Presumed Innocent received several nominations, with particular recognition for its screenplay by Alan J. Pakula and Frank Pierson. The film received an Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for Best Motion Picture, and a USC Scripter Award nomination for Pakula, Pierson and the novel by Turow.
Presumed Innocent (film) Presumed Innocent. (film) Presumed Innocent is a 1990 American legal thriller film based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Scott Turow. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, and written by Pakula and Frank Pierson, it stars Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raúl Juliá, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Winfield and Greta Scacchi.
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval score of 87% based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 7.43/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Thanks to an outstanding script, focused direction by Alan Pakula, and a riveting performance from Harrison Ford, Presumed Innocent is the kind of effective courtroom thriller most others aspire to be." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.
Presumed Innocent grossed $86,303,188 during its North American theatrical run.
The film was followed by a television miniseries, The Burden of Proof, in 1992, and a television film sequel, Innocent, in 2011.
The film rights were the subject of a bidding war among a host of established studios and producers. David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck made the first bid of $75,000.
Based on Turow's 1990 novel, the miniseries focuses on defense attorney Sandy Stern (played by Héctor Elizondo ), who investigates his wife's past following her apparent suicide.