The news that a production company will be bringing the works of gothic novelist V.C. Andrews to television might best be met with the response “what took so long?” Then again, anyone who suffered through the painfully bad big-screen adaptation of her most famous novel, Flowers In The Attic, might instead let out a plaintive wail while asking, “Why?” But the Lifetime Network has announced that they are developing a mini-series based on one of the author’s better-received series of books. According to Variety, the mini has been given the somewhat awkward title THE LANDRY (which seems odd, seeing as the books upon which it is based follow the saga of a family named Landry, making a more appropriate title THE LANDRY’S). As with all of Andrews’ early works, the story follows a young girl who grows up poor only to discover as a teen that she is actually part of a wealthy New Orleans family.The books upon which the mini-series will be based were, in order, Ruby, Pearl in the Mist, All That Glitters, Hidden Jewel and Tarnished Gold. Unfortunately, Variety reports that Andrew Neiderman – the ghost writer who has cranked out (as opposed to writing) crappy tomes under the author’s name since her death in 1986 – will be serving as a consultant. Hopefully, the involvement of Neiderman – who showed early promise as a ghost writer but has more recently either run out of creative steam or finally been prove to have none of Andrews’ storytelling ability nor style – will be kept to a minimum. (Better still, here’s hoping someone eventually gives the author’s beloved — if one can use that word to describe a work which features a homicidal mother and her driven-to-incest children — Flowers In The Attic and it’s sequels the treatment they deserve. 
