use of local talent as did other series filmed here such as Burn Notice, The Glades, Graceland, as well as others. Doc Ford’s adventures center around Florida but also take him other places so there will be good fodder for scenery.

“I’ve worked with Randy for twenty books now, and I’m still constantly surprised by the stories he creates for Doc Ford and Tomlinson and his wonderful new character, Hannah Smith. Getting to read their adventures before anyone else does is one of the tremendous perks of my job!” said Neil S. Nyren, senior vice-president, publisher, and editor in chief at G. P. Putnam's Sons. Nyren’s quote came during a recent email exchange I had with him.

White has been awarded the Conch Republic Prize for Literature and the John D. Macdonald Award for Literary Excellency. His national PBS documentary, The Gift of the Game, which he wrote and narrated, won the 2002 Woods Hole Film Festival Best of Festival award.

A fishing and nature enthusiast, he has also written extensively for National Geographic Adventure, Men’s Journal, Playboy and Men’s Health.

In a press release, White said “The thing I love most to write about is Doc Ford and his friends at Dinkin’s Bay. I was a light tackle fishing guide at Tarpon Bay Marina on Sanibel Island, Florida for 13 years, and the Ford novels afford me the opportunity to revisit a time, and people, about which I care deeply.”

In the same release, White also said why Florida is the perfect setting for his novels. “Florida is an American microcosm that lures the best and the worst sort of people from all of the Americas, not just the U.S. I love the social diversity as much as I adore the varieties of subtropical land and waterscapes."

White continued, "For much of my life here, I’ve lived in an old Cracker house, tin-roofed, with a fireplace for heat, built atop the remnants of a shell pyramid that was constructed more than three thousand years ago by contemporaries of the Maya. Florida is an ancient place, but as modern as the latest South Beach fads in fashion and food. From my acre on the bay I can stand atop a mound, where kings once parlayed with Conquistadors, and watch the Space Shuttle arch toward the moon.”

Photos: Top, Randy Wayne White photo by Wendy Webb; Center, Randy Wayne White on his annual swim across Tampa Bay, a fund-raiser for the Navy SEALS, photo by Bill Hirschman

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