Discover this little detail that links “The Pelican Affair” by Alan J. Pakula (1994) with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington with a film worn by Tom Cruise released the previous year.
Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) brings together an explosive dossier on what she calls “The Pelican Affair”, the murder of two Supreme Court magistrates that neither the CIA nor the FBI can solve. She enlists a journalist from washington post named Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington). For its part, the White House seems very embarrassed by the Pelican file.
But what is the common point between the film on The Pelican Affair, adapted from the work of John Grisham, and The Firm, a feature film worn by Tom Cruise?
It’s F. Denton Voyles, and it’s the director of the FBI. It is found in the credits of La Firme (1993) and L’Affaire Pélican (1994). It is recurring in the work of John Grisham and also appears in the novel The customeradapted in 1995 to the cinema, but not appearing on the screen.
Warner Bros. Denzel and Julia
Played by Steven Hill in The Firm, it is James Sikking who lends his features to Denton Voyles in The Pelican Affair. He meets the two journalists and lends them a plane allowing them to “disappear”.
Warner Bros.
James Sikking in “The Pelican Affair”
The three aforementioned feature films are not the only Grisham novels that will see the light of day on the screens. Among the most famous are The Right to Kill? with Matthew McConaughey, The Game Master with John Cusack or The Idealist with Matt Damon, all released in just ten years, from 1993 to 2003.