Sayonara Matthew McConaughey and hello law-based punning – Tommy Lee Jones has jumped ship from their planned co-star vehicle, The Lincoln Lawyer.
Jones was due to direct and co-star alongside everyone's favourite naked jazz percussionist in the adaptation of Michael Connell’s 2005 novel, but has left the project over creative differences regarding the script. McConaughey was slated to play the lead, a criminal attorney in LA who works out of the back of his car while being driven around by a previous client working off his fees – all a bit Driving Miss Daisy with added crims – and while we’d have loved to see Jones in the chauffeur role, he clearly had other ideas.
Admittedly Jones is a busy man – he’s in post-production on telefilm The Sunset Limited for HBO, wrapped The Company Men with Ben Affleck and Kevin Costner and is prepping Ernest Hemingway adap Islands in the Stream – but there's always the possibility he had a traumatic channel hop onto Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past.
The production is looking to scoop in another star and director to steer John Romano’s script with filming and general pre-pro planning mooted to start in the spring.