William Monahan To Adapt John Grisham’s THE ASSOCIATE

William Monahan who wrote script for “The Departed” will adapt John Grisham‘s bestselling thriller “The Associate” for Paramount. The studio acquired rights to the novel late last year. Lorenzo di Bonaventura who is producing and Shia LaBeouf sparked to the notion of doing it together after reading the book in galley form while they were on the set of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” LaBeouf will play a Yale Law School student with a sordid secret that leaves him vulnerable to blackmail. He's manipulated into taking a job at a law firm and working on a multibillion-dollar lawsuit. Monahan, who won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay the Asian film “Infernal Affairs” into Martin Scorsese‘s “The Departed,” is preparing to make his directorial debut on his scripted adaptation of the Ken Bruen novel “London Boulevard,” which will star Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley. William Monahan also wrote “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Body of Lies” and “Edge of Darkness.”