Matthew McConaughey returns for HBO’s ‘A Time To Kill’ sequel – Deadline

25 years after playing the role that helped launch his career in A time to kill Matthew McConaughey may be about to return to the courtroom. Sources tell Deadline, HBO has acquired the rights to the John Grisham novel, A time for mercy, the sequel to Grisham’s classic novel, and develops it as a limited series with McConaughey in final negotiations to reprise the role of defense attorney, Jake Brigance. Sources say the series would consist of 8-10 episodes starring Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who served as director of Warner Bros. in the ’90s when A time to kill was greenlit, is about to produce.

HBO / WB TV did not comment.

The original novel was set in Clanton, Mississippi and followed a fearless young lawyer as he defended a black man charged with the murder of two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter. The affair turned the small town into a hotbed of tension that included the violent incitement of revenge and revenge by the Ku Klux Klan. The novel was another Grisham and Warner Bros. success. quickly moved to turn the book into a movie, tapping the late Joel Schumacher to direct and set an A-list cast to star in the movie. While the film is filled with a number of movie stars like Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson and Kiefer and Donald Sutherland, Schumacher decided to bring in McConaughey, a stranger at the time, to star. The film continued to be a hit, put McConaughey on the top men’s card, and is still considered one of Grisham’s best adaptations to date.

In A time for mercy, Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him as lawyer for Drew Gamble, a shy sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local MP. Many in Clanton want a speedy trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Brigance’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career and the safety of his family on the line.

A time for mercy is in fact the third book by Grishams to feature the character of Brigance, the second being Sycamore Row, which was published in 2013. There was never any discussion about adapting this book, but when Grisham let it be known that a third Brigance novel was on its way in 2020, McConaughey was drawn to the idea of return to the role that had helped launch his career.

Although McConaughey has spent much of the past year promoting his memoir Greenlights on his social networks, he took time in the fall to promote A time for mercy on his Instagram ahead of his release, giving many fans hope that he will someday reprise the role, not knowing the Oscar winner was already in talks to make his comeback. As for the decision to go the limited series route rather than making a movie out of it, the decision was made to allow the whole story to unfold and dive deeper into all of the characters involved in the book. rather than cutting corners in a two hour movie. It also marks McConaughey’s return to HBO after following his Emmy-nominated work as Rust Cohle on the hit series. Real detective.

Sources say HBO is now meeting with writers to write the series and add that no director is attached at the moment either, so production is still a long way off. McConaughey is replaced by WME.