Tom Holland has landed the lead role in Universal’s The Partner, an adaptation of the legal thriller by John Grisham. Per Deadline, the script will be written by Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) and the search for a director is underway.
Holland will star as Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a white shoe Biloxi law firm who fakes his own death in a burning car. He’s left behind a wife, newborn daughter, and a secret. What he’s actually done is fake his death to create a template for a new life by stealing $90 million from a client of his crooked law firm. He finds happiness and love in South America. When the client who worked so hard to defraud the government finds the money is missing from his offshore accounts, he becomes determined to hunt down the lawyer he doesn’t believe is dead. That leads the attorney to have to turn himself in to the FBI and face up to the wife, child, and life he left behind.
The Partner was published in 1997 and quickly became a bestseller among Grisham’s many novels. Holland will serve as a producer through his newly launched company Billy17 alongside his brother and Harry Holland and Will South. Rideback will also produce the film with Universal.
Holland was recently cast in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and is set to star in a fourth Spider-Man film for Marvel Studios, where he will presumably also star in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars from Anthony and Joe Russo.
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