Fries Plans to Beat CBS on Film About Stuart Murder-Suicide

A week after CBS announced that it would produce a television movie based on the Stuart murder-suicide case in Boston, Fries Entertainment said Thursday that it planned to make a rival four-hour miniseries based on the same sensational events.

“We can work more rapidly than a network that has scheduling and programming concerns that go far beyond this project. I think we can beat them to the punch,” said Butch Fries, the production company’s senior executive vice president.

Fries Entertainment plans to air the miniseries in first-run syndication on an “ad hoc network” of stations around the country. Fries could not specify when the docudrama would make it to television, but he said his company would get it on the air “soon.”

CBS’ movie will be produced by Arnold Shapiro, executive producer of CBS’ “Rescue 911,” which was with the ambulance that responded to Charles Stuart’s frantic call for help on the night last October that he and his pregnant wife were shot after leaving a childbirth class. When a police investigation pointed to Stuart as his wife’s killer, Stuart killed himself by jumping off a bridge Jan. 4.

CBS declined to comment on the rival project, and Shapiro was not available. The network does not have an air date yet for its movie, which could include the footage of the crime scene shot by “Rescue 911.”

Fries said that he did not believe there is a need for two movies on the incident but that he didn’t think “CBS had preempted anyone else from this area” just because the network announced its project first. Other production companies are reportedly developing projects on the case.

But Charles W. Fries, chairman of Fries Entertainment, which has produced TV movies about such real-life crime cases as ABC’s recent “Small Sacrifices” and last year’s “The Case of the Hillside Stranglers,” conceded that it is important to get on the air first. “This is a competitive race,” he said.