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After more than 40 years, one of the most beloved and acclaimed children's stories is coming to the small screen. Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery Award-winning book A Wrinkle in Time is part science fiction, part coming-of-age novel. And it's been made into a TV movie which airs on ABC Monday night. NPR's Susan Stone reports.

Ancient Rome and Greece seem to be the hot topics for major motion pictures once again. Troy, with Brad Pitt as Achilles, opens in theaters next weekend. Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone, opens this summer. Pat Dowell reports on why filmmakers find the ancient venues so appealing.

Miracle -- a film about the 1980 American Olympic hockey victory over a powerhouse Soviet team -- opens in theaters. Hear NPR's Scott Simon, Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Ron Rapoport and New York Times entertainment critic Elvis Mitchell.

Fiction and historical distance can sometimes allow us to examine our current worries in a different light. Ann-Marie MacDonald sets her second novel The Way the Crow Flies at the height of the Cold War. She uses the tensions generated by the U.S.-Soviet arms race to explore a contemporary issue: governmental secrecy. Martha Woodroof reports.

Researcher Dan Starer provides bestselling authors with all manner of background information for their novels. Starer has dug up historical and scientific tidbits to give the ring of truth to more than 100 bestsellers. He speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Viktor Krauss, a bassist of choice in Nashville, has issued his first album as a group leader. The new recording, Far From Enough, doesn't showcase Krauss's bass. Instead, it places him in the more traditional role of bringing out the best in his colleagues. Critic Jim Fusilli has a review.

NPR's Michele Keleman talks to author Cormac O'Brien, whose book Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents details some great and some not-so-great background stories of America's presidents.

Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson has spent more than 20 years writing a cycle of plays that chronicle black life in 20th-century America, decade by decade. For Intersections, a Morning Edition series on artists and their inspirations, the playwright discusses how he first found the language of the black experience in blues legend Bessie Smith.

NPR's coverage of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 2003 Oscar awards: Film music critic Andy Trudeau talks about the Oscar-nominated film scores, and dissects how music can make a good film great.

Sam Miltich is an 18-year-old who lives in the Minnesota woods and plays jazz guitar in the style of Django Reinhardt. He practiced for nine hours a day to become good enough to play in Amsterdam with one of Europe's hottest swing guitar groups -- and also at Lincoln Center. Chris Julin of Minnesota Public Radio reports.