Student’s book adapted for network TV movie

A book describing life as a tracker of missing persons, written by UW–Madison history graduate student Hannah Nyala, has been made into a television movie scheduled for broadcast Tuesday, Nov. 24 on the CBS network.

“Point Last Seen” airs on CBS Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. CST.

“Point Last Seen” is a suspense drama to be broadcast starting at 8 p.m. CST. Linda Hamilton stars as the head of a search-and-rescue team desperate to save the life of a lost child, while enduring the absence of her own children, who have been kidnapped by her dangerous ex-husband.

The book is based on Nyala’s similar experiences. “They took some liberties,” Nyala acknowledges.

Nyala’s editor was contacted earlier this year by producers who were interested in purchasing the rights to her book, also called “Point Last Seen.” The book, originally published last year by Beacon Press and now available in Viking Penguin paperback, describes how Nyala joined the National Park Service to track missing persons after her own children disappeared with her ex-husband.

Nyala, who is studying American history at the university, served as the movie’s technical director. She says she hasn’t seen the final version scheduled to air Tuesday but says it contains no onscreen violence at her insistence. She calls the movie “complex and gritty” and says it doesn’t have “your typical feel-good ending.”

The movie was produced by Alexander/Enright and Associates. Director Elodie Keene (who has directed episodes of L.A. Law, ER and Ally McBeal, among other shows) worked from a script by Ronni Kern.