3 days ago
The Rainmaker Stars Reveal How the Iconic Book Came to Life
Originally appeared on E! Online
Court is now in session.
Nearly three decades after John Grisham's best-selling legal novel The Rainmaker first graced screens in Frances Ford Coppola's star-studded 1997 film, John Slattery and Milo Callaghan are breathing new life into the story with their USA Network courtroom drama. And that means taking a whole lot of creative liberties to stretch the story it across the 10-episode first season.
'The departures were pretty significant,' Slattery told E! News in an exclusive joint interview with Callaghan, 'and having read the book and seen the movie, you look at the scripts and the source material is only relevant to a certain degree. Then you just shoot scene by scene and hope they stack up to something interesting.'
Those departures went far beyond those like Lana Parilla stepping into the role of the previously male role of 'Bruiser' Stone, the legal adversary to Slattery's Leo Drummond.
In fact, the case that jumpstarts the career of new law grad Rudy Baylor (Callaghan) is transformed from the book's insurance bad faith suit to a hospital wrongful death—complete with an unnerving, slippery nurse (Dan Fogler) looming in the background.
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And then there's Rudy himself, whose legal course is defined by his quest to live up to the legacy of his late, aspiring lawyer brother John.
'I'm a brother, and if I lost a brother in that way, I think that would really create a chasm in my in my life that you spend the rest of your life trying to stitch up, essentially,' Callaghan explained. 'And his brother, we don't know too much about his brother at the beginning, other than he was going to be a lawyer and he was a high achiever.'
Those are big shoes to fill, and for Rudy, balancing his ambition and fierce principles come at a cost, namely the brand-new job at the glossy firm run by Leo Drummond, where his girlfriend Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman) quickly finds herself on the rise.
Ultimately, Callaghan sees Rudy's crashing and burning right off the bat as a crucial course-correction, sharing, 'I really think that when he's fired, good luck or bad luck, who knows, but it puts him on a trajectory which brings him back to himself.'
In fact, it leads to Rudy facing off against Leo—and Sarah—as he attempts to hold the hospital they represent accountable after the death of a patient in its care. With that, the cast spent a lot of time immersing themselves in the 'quite rigorous legal academia,' as Callaghan put it.
Crucially, however, viewers don't need three years of law school to unpack all the rapid-fire legalese—in large part thanks to Slattery's character.
'Leo's function was also to sort of explain,' the Mad Men alum noted. 'Somebody would say something, and I, as Leo, would say, 'Well, what he actually means is, you know, blah, blah, blah' to the jury and try to win them over that way. Like he's trying to be highfalutin here, but what he's really saying is to the audience as well.'
Though audiences are just getting introduced to this newest iteration of Rudy Baylor and Leo Drummond, the stars are already raring to go for another courtroom showdown in a possible second season. And for them, it's an opportunity to explore the Rainmaker world outside the framework of the 1995 novel.
'I would definitely be interested,' Slattery shared, though the Spotlight alum admitted that as for what it would look like, 'I don't know what I don't know. That's a common thing where the first season is the book or source material, and then if it were to go further, you'd have to cook up a whole other scenario—which I'm sure they're more than capable of doing.'
After all, Grisham has written more than 50 books—including dozens of best-selling legal thrillers—making for ample material to possibly pull from.
'Get a little Grisham universe going,' Callaghan posited. 'I'd be up for that.'
The Rainmaker premieres August 15 on USA Network. For more books set to become movies and shows in the coming months, keep reading…
Season 3My Oxford YearThe Thursday Murder Club Season 5Regretting YouWicked: For GoodHamnetThe HousemaidReminders of HimSeason 4The HusbandsFive-Star WeekendMidnight SunLucky
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