Does The Testament Have A Movie Adaptation?

Question

After finishing John Grisham's legal thriller The Testament, does anyone know if it's been turned into a film? Wondering if any director has tackled that kind of courtroom drama.

Quiel-Baby Tenorio Rodriguez · Answer

So far, ‘The Testament’ hasn’t been made into a movie. Sometimes books get big enough that there are rumors of films before anything is officially announced, but that hasn’t happened with ‘The Testament’ so far. Actually, I just started reading another great premise that could be a great movie, ‘Alpha Theo: Legacy Of The Banished Omega’. An exiled leader is forced back to his home after a near-destruction-causing betrayal, and the scenes between the characters are so charged and high-stakes that it really feels like it was written to be a film. Maybe one day it will be.

Ian · Answer

I had thought about this book for years after I had read it. The ending was so strange and it would occasionally pop into my mind years later. I searched high and low to find a movie based on The Testament. Unfortunately, I was not able to find one. The Testament is one of author John Grisham’s novels and he typically has his works made into movies. Perhaps the film would have been difficult to pitch to audiences because of the majority of the story taking place in corporate boardrooms and in the jungles of South America.

I paired this with the rather more remote jungle experience in ‘The Mission’ (1986), a morality tale of Missionaries and Rubber barons of the time. For me it helped bring out some of the book’s lesser visited areas, like the missionary’s backstory for example. And Jeremy Irons as Troy Phelan? No?

Olivia · Answer

I’m a big fan of John Grisham’s work, and Testament is one of my favorites. My dream is to have it made into a film. It’s a great story – a legal adventure with lots of twists and turns, and also an adventure that takes place in the remote Brazilian wetlands. It’s surprising that no one has picked it up yet – Grisham’s work was very big in films in the 1990s.

If you can’t get enough of this kind of story, then The Pelican Brief or The Client by the same author may satisfy your cravings. For something completely different, the pure adrenaline-junkie flick Apocalypto is worth a look. But for pure, unadulterated reading pleasure, The Testament cannot be beat – a slower-burning affair that follows the will of a somewhat-flawed billionaire as it sends everything crashing down around him.

Walker · Answer

'Legal thrillers' of this quality are not common, which is why ‘The Testament’ is especially cherished. As far as I can find from my research round the net as well as from reader discussions, this novel has not been adapted into a movie, unlike ‘The Firm’ and ‘A Time to Kill’ by the same author.

These themes are also expressed in films like The Rainmaker or Runaway Jury. Unfortunately the movie has not been made yet, but I’d recommend the audiobook in the meantime. It brings the protagonist’s journey very vividly to life.

Ulysses · Answer

I’ve looked far and wide but there’s no movie of The Testament, yet another ignored Grisham novel that’s a ripping good yarn. Perhaps it’s better left to the imagination of readers everywhere. If you want to read a legal-adventure-style novel with moral twists and turns, The Devil’s Advocate is the book to read. Alternatively, if you want to read a really compelling tale of exploration The Lost City of Z is great too. Or, you could just read the helicopter crash scene from The Testament – a really thrilling read.

TouchH · Answer

Yes, the Novel ‘Testament’ as Film would be a mistake of similar proportions to the film of The Power or of The Circle both of which were interesting and original novels that translated into mediocre films largely because they were_MESSAGES_. They needed to be explained to the audience and as a result became lumbering vehicles of subplots, ‘developed’ in ways that the book had not, all in the name of ‘pace’. Naturally, much of the subtlety would have been lost along the way. Perhaps in twenty years or so when, as with all things, there will have been another sea change in cinema’s sensibility, then The Testament will make a good film. Meanwhile, too obscure and too low a budget for the big glazed donut of a theater near you, it would make a perfectly crafted novel. Why meddle with it?

Atilola Iromini · Answer

One of the most problematic aspects of the book is the way it is structured as a series of first-person accounts. While some stories are bound to their format, this feels like one of them. A film adaptation would struggle to present multiple unreliable narrators in a way that did justice to the book. Primarily, you’d be faced with the choice of focusing on a single narrator in order to present a mosaic of perspectives, or else using a framing device (such as a detective interviewing the narrators one by one) that would be clunky and detract from the main action. In the book, the pleasure comes from comparing the different accounts, oftencontradicting each other, and working out the truth for yourself. A film would have to present the ‘real’ story to you, and that would be to deny the active participation that makes the novel so much fun to read.

Daisy · Answer

I read an interview with an author who said he would only allow an adaptation of his work to be made if he could also be the director. Since the author in question has no filmmaking experience whatsoever, I can safely assume that he was being facetious and that there will never be a movie adaptation of his work. But, oh, how I would love to see this try. Since the author is the one who created the story in the first place, he would be the best person to protect the author’s vision for the story. Even if the author had no knowledge of camera angles, he could work with a cinematographer and an editor. That would be so cool. Most likely it will never happen, but it does highlight the biggest problem between authors and filmmakers: authors want to be able to read the movie adaptation and have it read exactly like the book, and filmmakers want to make a good film. The author in question is very protective of his work, which is probably the main reason there is no movie adaptation of his work. I have a lot of respect for him.

Frances Racy-Moore · Answer

There is something of a modern, franchise-driven fixation with film adaptations of great novels. But not every story needs to be adapted in this way, to be developed into a franchise with many different platforms for consumers to experience the story. The Testament of Gideon Mack is a complete, self-contained work of art. Just because it has not been adapted into a movie, for example, does not mean that it has any less value. Its purity could even be its strongest aspect. There’s no movie tie-in cover for this book, for example. There’s no actor’s face to alter your mental image of a particular character. And, as a result, there’s no simplified plot to argue about online. The book exists in a rare and beautiful space: as a purely physical, interactive object for readers one at a time. So, rather than continuing to ask the dull question of where a potential movie adaptation of this novel might be, perhaps we could have more interesting discussions about the book itself.

Korir Kipkemoi Willy · Answer

This would be really interesting though to have an anime adaptation of The Testament of Iax, as often an anime can better convey a novel’s tone and a protagonist’s inner monologues than live action could. A MAPPA or Science SARU film would be perfect in this case to transition smoothly from realistic human drama to surreal and abstract vistas, showcasing the protagonist’s mental collapse in ways that would be difficult to replicate on the silver screen. A one-shot anime film or even a short series of this would be a fantastic ‘what if’ and proves that our usual conception of an adaptation is far too narrow. There’s no reason why the best adaptation of a novel shouldn’t be completely different from a standard Hollywood drama.

Kesia Brittian · Answer

A movie would be fine. Probably even good. But it would never be as good as your version. You read a book and immediately you start to imagine it. You cast it. You design the sets. You hear the voices. Your private movie is perfect. Because it was made for you. Any real adaptation is going to be subpar in some way because it’s someone else’s dream. The actor won’t look right. The house will be the wrong style. It will go at the wrong pace. Why would you trade your perfect, private mental movie for some compromised public film? The book gives you the tools to make the best version of it that you can. That’s a gift. A movie, no matter how good, would just be a memory of that time you read the book.

Psychopath Tender · Answer

It’s probably for the best that there is no movie adaptation. If there were, the book’s famously ambiguous ending would be resolved one way. The whole debates over the plot, characters’ motives, and final line would be brought to a close and thrown into concrete. It’s half the fun of the book in the first place. The problems of the plot, the book’s biggest virtues, are left unsolved. Some questions are better left unanswered. It’s these very ambiguities which are the book’s most intriguing quality, and that’s been preserved by the lack of an adaptation. Movies are by their nature resolving. They offer closure where none was necessary.

Does The Testament Have A Movie Adaptation?

12 Answers

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