Rose McGowan Set to Be the Sheriff of ‘Napa’

By  · Published on October 4th, 2011

Rose McGowan looks set to return to her butt-kicking best in Michael Kerr’s Napa. The film is based on Hans Ostrom’s novel Three to Get Ready, a novel the Fulbright scholar published through small imprint Cliffhanger Press back in 1991. Ostrom and Kerr have adapted the script together, and producer Kerr will also use the film as his feature directorial debut.

Not much is known about the book beyond its basic logline ‐ it “centers around Scarlett Harding (McGowan) who gets a job as Sheriff in her hometown of Napa after returning from three military tours of Afghanistan.” It’s not known if the film will be set in the timeframe the book covered, with Scarlett returning from her military service in the early 90s, or if it will be moved more towards present day. Whichever type of war Scarlett returns home from, she’ll face some sort of mystery in her new job, as the film is also being billed as a “romantic thriller” and Ostrom himself calls it “a mystery novel.” Right now, the biggest mystery of all is just what McGowan’s Scarlett will face in the film.

Napa is known throughout the world as one of America’s premiere winemaking regions, the sort of tag that may come with all sorts of swank connotations, which could prove to be a bit misleading when it comes to Kerr’s Napa. I bring to this story a bit of expertise, in that I lived in Napa for a number of years, and can speak to its true character ‐ on a basic level, it’s actually a very standard small town, but one built on a multi-billion dollar industry. In short, the sort of deceptive setting that’s perfect for a small town mystery that a plucky sheriff who has been out of the loop for awhile might accidentally uncover and doggedly pursue. Who knows what Scarlett will find growing in the vineyards beyond just the grapes? [Variety]