A Time to Kill is easily one of the most memorable performances of Matthew McConaughey's entire career. The legal thriller was one of his big breakout roles, starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock, proving he had the acting chops to be part of the big leagues. 25 years after the film based on the John Grisham novel was released, HBO has acquired the rights to the New York Times bestseller's sequel, A Time For Mercy. And McConaughey is in final negotiations to come back and reprise the character of Jake Brigance.
A Time For Mercy was released in 2020, following up the first two John Grisham books that are focused on the attorney Jake Brigance — A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row. Each of the books presents a difficult case for Jake. In A Time To Kill, he defends a black man (Jackson) accused of murdering the two white men who raped his young daughter. In A Time For Mercy, he must step up to defend a 16-year-old boy, Drew Gamble, who murdered a deputy sheriff, also his mother's boyfriend, with claims he had been abusing him, his mother, and sister. Brigance puts his career on the line to save Drew from the gas chambers and uncover the truth.
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The story will pick back up in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi that Grisham fans will recognize from the film covering the first novel. Full of difficult law enforcement officers and a capital murder trial that will keep you on the edge of your seat, we're hoping the new series is every bit as incredible as the 1996 film. Part of the reason Grisham is so good at covering the drama of a courtroom and details surrounding a death penalty case is that he was a lawyer himself once upon a time, also in a small Mississippi town. He now has some of the best books ever written surrounding the law including The Firm and The Pelican Brief, also made into major feature films.
According to Deadline, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who produced the 1996 film, has signed on to executive produce the 10-episode limited series. Apparently, the decision was made to bring the courtroom drama to television instead of in the form of a film in order to best adapt every detail of the story.
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