John Slattery will join the upcoming USA Network drama “The Rainmaker” as Leo F. Drummond, the main antagonist of the story in the original John Grisham novel and its 1997 film adaptation, NBCUniversal announced Monday.
The character is described in a release as “one of Grisham’s most iconic characters … a legendary lion of the courtroom and senior partner at Tinley Britt, the powerful firm that Rudy Baylor is up against.”
It has yet to be announced who will play the lead of Baylor, portrayed in the film version by Matt Damon. The series is described in its logline as featuring the “fresh out of law school” Baylor taking on Drummond, “as well as his law school girlfriend. Rudy, along with his boss and her disheveled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son.”
Slattery received four Best Support Actor Emmy Award nominations for his work as Roger Sterling on “Mad Men.” His TV credits also include “Veep,” “Sex and the City,” “The Good Fight” and “Mrs. America” — and even the more offbeat comedy of “30 Rock,” “Arrested Development,” “Documentary Now” and “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp.”
While working on “Mad Men,” Slattery also served as the director of multiple episodes. He was also an episodic director on Judd Apatow’s “Love” and feature films “God’s Pocket” and his most recent, “Maggie Moore(s),” which premiered last year at Tribeca amid the Writers and Actors Guild stikes with a cast headlined by his “Mad Men” costar Jon Hamm and Tina Fey.
He’s also been seen in films including “Spotlight,” which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast Performance. He’s been seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in “Ant-Man” and “Iron Man 2,” as well as films such as “The Station Agent,” “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Traffic.”
Coming from Lionsgate and Blumhouse, this adaptation of “The Rainmaker” is led by Michael Seitzman (“Code Black,” “Intelligence”) with Jason Richman, John Grisham, David Gernert and Jason Blum also executive producing. Richman also cowrote the pilot with Seitzman. Lionsgate and Blumhouse have recently teamed on a multi-picture deal with Blumhouse reimagining previous Lionsgate horror films.
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