Trivia / Runaway Jury

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $60 million. Box office, $49,443,628 (domestic), $80,154,140 (worldwide). This and the following year's Christmas with the Kranks would keep any future John Grisham adaptations off the screen until The New '10s.
• Completely Different Title: In Sweden, the film was called "De utvalda", meaning "The Chosen [Ones]".
• Saved from Development Hell: The film had been in pre-production since 1997. Edward Norton was originally cast in the role of Nicholas Easter with Joel Schumacher directing. Sean Connery and Gwyneth Paltrow were cast in the roles of Fitch and Marlee, respectively. But when Schumacher dropped out of the project, and it was delayed, the actors moved on to other projects. The project was revived in 2001 when Will Smith was in talks to play Nicholas Easter, with Jennifer Connelly as Marlee, and Mike Newell directing. But Smith dropped out and the project was again stalled.
• Those Two Actors: Luis Guzman, Dustin Hoffman, Leland Orser, and Rachel Weisz also all appeared together that year in Confidence.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the script's original draft, the story would've focused on a lawsuit against tobacco corporations as it did in the original John Grisham novel. However, after The Insider (which focused entirely on corruption within tobacco corporations) was released in 1999, the producers changed the lawsuit towards gun manufacturers to avoid accusations of a copy-cat work.
  • Naomi Watts was offered the role of Marlee, but turned it due to scheduling conflicts.
  • After being in development for several years, Alfonso Cuarón became attached to direct and co-write the film. He ended up leaving the project a few months after that.

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