Adam Shankman directing PLAYING FOR PIZZA

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

If it were any other John Grisham adapted project, you would be scratching your heads over this hiring from Phoenix Pictures. There's a great sounding Grisham book The Innocent Man currently being developed by George Clooney and The Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green which tells the true story of Ron Williamson who was sent to Death Row in Oklahoma for 11 years for a murder he didn€™t commit. If it had been that project, we would have something to shout about.

But then you remember that Grisham's latest novel is his most light hearted to date. It's Playing for Pizza - a movie about a veteran NFL quarterback who winds up on a semi-pro team in Italy after blowing his last chance to lead a team to the Super Bowl. Exactly the kind of material the director of Hairspray, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, The Pacifier and Bringing Down the House might end up helming. Adam Shankman is his name, he has just completed working on a Disney comedy titled Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler which is due out around Christmas time.

Shankman is hoping for a Spring start on this project and before he begins work on a Hairspray 2...

"We want to make this grittier than the book, a cross between 'North Dallas Forty' and 'Jerry Maguire,' about a character who fails in the public eye, goes into survival mode as a result and then learns through a series of events that he doesn't have to be Tony Romo to be a success as a man," Shankman said.

Next job for Phoenix Pictures is to find a script writer and a studio. source - variety