Even though William Monahan is angling for his own career as a director, he's still the go-to guy for adapting thriller novels into hit screenplays. Next up for the Departed screenwriter is The Associate, a John Grisham thriller set to star Shia LaBeouf as a beleaguered Yale law student.
Variety doesn't mention how Monahan will fit in the new movie, given the shooting schedule for his directorial debut London Boulevard, but you have to assume he can work it out. After all, so many John Grisham novels have become successful movies that it really can't take much to adapt a Grisham novel. And Monahan surely knows that all the story credit will go to Grisham, leaving him room to slip off silently and work on the movie he really cares about. Well played.
