Joel Coen later clarified that the movie is based on an actual event, but that the surrounding story is fictional. He said, “If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept.”
Struggling new attorney Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) resorts to working for a shady lawyer (Mickey Rourke), where he meets paralegal Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito). When the insurance company of Dot Black (Mary Kay Place) refuses her dying son coverage, Baylor and Shifflet team up to fight the corrupt corporation, taking on its callous lawyer (Jon Voight). Meanwhile, Baylor becomes involved with Kelly Riker (Claire Danes), an abused wife, whose husband complicates matters when he confronts Baylor.John Grisham's The Rainmaker / Film synopsis
The Rainmaker is easily the best of the Grisham movies so far, and it has touches of excellence, but it's a routine work. This competent, anonymous legal drama (scripted by Michael Herr) is the best John Grisham adaptation yet.
Jon VoightCoppola juggles these three cases with side stories involving the insurance company's amoral, high-paid lawyer (Jon Voight) and the continuing threat to Kelly from her husband.
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CidCid (also known by his nickname "The Rainmaker") is the tritagonist and overarching antagonist of the 2012 film Looper. Cid becomes a mob boss in the future with a prosthetic jaw and telekinetic abilities, or loosely referred to throughout the film as a "TK" or telekinetically-able person.
In 1931, with the heartland of Kansas suffering a severe drought, confidence man Bill Starbuck plies his trade as a rainmaker, though he has failed to produce even a single drop of precipitation.
It stars Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Mickey Rourke, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Roy Scheider, Virginia Madsen, and Teresa Wright in her final film role....The Rainmaker (1997 film)The RainmakerNarration byMichael HerrBased onThe Rainmaker by John GrishamProduced byMichael Douglas Fred Fuchs Steven Reuther16 more rows
In "War of the Roses" (1989) DeVito played lawyer Gavin D'Amato.
Three of Hollywood's top directors have decided that 27-year-old Harvard dropout Matt Damon is a star: Francis Ford Coppola gave him the lead in the latest Grisham adaptation, The Rainmaker, Steven Spielberg cast him in the title role in Saving Private Ryan, and Gus Van Sant directed him in Good Will Hunting, which the ...
An underdog lawyer takes on a fraudulent insurance company. Rudy Baylor is a young attorney out to make a difference in the justice system. He is also the only hope of an elderly couple after their corrupt insurance company refuses to pay out a claim that could save their child's life.
Definition of rainmaker 1 : a person who produces or attempts to produce rain by artificial means. 2 : a person (such as a partner in a law firm) who brings in new business also : a person whose influence can initiate progress or ensure success.
The case goes to trial, where Drummond gets the vital testimony of Rudy's key witness, Jackie Lemanczyk, stricken from the record because it is based on a stolen manual used as evidence. Nevertheless, thanks to Rudy's determination and some clandestine reference help from a now Caribbean-based fugitive Bruiser with whom Deck is connected by intermediaries, her testimony - and Great Benefit Employee Manual - are finally admitted into evidence, to defense counsel Drummond's dismay. Rudy skillfully cross-examines Great Benefit's president, Wilfred Keeley, providing evidence that leads the jury to find for Donny Ray's family for not only actual damages but also enormous punitive damages that Great Benefit cannot pay. It is a great triumph for Rudy and Deck, with Keeley being arrested by the FBI and investigation proceedings into Great Benefit launched in multiple jurisdictions. However, the insurance company declares bankruptcy, allowing it to avoid paying punitive damages. There is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy.
Rudy has a case of insurance bad faith which could be worth several million dollars in damages. When Stone is raided by the FBI, Rudy and Deck set up a practice themselves. They file suit on behalf of a middle-aged couple, Dot and Buddy Black, whose 22-year-old son, Donny Ray, is dying of leukemia, but could have been saved with a bone marrow transplant, denied by their insurance carrier Great Benefit.
The original judge, Harvey Hale, is set to dismiss because he sees it as a so-called "lottery" case that slows down the judicial process. However, a more sympathetic judge, Tyrone Kipler, takes over when Hale suffers a fatal heart attack.
Unlike most of his fellow graduates of the University of Memphis Law School, Rudy Baylor has no high-paying job lined up and is forced to apply for part-time positions while serving drinks at a Memphis bar. Desperate for a job, he is introduced to J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone, a ruthless but successful ambulance chaser, who makes him an associate. To earn his fee, Rudy is required to hunt for potential clients at a local hospital. He meets Deck Shifflet, a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor-turned- paralegal who has failed the bar exam six times. However, Deck is resourceful in gathering information and is an expert on insurance lawsuits.
An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith 's 1955 novel of same name, the film costarred Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett, and received praise from critics. "Damon outstandingly conveys his character's slide from innocent enthusiasm into cold calculation", according to Variety magazine.
Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 8, 1970, the second son of Kent Telfer Damon (1942–2017), a stockbroker, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige (b. 1946), an early childhood education professor at Lesley University.
Damon next appeared as an opiate -addicted soldier in 1996's Courage Under Fire, for which he lost 40 pounds (18 kg) in 100 days on a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen. Courage Under Fire gained him critical notice, when The Washington Post labeled his performance "impressive".
On January 17, 2018, Damon apologized on The Today Show for his social commentary, stating that he "should get in the back seat and close [his] mouth for a while".
In 2010, Damon narrated the documentary film Inside Job, about the part played by financial deregulation in the late-2000s financial crisis .
Damon is also known for his starring roles as Jason Bourne in the Bourne franchise (2002–2016), and as con man Linus Caldwell in the Ocean's trilogy (2001–2007). He had a supporting role as rugby player Francois Pienaar in Invictus (2009) and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his leading role as an astronaut stranded on Mars in The Martian (2015). Damon portrayed Scott Thorson in the biopic Behind the Candelabra (2013) and produced the reality series Project Greenlight (2001–2015) as well as the film Manchester by the Sea (2016).
While discussing the Iraq War on Hardball with Chris Matthews in December 2006, Damon expressed concern about inequities across socioeconomic classes with regard to who is tasked with the responsibility of fighting wars.
Damon was originally attached to direct the film, but he was replaced by Van Sant. Filming took place mainly in Pittsburgh from early to mid-2012.
Promised Land is a 2012 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon , John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt and Hal Holbrook. The screenplay is written by Damon and Krasinski based on a story by Dave Eggers. Promised Land follows two petroleum landmen who visit a rural town in an attempt to buy drilling rights from the local residents.
Krasinski, who co-wrote the screenplay and plays Dustin, said the film's original premise involved wind power . Krasinski said wind power was replaced by fracking as a more relevant backdrop based on news coverage in recent years. The Huffington Post reported, "The procedure has caused concern due in part to the chemicals injected into the wells for drilling, which may taint nearby drinking water." It said Damon had posted in 2010 a YouTube video to promote the Working Families Party, which works "to prevent risky natural gas drilling". Politico said Promised Land reflected a trend about fracking since the release of the 2010 documentary film Gasland, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
At a town meeting the next day, the citizens are prepared to vote on Global's efforts to buy drilling rights to their property. Butler talks to them about how the barn in the picture reminds him of his grandfather's barn. He reveals that Noble has manipulated them and is employed by Global. Butler leaves the meeting to find Thomason on the phone with Global. She tells him he's fired and that she is leaving for New York. Butler walks to Alice's home and she welcomes him in.
Coming from a town and a life very similar to that of the people he is now determined to win over on behalf of Global, Butler tells the story of how his own town died after the local Caterpillar assembly plant closed. The idea of a town surviving solely on family farms being passed down through generations as a viable economy is one that he can no longer accept. He claims to be offering the town its last chance. Butler spends some pleasant after-hours time with Alice, a teacher he meets in a bar.
During filming and afterward, the film's highlighting of the resource extraction process hydraulic fracturing, known as "fracking," emerged as a topic of debate. The film had a limited release in the United States on December 28, 2012 and followed with a nationwide expansion on January 4, 2013.
Promised Land was criticized by the energy industry for its portrayal of the resource extraction process hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as "fracking". The portrayal was first reported in April 2012 by filmmakers raising funds for the pro-fracking documentary FrackNation.