Bateman to direct Grisham's The Partner with Tom Holland in talks

Jason Bateman is set to direct a film adaptation of John Grisham's 1997 novel The Partner for Universal Pictures, with Tom Holland in talks to play the lead and producing through his Billy17 banner, studio insiders said. The move revives a project that has long been in development and attaches two high-profile actor-directors to a legal thriller that centers on fraud, deception, and a man who fakes his death.

The Partner follows Patrick Lanigan, a young partner at a prestigious Biloxi law firm who steals 90 million from a client engaged in large-scale fraud, stages his own death in a car fire and flees to South America to begin a new life. After several years in hiding, the client discovers the missing funds and mounts a relentless pursuit that ultimately forces Lanigan to consider turning himself in to the FBI and confronting the wife and newborn daughter he abandoned.

Graham Moore, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for The Imitation Game, is attached to write the screenplay. Production will be handled by a group that includes Holland, his brother Harry Holland and Will South for Billy17; Jonathan Eirich and Nick Reynolds for Rideback; and Michael Costigan for...