Last night I went to see "State of Play" with Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and, Helen Mirren. It has been given rave reviews (ABC, At the Movies) and is based on the BBC mini-series (2003) of the same name (although the BBC version is about the UK government and Oil Companies). I saw the mini-series and loved it! The film, I think, enhanced the mini-series due mainly to the well-crafted and fast action of this thriller. Russell Crowe is outstanding in the lead role. I liked Bill Nighly as the Herald's Editor (in the mini-series) but Helen Mirren is just as good, if not better!

To base a WebQuest around this movie and mini-series, Media Teachers, could use this material as stimulus material and then give the students the following problem: Spooks, another outstanding BBC mini-series, has been proposed as a Hollywood film......

Students, in teams [of course!] would need to come up with a proposal that differentiates from the BBC mini-series but still has the essence of that production. Students would need to work out casting, script, and, technology (updates) to convert this to a movie.