Zac Efron To Produce, Star in Film Adaptation of John Grisham's The Associate

Zac Efron will produce and star in a film adaptation of John Grisham's 2009 legal thriller The Associate. The book was originally optioned by Paramount before its publication with Shia LaBeouf attached, but the project didn't move forward.

Efron will play Kyle McAvoy, good-looking and affable with an outstanding legal mind, he has a glittering future. He also has a dark secret that could destroy his dreams, his career, even his life. One night that secret catches up with him. The men who accost Kyle have a compromising video they'll use to ruin him — unless he does exactly what they say. What they offer Kyle is something any ambitious young lawyer would kill for: a job in Manhattan as an associate at the world's largest law firm. If Kyle accepts, he'll be on the fast track to partnership and a fortune. But there's a catch. Kyle won't be working for the firm but against it in a dispute between two powerful defense contractors worth billions. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him, the FBI, and his own law firm — in a malignant conspiracy not even Kyle with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery may be able to escape alive.