Tom Holland Engaged In John Grisham’s ‘The Partner’ At Universal; Graham Moore Adapting
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The novel was written by Grisham at a time he was getting as much as $8 million for movie rights to compulsively readable thrillers that made strong vehicles for stars and directors. That included putting Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Sam Jackson on fast tracks in A Time To Kill, along with Tom Cruise (The Firm), Matt Damon and Claire Danes (The Rainmaker), Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon (The Client), Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts (The Pelican Brief), and John Cusack, Gene Hackman and Rachel Weisz in The Runaway Jury.
The Partner gives him the opportunity to play a less sympathetic character, a route he took in Cherry and The Crowded Room. The protagonist is Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a white shoe Biloxi law firm who fakes his own death in a burning car. He’s left behind a wife, newborn daughter, and a secret. What he’s actually done is fake his death to create a template for a new life by stealing $90 million from a client of his crooked law firm. He finds happiness and love in South America. When the client who worked so hard to defraud the government finds the money is missing from his offshore accounts, he becomes determined to hunt down the lawyer he doesn’t believe is dead. That leads the attorney to have to turn himself in to the FBI and face up to the wife, child and life he left behind.
The Partner gives him the opportunity to play a less sympathetic character, a route he took in Cherry and The Crowded Room. The protagonist is Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a white shoe Biloxi law firm who fakes his own death in a burning car. He’s left behind a wife, newborn daughter, and a secret. What he’s actually done is fake his death to create a template for a new life by stealing $90 million from a client of his crooked law firm. He finds happiness and love in South America. When the client who worked so hard to defraud the government finds the money is missing from his offshore accounts, he becomes determined to hunt down the lawyer he doesn’t believe is dead. That leads the attorney to have to turn himself in to the FBI and face up to the wife, child and life he left behind.