A film based on ABC’s 1965-69 Big Valley is the brainchild of producer Kate Edelman Johnson, the daughter of the late Louis Edelman, who co-created the original series and wrote more than 100 episodes. The first question has to be who could possibly fill Barbara Stanwyck’s shoes as Victoria Barkley, matriarch of the Barkley empire? Current speculation points to Susan Sarandon, who would indeed make a close-to-perfect choice.