Emmy winner Jason Bateman is set to make his third feature as a director with a film adaptation of John Grisham’s 1997 novel “The Partner” at Universal Pictures. It follows on from his first two films “Bad Words” and “The Family Fang”.
The story follows Patrick Lanigan, a well-liked, well-paid young partner in a thriving but crooked Mississippi law firm. He steals $90 million from a wealthy client who has been defrauding the Government, fakes his own death and runs for his life to Brazil – leaving behind a wife and newborn daughter.
For four years, he has evaded the client who would stop at nothing to find him. Now he is coming home to turn himself in to the FBI and face up to the wife, child and life he left behind.
The work was Grisham’s eighth novel, the prior seven – “A Time to Kill,” “The Firm,” “The Pelican Brief,” “The Client,” “The Chamber,” “The Rainmaker,” “The Runaway Jury” – have all been adapted to film.
Attempts have been made over the years to adapt the work as a film or TV series but those versions never got out of development.
Holland will also serve as a producer on the film, which is being adapted by “The Imitation Game” scribe Graham Moore. Bateman will also executive produce while Holland, Harry Holland, Will South, Michael Costigan and Jonathan Eirich will produce.
Source: Deadline
