The 1996 film features several of Hollywood’s biggest names
One of the best legal dramas of all time is airing on TV tonight (Monday, April 7) for free across the UK.
Matthew McConaughey is no stranger to legal dramas, having kickstarted ‘McConaissance’ with The Lincoln Lawyer in 2011.
Following a period where the Dazed and Confused actor would only get roles in romcoms, McConaughey would go on to win an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, make an unforgettable cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street and star in Interstellar.
Known for his cool persona and classic Hollywood charm, McConaughey became a household name in A Time to Kill.
The 1996 film follows McConaughey as a white lawyer who his hired to defend and acquit Samuel L Jackson’s Carl after he kills the two men who raped his daughter as their trial is set to begin.
Dealing with prejudice in a segregationist southern US town, A Time to Kill doesn’t shy away from complex questions about race and morality.
Outside of McConaughey and Jackson, the ensemble feature boasts Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Octavia Spencer, and Donald and Kiefer Sutherland.
Despite only having an approval rating of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, A Time to Kill grossed $152 million worldwide and has a strong 7.5 score on IMBD.
Directed by the late Joel Schumacher, most known for directing The Lost Boys, the film is the second of his John Grisham adaptations, with The Client released two years earlier.
Paying tribune Schumacher, who died in 2020 at the age of 80, McConaughey told Variety: “Joel not only took a chance on me, he fought for me.
“Knowing the studio might never approve a relatively unknown like myself for the lead in A Time to Kill, he set up a secret screen test for me on a Sunday morning in a small unknown studio because as he stated, ‘Even if you do great, you may not get the part, so I don’t want the industry to ever think you screen tested and DID NOT get the job.
“I don’t see how my career could have gone to the wonderful places it has if it wasn’t for Joel Schumacher believing in me back then.”
It emerged in 2021, one year after Schumacher’s death, that McConaughey was planning on returning to his role in a a series adaptation of Grisham’s A Time for Mercy.
He told Entertainment Tonight at the time: “All I can tell you right now is that yeah, it is something that I have been searching for a while now, and if it happens, we would script write everything.
“It would be something I would love to reprise and be Jake Brigance. I have often thought…25 years later, what am I doing? What am I doing and also what is the flip side, you know?”
“First it was Time to Kill, and then it was Time for Mercy. Well, that is the two real sides of justice. So then the shoe on the opposite side is also very interesting for me. So that is all I can tell you right now, we are working on it. Hopefully it is something real down the line.”
Despite no updates about the series provided in several years, the original film is always worth going back to or watching for the first time.
A Time to Kill airs on Monday, April 7, at 9pm on FIlm 4 and channel4.com.
