Harry Potter Scribe To Write and Direct DEFENDING JACOB

Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves is set to write and direct a legal thriller called Defending Jacob for Warner Bros. The movie is based on a book written by William Landay. The story is set in a wealthy Boston suburb, and it "follows a district attorney who must leave his day job to defend his son from a murder charge while uncertain of his son's innocence." This sounds like an intense story, and should make for a solid film. 

Kloves has a solid relationship with Warner Bros. who wrote seven of the Harry Potter movies, and worked on the script for the live-action adaptation of Akira. He's also writing a live-action Jungle Book adaptation for the studio. He most recently worked on The Amazing Spider-Man for Sony Pictures. 

Here's the description from the book:

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.