Columbia buys 'Long Run' spec

March 23, 2008 In another sign that the town is waking up from the slumber brought on by the WGA strike, Columbia has pre-emptively plunked down low-seven figures for "The Long Run," a spec by scribe Stephen Belber. The script centers on a journalist who helps exonerate a highly charismatic death row inmate of a crime he didn't commit. When the former inmate is recruited to run for elected office, the journalist leaves his post to orchestrate his rise to political prominence but soon faces a crisis of conscience as he discovers that his friend might be guilty of murder after all.

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