The USA Network has ordered a series based on John Grisham novel ‘The Rainmaker‘ from writer Michael Seitzman (‘Code Black’, ‘Intelligence’), produced by Lionsgate Television and Blumhouse Television.
Fresh out of law school, Rudy Baylor goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond as well as his law school girlfriend. Rudy, along with his boss and her dishevelled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son.
Michael Seitzman, who is set to write and exec produce the series, has been working on bringing it to the small screen for around six years. Seitzman teamed up with Jason Richman (‘Stumptown’, ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’) and pitched the idea of a “Grisham Universe” to ABC Studios where the duo were under deals. This would have seen them develop a number of Grisham novels into series, however, it failed to move forward. Seitzman is now under a deal with Blumhouse Television, and reworked ‘The Rainmaker’ which then saw Blumhouse boss, Jason Blum, pitch it to Lionsgate, where he currently has a multi-picture film deal to reimagine a bunch of Lionsgate’s horror classics. Blumhouse, Lionsgate, and Seitzman then pitched that to USA Network, who picked it up.
This is not the first time ‘The Rainmaker’ has been put on screen. There was a 1997 film by Francis Ford Coppola starring Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mickey Rourke, Danny DeVito, and Danny Glover, which received positive reviews, although didn’t really set the box office alight compared to other Grisham adaptations, such as ‘The Firm’.
Michael Seitzman will write and exec produce the series, with Jason Richman also exec producing and co-writing the pilot. Grisham, Blum and David Gernert also exec produce.
The series is being made for the USA Network in the US by Lionsgate Television and Blumhouse Television. That makes it tricky to predict where it may land in the UK. USA Network is part of NBCUniversal, which could place it on their sister broadcaster Sky here. However, Lionsgate and/or Blumhouse may retain the international rights and are not affiliated with any UK broadcaster directly, meaning it could end up selling to the highest bidder, although Lionsgate does have a deal with Amazon’s MGM+ in the UK, which could see it land there.
‘The Rainmaker‘ does not have a premiere date and no UK broadcaster at the moment, but will premiere on USA Network in the USA. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get a UK premiere date.
