Court TV plans bombing telepic

Project focuses on Baxley's pursuit of killers

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- Court TV has settled on its first original movie, a co-production with Alliance Atlantis about the aftermath of the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four black girls.

The case pushed its way back into the headlines this month when an Alabama jury convicted Thomas Blanton of the crime. Blanton became the second man brought to justice for the bombing, after the 1977 conviction of Robert Chambliss.

Story draws dual net interest

The tentative title of the Court TV movie is "A Bombing in Birmingham." Earlier this year, the FX cable network said it would do a movie about the incident called "Sins of the Fathers."

Howard Meltzer is executive producer of the telemovie, which will focus on the Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley and his dogged pursuit of the men who committed the crime. The writer is Donald Martin. Production will begin in late summer for an on-air date sometime during the first quarter of '02.