Clooney buys Grisham book rights

Grisham (r) will reportedly receive a seven-figure sum for the rights

Oscar-winning actor George Clooney has purchased the rights to The Innocent Man, the first non-fiction book by best-selling author John Grisham.

Subtitled Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, the book tells the true story of a former baseball player wrongly convicted of rape and murder.

The film will be produced by Clooney's production company Smoke House.

It is not yet known if the actor, who won an Oscar this year for Syriana, will direct or star in the project.

The 45-year-old is currently promoting The Good German, a black-and-white spy thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Restaurant

Clooney formed Smoke House with his Good Night and Good Luck writing partner Grant Heslov.

The company is named after a restaurant near the company's offices at the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank, California.

Clooney and Heslov have a "first-look" deal with Warner, which released Good Night and Good Luck through its "art-house" division, Warner Independent Pictures.

Grisham, a former lawyer, is one of America's most successful novelists.

A number of his fiction works have been turned into films including The Firm, with Tom Cruise, and The Pelican Brief, starring Julia Roberts.