BACK FROM THE DEAD

After 64 years, murdered film director William Desmond Taylor (the case was written up in last week’s Calendar) is very much alive--in development deals.

Author Sidney Kirkpatrick said Paramount has taken a six-figure option on his book about the unsolved murder, “A Cast of Killers,” with Robert Towne and Kirkpatrick scripting. (As a neat irony, the book suggests that Paramount was involved in a cover-up after the murder.)

CBS was among several bidders who lost out to the studio, but TV could still beat out the movies: Writer-producer Bob Shayne is after Doug Whitton about optioning the researcher’s material on the Taylor case.

Meanwhile, NBC’s “1986” series (formerly “Almanac”) is X-raying the walls of an L.A. mansion, looking for a bullet that may figure in the case.