Good news for local author Monica Drake, as well as her (also local) publisher, Hawthorne Books:

Saturday Night Live cast member Kristen Wiig is using her own money to option Clown Girl, the 2007 Monica Drake novel that Wiig will adapt into a feature script. She wants to play the heroine, Nita, a clown in crisis who works street fairs as Sniffles the Clown. Nita is barely surviving in her hometown of Baloneytown, pining for a dream man who used her to finance his attendance at clown college,. As a result, she struggles to live and tries to resist the potentially lucrative prostitution trade involving clown fetishists. The dark novel was published by Hawthorne Press in 2007 and the option deal is being handled by Inkwell Management.

Options don't equal movies, of course, but it's an enticing possibility nonetheless. Also of note: "Universal... is making an untitled comic vehicle for [Wiig] that will be directed by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow and Barry Mendel." Paul Feig! Freaks and Geeks!