Last week, on an Internet Movie Database page devoted to a movie titled "Winter of Frozen Dreams, " someone posted the following on a message board: "I 'll be dead before this comes out. "

That seems a little pessimistic, even morbid, but I must say I feel the messenger 's pain. A film by that title was shot 14 months ago but what has become of it now seems nearly as mysterious as the murder case that inspired it.

Some of us in Madison have been waiting to see a movie of "Winter of Frozen Dreams " since the 1990s, when ABC-TV first optioned Madison author Karl Harter 's 1990 book by that title.

Harter 's book was about one of the most notorious murder cases in Madison history. In June 1980, a brilliant UW-Madison chemistry student named Barbara Hoffman, who also worked as a masseuse, was convicted of murdering Harry Berge, one of her massage parlor clients. She was acquitted of murdering Gerald Davies, who had also been a client. Both men had listed Hoffman as a beneficiary on life insurance policies.

Jim Doyle, now governor, was Dane County district attorney while the Hoffman case played out, and he later suggested to his friend Harter that he write a book about it.

The book seemed a natural for some kind of film noir treatment. There was considerable interest over the years, but somehow the options always lapsed and the new millennium arrived without a movie about the Hoffman case.

As for the woman herself, imprisoned at Taycheedah, she slowly receded from public awareness. In this Hoffman differed considerably from Lawrencia Bembenek, with whom she shared an attorney, Donald Eisenberg of Madison.

Where Bembenek -- convicted of a murder in Milwaukee in 1982 -- gave many jailhouse interviews proclaiming her innocence, Hoffman has never given a single interview.

While Bembenek, even after her release from prison, has continued to petition the legal system to have herself exonerated, Hoffman, who became eligible for parole in 1991, "waived consideration " for parole in September 2000 and has not reapplied for parole consideration.

Bembenek 's case was made into a movie for NBC, starring Tatum O 'Neal, in 1993. People had begun to think there might never be a Hoffman movie, but then, around 2000, an ambitious and talented Madison man named Michael Graf, who specialized in shooting high-end broadcasting advertising spots, optioned Harter 's book and collaborated with two friends on a screenplay that got noticed.

The script was almost filmed here in early 2006. A production company out of New York set up offices downtown. The actor James Woods was tentatively set to play Chuck Lulling, the colorful Madison police detective who helped solve the case.

But as sometime happens in the world of independent film, there were last minute complications involving financing, and the film was postponed.

For more than a year, there was no further word, and then one day in March of last year I received an e-mail from somebody in Schenectady, N.Y., asking if I knew that the production of "Winter of Frozen Dreams " was 18 days into a 35-day shoot in Schenectady.

I immediately called Harter, the author. "What? " Karl said. "You 're kidding me. "

It was true. Eric Mandelbaum was directing Thora Birch as Barbara Hoffman and Keith Carradine as Chuck Lulling in the movie, which according to news reports out of Schenectady would be set in an unnamed city. An actor named Derek Cecil was playing Jim Doyle and Scott Cohen was cast as Don Eisenberg.

When I tried to reach the producers, however, I never heard back, an inexplicable trend that continues today. That 's their business, I suppose, but what small film isn 't looking for publicity? Especially in the city where the real events portrayed in the film took place? It 's especially vexing now that more than a year has passed since shooting and there has been no word about the fate of the film.

In January, another message on the Internet Movie Database said this: "Still no word on the release date. It was supposed to be at the Sundance Film Festival, but it is currently not on the list. "

Harter told me Friday that he e-mails the producers about once a month, asking if there is any update, but he hasn 't heard back.

I phoned the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce this week, and a woman in the office told me they 'd heard about two months ago from the producers that the movie is finished. It looks good, she was told, and they 're seeking a distributor. She gave me an e-mail address for the producers, but when I wrote asking for an update, they did not respond.

We may have to bring Chuck Lulling back from the grave to figure out what is going on.

Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.