HBO Developing New John Grisham Series With Matthew McConaughey Reprising ‘A Time to Kill’ Role
Attorney Jake Brigance may be coming to HBO.
An adaptation of John Grisham’s 2020 book A Time for Mercy is in the works, with Matthew McConaughey reprising his role from the 1996 film version of the author’s A Time to Kill, according to Variety. (A Time for Mercy is the third in Grisham’s books about Brigance, after 2013’s Sycamore Row.)
In A Time for Mercy, which takes place in Clanton, Mississippi, in 1990, Brigance is the lawyer for 16-year-old Drew Gamble, accused of killing a local deputy, who was his mother’s boyfriend and who reportedly abused them and Drew’s younger sister.
So far, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is attached to serve as an executive producer of the Warner Bros. Television series.
In the 1996 movie, Brigance defended a Black man (played by Samuel L. Jackson) after he avenged his daughter by killing the two white men who raped her. Its cast also included Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Ashley Judd, Kiefer Sutherland, and Patrick McGoohan.
For A Time for Mercy‘s release, McConaughey promoted the book on his Instagram with a photo of himself reading it, on September 20. And Grisham also promoted McConaughey’s Greenlights on his social media on November 18 with a photo of both their books.
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“Aside from being published by imprints of @penguinrandomhouse and aside from being great gifts, these two books share a lot in common,” Grisham wrote in the caption. “Name a few?”
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McConaughey’s TV credits include HBO’s True Detective (Season 1), Eastbound & Down, and Sex and the City, and a voice guest spot on King of the Hill.
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