Prominent Houston trial attorney Larry D. Thompson has snagged a feature film development and production deal with Atchity Entertainment International (AEI, currently in
pre-production for 'Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not!' starring Jim Carrey and Gong-Li, directed by Tim Burton) for his controversial debut novel So Help Me God (Tom Doherty & Associates).
Thompson will produce with AEI_s Ken Atchity & Chi-Li Wong. The major budget feature, dramatizing the abortion issue from all sides, is about a power-hungry TV evangelist who manipulates a teenage abortion case to try to take
over conservative political leadership in America. Tensions peak and twist when the preacher rallies
the religious right against the mainstream in defining the highly emotional question of when life begins.
Thompson's inspiration to write the courtroom thriller came from his late brother, best-selling author Thomas Thompson (Blood and Money/Doubleday, Celebrity/Warner Books ). The evangelist in a
coma at the end of Blood and Money is resurrected in So Help Me God. 'In a very real sense,' says
Thompson, 'I feel like I'm picking up my brother's torch- to explore issues that trouble us all in a fictional way that allows us perspective on their repercussions.'
Thompson's legal peers perennially voting him as one of the most winning 'Super Lawyers' in
Texas uniquely qualifies him to write courtroom fiction. His most celebrated cases include successfully defending his brother and Doubleday against libel, and defending Soldier of Fortune magazine in murder-for-hire cases where people attempted to hire hit men from the magazine's classified ads.
Thompson is currently completing his second novel, Insanity, an ideological thriller that explores the inconsistencies of the insanity defense.
Atchity Entertainment is planning to attach a major director to 'So Help Me God,' according to
president Chi-Li Wong, who adds that the film treats the abortion issue with the seriousness that 'Traffic' exposed about the personal impact of drug trafficking. Screenwriter and author John Robert Marlow (Nano/Tom Doherty & Associates) penned the script. Foreign rights to the book are with Danny Baror of Baror International. AEI and director Jan de Bont ('Speed 1 & 2,' 'Twister,' 'Tomb Raider') are currently producing 'MEG' at New Line. AEI is producing Royce Buckingham's 'Demon Keeper' at Fox 2000; and is in preproduction with John Scott Shepherd's 'Prince of Pools' (Shepherd directing).
