Smoke House is on Fire

Quick Links  The Innocent Man  George Clooney  Warner Independent Pictures  White Jazz  Good Night. And, Good Luck.

George Clooney is at it again. He and Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov have teamed up with Warner Independent Pictures to buy the screen rights to John Grisham’s nonfiction drama “The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.” This is deal numero dos for Smoke House/WIP this month, just last week they signed on together for White Jazz, a James Ellroy adaptation, in which Clooney will star.

“Innocent Man”, the true account of a massive error in the justice system, tells the story of Ron Williamson, an Oklahoma man sent to death row for 11 years for a murder he did not commit. Released this October, the book will become one of the many Grisham stories captured on screen. He was the pen behind “The Rainmaker,” “The Firm,” “The Client,” “A Time to Kill,” and “Runaway Jury” to name a few.

Although details are still being worked out, this match up seems pretty lucrative for everyone involved. After the closure Section 8, Clooney and Steven Soderbergh’s Hollywood-meets-Art production company, the actor/director/producer extraordinaire had both feet in the door. Now with Smoke House’s recent take off, it looks like he’s diving in head first.