EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Jason Bateman will be making his third feature as a director with Universal‘s adaptation of John Grisham‘s The Partner. The Ozark star, EP and director will also executive produce The Partner under his Aggregate Films, with his partner Michael Costigan producing.
Deadline first told you about the project which Tom Holland is producing and is planning to headline.
Rideback secured rights to the 1997 novel and put Imitation Game Oscar winning scribe Graham Moore on it and set the project up at Universal. Rights were previously in the hands of New Regency which made Grisham classics Time to Kill, The Client, and Runaway Jury. Jonathan Eirich will produce the feature and Nick Reynolds will executive produce for Rideback.
When Holland’s deal is final, he’ll play 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.
Bateman has been previously nominated by the DGA for his directing work on Ozark, and Bateman won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Director for Ozark in 2019 as well. His previous films where he has served as director include Bad Words for Focus Features and Starz Media’s The Family Fang. He can currently be seen on the Netflix series Black Rabbit on which he stars, EPs and directed. He also co-stars and co-produced DTF St Louis for HBO.
Holland will produce for Billy 17 alongside Harry Holland and Will South. Grisham and David Gernert are also EPs.
Universal SVP of Production Development Ryan Jones and Director of Production Development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the project for the Studio.
Bateman is represented by CAA, Lighthouse Management + Media, and Shelter PR.
The post Jason Bateman In Talks To Direct Universal Feature Take Of John Grisham’s ‘The Partner’ With Tom Holland, Rideback & Aggregate Producing appeared first on Deadline.
