Tom Cruise's "Messy" Legal Thriller Adaptation Gets Official Verdict From Original Author

Published Oct 5, 2026, 11:52 AM EDT

Jeff Dodge (he/him), a published author and graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena. Fun Fact: he’s been to every single Idol Live! Tour.

John Grisham has revealed what he really thinks of the movie adaptations of his books, including The Firm.

The author released The Firm in 1991, and it went on to become a bestseller. Two years later, the legal thriller was turned into a film starring Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere, who gets hired to work at a law firm but uncovers shocking secrets about his employers. The end of the movie deviated significantly from what Grisham had written.

Now Grisham is opening up about screenwriters David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel's adaptation of The Firm, telling The Rest is Entertainment podcast that the movie "was a mess."

While it was "fun to watch," the ending of the Sydney Pollack-directed film "really got lost," seemingly referring to the major liberties the filmmakers took with that part of his book.

"The Firm movie was a mess. It was fun to watch but the ending really got lost."

Despite those changes, The Firm was a huge hit, grossing $270 million and earning a Certified Fresh score of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, though the audience score was lower at 65%.

During awards season, Holly Hunter received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and composer Dave Grusin landed a Best Original Score nod. Cruise and Hunter's co-stars included Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman and Ed Harris.

Along these lines, Grisham added that 1996's A Time to Kill with Samuel L. Jackson was "okay."

Also, The Chamber "was not very good." The author knew early on that this particular adaptation wasn't going to live up to his novel because he had read the script, which was "in really bad shape." When it was released in theaters, The Chamber became a box office bomb; Grisham was "kind of glad nobody went to see it."

"Time to Kill was okay. They’re all enjoyable. The Chamber was not very good. Gene Hackman was the old guy on death row, and nobody went to see that movie. They brought it to me. By the time we saw the movie, I had read the script, and when I read the script, I said, ‘This thing is in really bad shape. Yeah. Don't film this.’ They wouldn't listen. I said too much, and they got mad, and I said this is not the story. They filmed it anyway and it didn't work. Nobody went to see it. I was kind of glad nobody went to see it."

On the flip side, his favorite adaptation is Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 legal thriller The Rainmaker starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes and Jon Voight.

The iconic director told Grisham that he would "stick to the story," which the author was very grateful for. "That's all you can ask for," he said. "Be very faithful to the source material. And that adaptation was very good" with a "really great cast."

"Francis Ford Coppola did The Rainmaker. He loves writers and he wanted me on the set every day. He had a brand-new espresso machine, and he would make a these big thick rich espressos between takes. So you're sitting there, he wanted me to drink espresso with me all day long and we were just wired, you know, bouncing off.

"But watching the movie being made was so boring. It's nothing as boring as watching a film made. And he told me, he said, ‘I'm going to stick to this. I'm going to stick to the story.’ I said, ‘Please do. That's all you can ask for. Be very faithful to the source material.’ And that adaptation was very good. Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, really great, great cast."

Throughout his career, Grisham has written more than 50 novels, novellas and short stories, with several of them having been turned into movies and TV shows over the years.

The Firm was the first of Grisham's books to be adapted for the screen, and that was soon followed by The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Gingerbread Man and Runaway Jury, among others.

In 2012, NBC aired a TV sequel to The Firm, but it only lasted one season. Grisham's favorite adaptation, The Rainmaker, got a TV remake in 2025 on USA Network, with the second season about to premiere on October 16.

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  Jeanne Tripplehorn

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  Hal Holbrook