Columbia has purchased the rights to the novels and British mini-series "Red Riding" about power and police corruption framed around the investigation into the disappearance of several young girls.  The studio is negotiating with Ridley Scott to direct the film and with Steve Zaillian to write the screenplay.  If they both sign on, it will be their third collaboration after "Hannibal" and "American Gangster".  While it's no easy task to condense a six-hour miniseries into a two-hour movie, I was impressed with what this year's "State of Play" was able to accomplish, although a large part of that film's success was due to how Jason Bateman chose to pronounce the word "garage". [Variety]