Garcia, known for his imaginative series of "Rex" books, featuring a modern-day Los Angeles private detective who is actually a latex-disguised dinosaur, is represented by a talent agency whose clients include producers/screenwriters Ted Griffin and Sean Bailey. Garcia's agent, who loved the Matchstick manuscript, sent copies to Bailey and Griffin, thinking it might strike a chord with them.

"It's a freight train of a plot with emotional depth, which is rare," says Bailey, a recent Emmy Award nominee as executive producer of the innovative HBO documentary series Project Greenlight. "It sparked both of us."

Griffin, who previously collaborated with Bailey on the noir drama Best Laid Plans and more recently was the screenwriter on Steven