Grisham's open emotional attachment to his first novel rendered him shy about selling the film rights even as Hollywood's appetite for his books led in 1993 to the record-setting $3.75 million sale of the rights to a book he had not yet completed (The Chamber).

Finally in August 1994, Grisham allowed purchase of the rights for A Time to Kill by the team that made a version of The Client which respected the text and which earned financial success.

Grisham received a staggeringly $6 million, plus some approval over casting and the script, plus the role of coproducer (along with Arnon Milchan, whose New Regency Productions would make the film for Warner Bros.), Michael Nathan, and Hunt Lowry.

During summer 1995, director Joel Schumacher shot the film in a very cooperative Canton (obviously close in name to the fictional Clanton), Mississippi, using locals as extras. Canton happily boasted the Mississippi feature crucial to...