FACT: I’ve always liked Matthew McConaughey. That said, the man has had a pretty rocky career. For every Dazed & Confused or Frailty, there is a Wedding Planner or Fool’s Gold. While the man himself rarely fails to disappoint in the lesser fare that he appears in, it doesn’t change the fact that the good films have been few and far better in recent years.* Even most of his detractors, however, sat up and took notice of The Lincoln Lawyer earlier this year.
Adapted from the Michael Connelly novel by the same name, the film was both compelling and packed with over a dozen great performances. The lead, L.A. defense attorney Michael “Mickey” Haller, was a perfect fit for McConaughey, who had already proved back in 90s that he was well-suited for legal thrillers.** Toss in the fact that he is back up by the likes of William H. Macy, Bryan Cranston, Josh Lucas, Marisa Tomei, etc. and you’ve certainly got my attention. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch The Lincoln Lawyer when it graced cinemas earlier this year. I immediately rectified this when it hit home video, both due to all the praise heaped upon it and the fact that I’m just a sucker for legal dramas. I should specify theatrical legal dramas. Sorry, but I’m no fan of Law & Order and its ilk.
It seems that while I missed out on its theatrical run, many of you didn’t. The film pulled in a domestic total of over $85 million on a budget of 40. Kudos to all involved! Many speculated that this might turn out to be a nice little franchise for McConaughey. Back in August, however, word came that a TV series was in the works that would serve as a follow-up to the film. Most of us at the time, myself included, just assumed that was that when it came to the prospect of an actual sequel. Luckily, we were wrong!
The TV series is still slowly moving forward, but in the meantime we’ll be getting a theatrical sequel with Matthew McConaughey reprising the role of Mickey Haller. Word has come down from Lionsgate that the sequel is in active development. No writer has been announced, but one can only assume that John Romano will return to script the follow-up………….especially since he’s already co-writing the pilot for the series with author Michael Connelly.
I guess the question now is which novel will be adapted this go ’round? Shockingly enough, The Lincoln Lawyer is actually the first entry in the Haller series. Most H-town adaptations of popular series end up starting in the middle, so this is a bit of a rarity these days. Haller is the main subject of three other novels. Given that he is the half-brother of Connelly’s other popular character, Detective Harry Bosch, Mickey makes appearances in two novels from that series. Bosch himself also appears in two of the Haller installments. To my knowledge, no studio has bothered to pick up the rights to the Harry Bosch character. While it is entirely possible that Harry could make his cinematic debut in the sequel or the TV show, I suspect that won’t be the case. Barring rewrites to change the characters, I’m going to go ahead and assume that the sequel will be an adaptation of the remaining Bosch-free Heller novel. Said book is The Fifth Witness, which also happens to be the latest entry in the series. Nice little coincidence, eh?
Since things appear to be in the early stages at the moment, I’d expect this to hit theaters in early 2013. McConaughey doesn’t seem to be tied down to too many projects at the moment, so I think that is a reasonable release expectation. With this in mind, I won’t be too surprised if they hold the TV show off until Fall 2013. What better way to get your ratings up than to ride the coattails of a (hopefully) successful sequel? Besides, audiences might find it a bit odd to have one Heller on TV and a different actor on screen. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong? Only time will tell.
Source | Variety
* – Reign of Fire and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation immediately come to mind. The former is a serviceable post-apocalyptic flick about dragonslayers that just happens to contain a showstopper of a turn by McConaughey. The latter? The less said about the overall film itself, the better, but ole’ Matt sure is fun to watch in it.
** – Said film being Joel Schumacher’s A Time To Kill. As much as I enjoy The Client, I’ve always preferred Joel’s second go at adapting John Grisham.