You might've read "The Firm" or seen the movie adaptation with Tom Cruise based on John Grisham's bestselling legal thriller, but NBC's new show has a very interesting twist.
We've got an exclusive five-minute sneak peek at footage from the show (two-hour series premiere Sun., Jan. 8, 9 p.m. EST on NBC; airs Thursdays, 10 p.m. beginning Jan. 12). Plus, there's commentary from Grisham, stars Josh Lucas, Molly Parker, Juliette Lewis and Callum Keith Rennie, and the show's writers and executive producers.
"It's original, even though it's sort of a sequel," Grisham says. "The show picks up about 10 years after the events of what people know of as 'The Firm,'" executive producer Lukas Reiter adds. "We pick up with Mitch and tell the backstory of the fact that he and his family had to go into witness protection."
Lucas, who's playing Mitch McDeere, the role Cruise made famous on the big screen, shares what it's like taking on such an iconic role. "Mitch is a very complex man in that he's a very smart, very independent, very resourceful, I think brilliant lawyer in many ways," Lucas explains. "You have the great responsibility of taking on a character who is as famous and infamous as any character that John Grisham has ever written."
So will fans of the original like this new take? Grisham certainly thinks so. "I think most people who are fans of the story are going to be very, very excited to see it again in a different incarnation, a different version."