Paramount has brought on screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) to adapt John Grisham's best-selling legal novel The Associate for an upcoming Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) film. LaBeouf will star as a Yale Law School student whose past leaves him vulnerable to blackmail. He's soon forced to take a job at a law firm and work on a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (Producer, Transformers) and LaBeouf warmed up to the project after reading an advanced copy of the book while they were on the set of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The studio wasted no time in getting this project rolling. They purchased the rights to the book late last year before its January 2009 publish date.

Source:Variety