Chris Columbus To Write And Direct John Grisham's Calico Joe

During the early and mid-90s Hollywood absolutely lost its shit for the
work of John Grisham. It began in 1993 when Sydney Pollack directed an
adaptation of The Firm with Tom Cruise, which subsequently
became a massive hit, leading studios to keep pumping out Grisham movies
year after year, with titles like The Pelican Brief, A Time To Kill and The Rainmaker. Eventually we began to see fewer and fewer Grisham-based pieces of entertainment, but he may be making a comeback. The Firm was recently turned into a television series on NBC (albeit one that was cancelled after one season), and now Deadline says that another movie adaptation is in the works.



Chris Columbus, who last directed 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, has optioned the rights to John Grisham's Calico Joe
under his 1492 Pictures banner and plans to both write and helm a movie
based on the book. Released just this year, the movie isn't a courtroom
drama, but rather a baseball story. The plot is about a young player
named "Calico Joe" Castle who rises to the Major Leagues and immediately
becomes a phenomenon playing for the Chicago Cubs. One of his biggest
fans is a boy named Paul Tracey, the son of a washed-up, journeyman
pitcher named Warren Tracey. When the older Tracey and Castle finally
meet at the plate, however, Tracey throws a pitch that will change the
lives of both men forever.



Said Columbus about the story, "When I finished this beautiful, deeply
moving novel, I immediately started to see the movie in my head. I knew
that I had to write and direct Calico Joe. The story deals with
universal themes of betrayal, tragedy and redemption. It has the
potential to be a classic film and I am honored to be a part of it."