Tom Holland is decking out for his next project for Universal Pictures. He is already busy with his other projects like Spider-Man 4, The Odyssey (directed by Christopher Nolan) and possibly the next Avengers’ sequel.
He will now play a lawyer in John Grisham’s novel adaptation of The Partner for Universal Pictures. He will also produce the film, which Graham Moore, the scrivener of The Imitation Game, wrote.
The novel’s story revolves around a junior lawyer partner, Patrick Lanigan, in the law firm who nicks $90 million from an opulent client. He flees to Brazil after faking his own death. His only aim is to start a new life with the stolen money, but his client does not give up on him. He has a hunch Lanigan is alive.
Holland wanted to work on a less sympathetic role this time, totally different from what he did before in Cherry (2021) and The Crowded Room (2023). In Cherry, his role was both physically and mentally demanding, even requiring a physical transformation. In The Crowded Room, his role was more mentally demanding as he played the character with dissociative identity disorder (DID), delving deeper into complex and darker personality twists.
It would be something unique as compared to the dark and heavy roles that he has been doing previously. He mentioned once that he is interested in doing challenging roles, which, apparently would be a fusion of thriller and romance genres in The Partner.
Grisham’s novels have been adapted into films before. The Firm came out in 1993, directed by Sydney Pollack with the star cast of Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman.
Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington were seen in The Pelican Brief (1993), directed by Alan J. Pakula. Similarly, A Time to Kill (1996) was another of Grisham’s works, directed by Joel Schumacher, with stars like Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson and Matthew McConaughey.
Grisham wrote The Partner (first published in 1997) when he was receiving as much as a whopping $8 million for giving the rights of his stories for movie adaptations enlisted above.
Universal Pictures did not make any comment about the confirmation of Tom Holland’s project. The testimony about the project's establishment is still in the offing.
It is yet to be revealed when Holland would start filming the project since he is quite busy these days, making interview rounds for his newly launched non-alcoholic beverage Bero.
Also, he inaugurated a production company, Billy 17, with his brother Harry Holland and Will South.
And yes, how could we forget the engagement ring that we saw on Zendaya’s left hand at the Golden Globe Awards lately.