William Monahan to adapt Grisham's THE ASSOCIATE for Shia LaBeouf

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Once again, one wonders if the name William Monahan is actually a pseudonym for three or four Hollywood scribes because Variety carry news of at least the 100th project he has must be working on right now. Paramount Pictures have hired the Oscar winning THE DEPARTED scribe to adapt John Grisham's latest best selling legal thriller THE ASSOCIATE which since December has had Shia LaBeouf attached to lead.

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.

LaBeouf became a fan of the novel whilst reading it on the set of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN last Summer and convinced producer Lorenzo Dibonaventura that this was to be his next starring vehicle. I've yet to read Grisham's latest but I do like the idea of LaBeouf channeling more the Tom Cruise early 90's (a film like THE FIRM comes to mind) than becoming the tired old young lead of the Summer blockbuster.