Caffeinated Clint
One of my favourite film adaptations of a John Grisham yarn – come to think of it, there’s only a couple I don’t like, “The Chamber” would have to be my least favourite – would have to be 1993’s “The Firm” directed by the late great Sydney Pollack and starring Tom Cruise in the role of idealistic, abruptly rich young lawyer cum dibber-dobber Mitch McDeere (and a wonderful Jeanne Tripplehorn as his persecuted wife).
The book is great and the film does a great job of condensing what’s a fairly fat, complex story into two-hours. The casting was spot-on (even smaller parts, like Gary Busey’s Eddie Lomax P.I, were perfectly filled), the pacing was just right and Robert Towne did a great job of trimming the fat from the story, leaving only the finer, most important details.
A TV series based on the book has been doing the rounds for years (at one time it was set to go at CBS) and at long last, looks like Mitch McDeere is headed to Television. THR says Lukas Reiter is [still; it was his script that landed on CBS’s desk a few years back too] the writer and Grisham is an executive producer – and that’s it? – on a pilot over at NBC. If the network agrees to pick up the show, it’ll be for the entire 22 episodes of the first season.
The series would be set ten years after the events of the film with McDeere leaving witness protection (he ratted on the mob, remember?), only to discover he should’ve stayed ‘under’ a little longer.
The show plans to shoot in Canada around July.
NBC doesn’t seem the best fit for a legal thriller like “The Firm”, these types of shows usually work best on cable, but ya never know…
