Zac Efron To Star In John Grisham Thriller ‘The Associate’

Zac Efron isn’t going to let fights with transients in L.A.’s Skid Row stop him from movin’ on up. The actor has been eager to prove his dramatic chops with a string of recent films including “The Lucky One,” “The Paperboy,” “At Any Price” and “Parkland.” Now he’s hoping to follow folks like Tom Cruise and Matt Damon, and put a John Grisham thriller on his bookshelf.

The actor has signed up to star in and produce the long-developing “The Associate.” Back in 2008, the project was over at Paramount with Shia LaBeouf attached to star and Tony Scott at one time linked to direct. Then a couple of years back the project surfaced again, this time with Adrian Lyne behind the camera. But it’s back the drawing board again, with a new writer being brought it to pen script before this one is shopped to studios so this could take a while. Here’s the Amazon synopsis: 

Kyle McAvoy possesses an outstanding legal mind. Good-looking and affable, he has a glittering future. He also has a dark secret that could destroy his dreams, his career, even his life. One night that secret catches up with him. The men who accost Kyle have a compromising video they’ll use to ruin him–unless he does exactly what they say. What they offer Kyle is something any ambitious young lawyer would kill for: a job in Manhattan as an associate at the world’s largest law firm. If Kyle accepts, he’ll be on the fast track to partnership and a fortune. But there’s a catch. Kyle won’t be working for the firm but against it in a dispute between two powerful defense contractors worth billions. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him, the FBI, and his own law firm–in a malignant conspiracy not even Kyle with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery may be able to escape alive.

Yep, sounds like a Grisham story. We’ll see how this version develops and if Efron can be the one to bring it to the big screen. [THR]