Content Starts Here

Indie director shooting Grisham's "Innocent Man"

20/03/2007 15:11

By Gregg Goldstein

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - George Clooney’s plans to bring John Grisham’s nonfiction book "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town" to the big screen are moving ahead with indie filmmaker David Gordon Green in final negotiations to write and direct the movie.

The book, which was published in October by Doubleday, tells the true story of Ron Williamson, a man wrongly convicted of murder who spent more than 10 years on death row in Oklahoma. Clooney’s Smoke House production banner, which he runs with Grant Heslov, teamed up with Warner Independent Pictures to buy the rights to the book in December.

The deal solidifies Green’s move from small indie features -- the critically acclaimed "George Washington," "All the Real Girls" and "Undertow" -- to working with name talent.

The last Grisham crime book to end up in theatres was 2003’s "Runaway Jury." Adaptations of his legal thrillers such as "The Pelican Brief" and "The Firm" were a movie mainstay in the early 1990s.

In a separate development, Warner Independent has nabbed rights for much of the world to Green’s dark domestic drama "Snow Angels," which premiered in January at Sundance. The studio plans to release the film next year.

"Snow," produced for less .....continued below

Advertisement starts

Advertisement ends

than $5 million, is an adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s 1993 novel. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell a separated couple in a small town whose lives take a turn for the worse after she begins an affair with the husband (Nicky Katt) of her best friend (Amy Sedaris).

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

By Gregg Goldstein

The deal solidifies Green’s move from small indie features -- the critically acclaimed "George Washington," "All the Real Girls" and "Undertow" -- to working with name talent.

The last Grisham crime book to end up in theatres was 2003’s "Runaway Jury." Adaptations of his legal thrillers such as "The Pelican Brief" and "The Firm" were a movie mainstay in the early 1990s.

"Snow," produced for less than $5 million, is an adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s 1993 novel. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell a separated couple in a small town whose lives take a turn for the worse after she begins an affair with the husband (Nicky Katt) of her best friend (Amy Sedaris).

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Page: 1 | 2