ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

MOVIES & TV

Is the Robert Blake Case

Headed for the Screen?

It didn’t take long.

SilverCreek Entertainment said Wednesday it has picked up the movie and literary rights to the Robert Blake case, as told by Christina Scheier, a longtime friend of the actor’s slain wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

Scheier claims to have photos, letters and postcards providing motives for the murder in Bakley’s own words. No hit man was involved, she says.

The “Thelma & Louise”-style story encompasses “newly discovered information which may solve yet another crime of the century,” said Larry Garrison, president of SilverCreek. “We are confident that Christina knows it all and has decided to avenge her best friend’s death.”

The working title of the book, to be written by Garrison, is “Best Friends Never Die.” The project will, most likely, end up on TV.

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Lauer: Early to Bed

for Three More Years

Matt Lauer has extended his deal with NBC for at least another three years, TV Guide reports. It says the pact includes a hefty raise that may more than double his estimated $4-million annual salary.

NBC sources say the 44-year-old “Today” co-host, who had more than a year remaining on his contract, signed shortly after fellow host Katie Couric agreed in December to a whopping $65-million, five-year deal.

An NBC News spokeswoman declined to comment, but according to an executive at the network, “Matt’s future at ‘Today’ is extremely secure.”

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THEATER

‘Into the Woods’ Lands Gently on Broadway

Direct from the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, the revival of “Into the Woods” drew mostly favorable reviews on Broadway.

“By all means, go to ‘Into the Woods,’” wrote Ben Brantley of the New York Times--though he found James Lapine’s book a bit repetitive. Linda Winer of Newsday disagreed about the script, calling it “dark, wise and adorable--even more lucid now.”

A rave by Clive Barnes in the New York Post said the piece “is as bright, intriguing, funny, complex, puzzling, charming, slightly preachy and musically elaborate as ever.” But Howard Kissel of the Daily News begged to differ. The show, he observed, is “coarse from start to finish,” with a cast that “is, for the most part, charmless.”

Charles Isherwood of Variety found the revival “flashier and blessedly brisker” than the original, though “it never quite ceases to be a theatrical conceit.” He praised Vanessa Williams’ portrayal of the witch, however.

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QUICK TAKES

PBS has ordered nine more episodes of Gregory Nava’s Latino drama “American Family.” ... Intermedia has acquired rights to remake “Billy Jack,” the 1971 film in which Tom Laughlin starred as a loner taking on the establishment.... Oscar-winner Halle Berry will star in and produce two MGM pictures: a remake of the 1974 blaxploitation film “Foxy Brown” and the character study “Brown-Eyed Girl,” Variety reports.... DreamWorks, which was said to have won a bidding war for the rights to the TV classic “Hawaii Five-O,” is unwilling to meet one of the terms of the producer and is now one of several companies vying for the project.... Vin Diesel will not be appearing in Universal’s sequel to the street-racing hit “The Fast and the Furious,” Variety reports. Director Rob Cohen, whose participation was contingent on the actor returning, will also be a no-show.