After denying for about a decade, the legal thriller author, John Grisham, has sold his 1999 bestseller "The Testament" to Hollywood for a movie deal.

 

The work will be optioned by producers Mark Johnson and Hunt Lowry along with 821 Entertainment Group's Eric Geadelmann and Ben Horton.

 

"I've been calling them (Grisham and his editor) since I read it the first time and felt it had the best of the courthouse stuff that John writes so well, plus this exotic adventure in deepest Brazil," Johnson was quoted as saying.

In the novel, a billionaire defies his greedy relatives and leaves his $11 billion fortune to a mysterious illegitimate daughter doing charity work in the Brazilian wetlands. She is helped by a down-and-out lawyer in battling her relatives over the fortune.

Grisham's last brush with Hollywood was the hit movie adaptation of his first novel "A Time To Kill” in a $6 million deal.

 

The author will also receive a six-figure cheque if "The Testament" goes forward. He will also have the rights to provide creative inputs into the project unlike in his previous movie deals.

"The Testament" is one of the several Grisham legal thrillers headed for the screen like others, "The Pelican Brief" and "Runaway Jury". His 2009 outing "The Associate" is slated for release in 2012.