According to The Hollywood Reporter, cable network IFC in conjunction with Lionsgate is producing a feature length movie based on Laurell K. Hamilton’s series of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels and plans to broadcast the film in 2010.  Glenn Morgan (The X-Files) is writing the screenplay for the first Anita Blake movie.

Given the success of True Blood on HBO, the development of similar programming based on Hamilton’s 16 Anita Blake novels (#17 is due out in June) seems like a no-brainer, and cable, rather than network TV, would appear to be the right small screen destination for this sexy sleuth of the supernatural.  According to THR IFC and Lionsgate are hoping that this will be the first in a series of Anita Blake movies.

Marvel Comics has adapted the first two Anita Blake novels, Guilty Pleasures and The Laughing Corpse, into the comic book/graphic novel format (the first graphic novel collection of The Laughing Corpse is due out in late May), so any further exposure of character should only help increase sales of Anita Blake novels and comics in both the direct and bookstore markets.