The Runaway Jury- the movie

[Guest fairtoflair7]

Does anyone besides me feel that changing the plot to this great book is a mistake? In the movie, coming out later this fall , instead of tobacco, guns are the cause for the big case. This is the only complaint I have.

 

The cast they assembled is great. Cusack, Hackman, Weiz, Hoffman, Piven and many others are in this. Cusack will be great in the lead role. Directed by Gary Fleisher this looks liek a winner.

[Guest Flyboy]

I read the book in school this year (not required) and I loved it. I do feel it would be better if the plot stay with the topic of cigarettes and tobacco companies instead of gun products, though.

[Guest Mik at Cornell]

I think in a way it ruins the entire plot of the movie. The tobacco plot made pefect sense.

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

What are Easter and Marlee's motivation now? Father was killed by a gun?

Just stupid.

 

With that said, I love Cusack and it's one of my favorite Grisham books. I'll be checking it out.

[Conspiracy_Victim]

Exactly Mik. Why did they have to change it from tobacco? They can paint just a big, if not bigger, conspiracy with tobacco companies as they can gun companies. And it's not like it un-PC to rag on cigarettes.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

Maybe they feel that with movies like The Insider and others, the big tobacco conspiracies have been overused and something different might be more enticing to audiences. Some people didn't like how they changed the terrorists in The Sum of All Fears, but I found it refreshing to see some terrorists that weren't arab, irish, or rogue US military, for once.

[Conspiracy_Victim]

First of all, is that Dusty in your sig, Hogan? Damn that's a fat ass cat!

 

Now, in Sum of All Fears, they could replace the terrorist organization because you could pretty much put in whoever you wanted and explain how they got their hands on a nuke. The Arab terrorists in the book got it via a crash of a plane during the 7 Days War, but there are numerous other explanations possible.

 

In The Runaway Jury, the companies being sued are an integral part of the story. The WHY of the whole story is explained by WHO is involved. Changing it means changing the whole basis for the story. I'm sure they'll come up with something, it's just a pet peeve when major plot points of a book are radically altered or dismissed altogether in the movie.

[Guest MDH257]

Waner bought The Runaway Jury's movie rights soon after it was published for about $10 Million. At the time it was the most ever paid for the movie rights to a book (this was during the time when a couple of Grisham movies were coming out every year). The problem was that soon after, Big Tobacco started losing all their court cases and eventually made their big settlement with the government. Warner almost had to make the movie, because of how much they paid for the book, but they felt the story was weak since Tobacco was no longer the "unbeatable villian". Warner decided that the Gun lobby would better fit the "unbeatable in court" role.

[Guest Mik at Cornell]

Waner bought The Runaway Jury's movie rights soon after it was published for about $10 Million. At the time it was the most ever paid for the movie rights to a book (this was during the time when a couple of Grisham movies were coming out every year).  The problem was that soon after, Big Tobacco started losing all their court cases and eventually made their big settlement with the government.  Warner almost had to make the movie, because of how much they paid for the book, but they felt the story was weak since Tobacco was no longer the "unbeatable villian".  Warner decided that the Gun lobby would better fit the "unbeatable in court" role.

Ah. Suddenly it all makes sense. Perfect sense in fact. Now I can see why they did it. Thanks for the info.

 

Just out of curiousity... how much of the $10 million does Grisham get you think? I'd imagine he's insanely wealthy at this point. (Not JK Rowling wealthy, but still)