Stabenow, Evergreen Ink Television deal: set anchor for Alaska film industry emergence.

• Author: Harrington, Susan
• Position: FILM - Editorial

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Alaska's own Dana Stabenow, New York Times best-selling author of 17 Kate Shugak, Alaska PI novels, signed a development deal with Anchorage-based Evergreen Films to bring the novels to television. The series will be filmed in Alaska, and, if Stabenow has her way, will feature an Alaskan in the lead role.

Stabenow has for years turned down cinematic options from around the world to bring her murder mysteries to life, until Evergreen offered to film in Alaska.

"This is my heart's desire, that's what I was holding out for and that is the guy who's going to do it," Stabenow said.

That guy is Mike Devlin, who merged his Dangerous Passage Productions film company with Evergreen Films in January 2009. Devlin started making documentaries in Alaska in 2006, and is the driving force behind the emerging Alaska film industry.

"The anchor is a television series," Devlin said.

He's already produced "Icy Killers: Alaska's Salmon Sharks" for the National Geographic Channel using innovative HD/3D/2D/CGI, theatrical-film, digital-production techniques. Filmed in Prince William Sound "Icy Killers" is a prime example of Devlin's imaginative storytelling and breakthrough cinematic excellence.

"Dana will be heavily involved in screenwriting," Devlin said. "She knows the...