Legal crime author John Grisham just keeps cranking out the kind of novels Hollywood loves to turn into movies. Grisham’s latest, “The Associate,” doesn’t hit bookstore shelves until January 27, 2009, but it already has a film deal.
Earlier this week, reports came out that actor Shia LaBeouf had won the lead role in the movie version of “The Associate.” Last summer, I saw LaBeouf in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Also, I caught him in the first “Transformers” flick. I thought the good-looking LaBeouf was okay in both films, but he did not do any heavy acting. The legal thriller, “The Associate,” will more than likely give LaBeouf a meaty role where he can really show off his serious acting chops.
“The Associate” is a legal thriller about a sharp young Yale Law School graduate who lands a dream job in a top law firm only to have a secret that threatens his whole career catch up with him. This is Grisham’s 22nd novel. Several of his books already have been turned into movies including “The Client,” “A Time to Kill,” “The Rainmaker,” “The Firm, and “The Pelican Brief.”