Matthew McConaughey returning for ‘A Time To Kill’ on HBO – Deadline

25 years after playing the role that helped him launch his career in It’s time to kill, Matthew McConaughey may be preparing to return to court. Sources told Deadline, HBO acquired the rights to the John Grisham novel, A time of mercy, the sequel to Grisham’s classic novel, and are developing it as a limited series with McConaughey in the final negotiations to repeat the role of defense attorney, Jake Brigance. Sources say the series would be 8 to 10 episodes with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who served as an executive at Warner Bros. in the 90s, when Time to kill had a green light, is about to produce.

HBO / WB TV did not comment.

The original novel takes place in Clanton, Mississippi, and follows a fearless young lawyer as he defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter. The case transformed the small town into a cliché of tension that includes the violent incitement of revenge and revenge of the Ku Klux Klan. The romance was another success for Grisham and Warner Bros. he quickly turned the book into a film, inviting the late Joel Schumacher to direct and defining a first-class cast to star in the film. While the film is filled with movie stars like Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson and Kiefer and Donald Sutherland, Schumacher decided to summon McConaughey, a relative unknown at the time, to star. The film became a success, put McConaughey on the map of the protagonists and is still considered one of the best adaptations of Grisham to date.

At the A time of mercy, Brigance finds himself involved in a deeply controversial trial when the court names him a lawyer for Drew Gamble, a shy 16-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a quick trial and the death penalty, but Brigance investigates and finds that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Brigance’s strong commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career and the safety of his family at risk.

A time of mercy is actually the third Grishams book to feature the character Brigance with the second being Sycamore Row, which was released in 2013. There was never a discussion to adapt this book, but when Grisham made it known that a third Brigance novel was on the way in 2020, McConaughey was drawn to the idea of ​​returning to the role that helped launch his career.

Although McConaughey spent a lot in the past year promoting his memories Greenlights on his social networks, he set aside time in the fall to promote A time of mercy on his Instagram before its release, giving many fans the hope that one day they would see him repeat the role, unaware that the Oscar winner was already in negotiations to make his return. As for the decision to follow the path of the limited series instead of making it into a film, the decision was made to allow the whole story to unfold and dive deeper into all the characters involved in the book instead of cutting shortcuts in one two hour film. It also marks McConaughey’s return to HBO after following his Emmy-nominated work as Rust Cohle in the hit series Real detective.

Sources say that HBO is now meeting with writers to write the series and adds that no director is currently hired, so production is still a long way off. McConaughey is represented by the WME.