Cannes jury president and five time Academy Award winner, Francis Coppola, has signed on to direct John Grisham's best selling novel, "The Rainmaker", for Michael Douglas and Steven Reuther's production company. "The Rainmaker", which will be released in the US through Paramount, is Grisham's biggest selling hardback novel to date and weaves a powerful - but at times humorous - tale of legal intrigue and moral bankruptcy. Coppola recently completed principal photography on Jack, which stars Robin Williams, Diane Lane, Fran Drescher and Jennifer Lopez.
Successful film adaptations of Grisham's novels include "The Firm", "The Client" and "The Pelican Brief". Upcoming films based on the author's novels include "A Time To Kill", directed by Joel Schumacher, and "The Chamber", directed by James Foley, while the novelist has also had time to write an original screenplay, "The Gingerbread Man", set to star Kenneth Branagh, the overseas rights for which are with PolyGram.
Grisham's next novel is, and this is not a joke, "The Runaway Jury".
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