In 2003, the six-hour BBC miniseries State of Play, an intricate story about an up-and-coming Minister of Parliament, his dead female assistant, and the newspaper reporters on their trail, won over critics and raked in award nominations. Now a high-profile feature-length makeover aims to do the same stateside.

Russell Crowe stars as reporter Cal McCaffrey, investigating the friend he once helped to elect, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). When Collins's assistant is murdered, the scandal quickly mushrooms. Collins was having an affair with the assistant, and then a courier carrying pictures of the two together is found dead. A simple affair turns into international intrigue involving lobbyists, defense contractors, and an attempt to strong-arm the newspaper's editor into pulling the story.

Helen Mirren takes over the role of the newspaper editor that won Bill Nighy a BAFTA (the U.K.'s Emmy), and Rachel McAdams plays a blogger-turned-reporter caught between McCaffrey and the story (played in the original by No Country for Old Men's Kelly Macdonald).

But the most interesting casting choice has to be Jason Bateman as Dominic Foy, a bisexual, mohawked club promoter with an OxyContin habit. Bateman's got aggrieved middle age down pretty well, but can he hack leather daddy?

State of Play went through a shakeup late in pre-production that juggled the cast. Until a week before filming began, Brad Pitt was set to play Crowe's part, and Ed Norton to play the congressman (which would have been their first onscreen reunion since Fight Club). When Pitt left because of script changes, the delayed schedule interfered with Norton's next film, so we have a much different film than might have been.

Director Kevin Macdonald also directed the Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September, about the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, and The Last King of Scotland, the acclaimed biopic about Idi Amin. But it's hard to know if State of Play will find its audience.

The trailers are disappointing, more or less interchangeable with any other political thriller, and Crowe's and Affleck's star power isn't quite what they once were. But if Macdonald can keep the pace and twists of the original six hours, this should be on your list when it hits theaters on April 17.

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