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George Clooney Buys Rights to Grisham Book

George Clooney purchased the rights to John Grisham`s newest book, The Innocent Man, the book tells the true story of baseball player Ron Williams that was wrongfully accused of murder and rape in a small town and subsequently spent 11 years on death row in an Oklahoma prison.

The movie will be produced by Smoke House Productions which is owned by Clooney and his business partner and friend, Grant Heslov. The two have a contract with Warner Bros. and their last movie Good Night, and Good Luck, for which Clooney and Heslov were nominated for an Oscar for the script. Clooney was also nominated for best director for the same movie. The first news on the purchase came from Variety Daily and that news was later approved by a spokesperson for Warner Bros. The details of the agreement are not yet closed but Variety reported that Grisham will get a 7 digit sum, as well as, a percentage of the movies earnings if in fact the movie makes it to movie theaters. Warner Bros. reported that it has yet to be decided whether Clooney will produce, direct or act in the movie.

The book The Innocent Man was published by Random House last October. This is Grisham`s first non-fiction work and now like many other of his books it will be adapted into a movie. George Clooney signed a contract agreeing to produce and act in a movie based on James Ellroy`s best seller White Jazz.