Mark Wahlberg is in early talks with New Regency to produce and star in the shingle’s film adaptation of John Grisham’s “The Partner.”
Wahlberg would produce along with his own partner, Stephen Levinson of Leverage Management.
While “The Blind Side” director John Lee Hancock was at one point attached to write and direct, sources close to the project say the multihyphenate is no longer involved, and New Regency is currently looking at other helmers and writers.
Regency topper Arnon Milchan has brought Grisham’s novels to the big screen before, including “A Time To Kill,” “The Client” and “Runaway Jury,” the last of which earned a then-record high bid of $8 million during a heated auction in the early aughts.
Grisham’s 2005 thriller “The Partner” centers around Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent law firm who fakes his own death to steal a fortune from his company before starting a new life in Brazil.
WME, Leverage and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern rep Wahlberg.
