TV Movie in Planning on Watkins’ Enron Saga

Film and television studio Artisan Entertainment Inc. said it bought rights to the life story of Enron Corp. Vice President Sherron S. Watkins and the upcoming book “Power Failure” to turn into a television movie.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Artisan is best known for releasing the hit independent film “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999. Its recently formed Artisan Television wing is a supplier of made-for-TV movies.

Since Enron’s bankruptcy filing in December, Hollywood has been scrambling to develop TV movies based on its accounting scandals and downward spiral.

Artisan recently hired former “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman as a consultant for an Enron TV movie it is developing with FX cable TV channel.

At “60 Minutes,” Bergman was instrumental in gaining national exposure for tobacco company whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand. Bergman’s and Wigand’s story formed the center of 1999’s Oscar-nominated movie “The Insider.”

The book about Watkins, written by journalist Mimi Swartz, was sold recently to Doubleday for $500,000. It examines the Enron crisis through the eyes of its leading female executive, who found herself at odds with the company’s male-dominated upper echelon.