Scott Turow Gets Justice in the Form of a Miniseries

Hollywood went on a feeding frenzy to obtain the movie rights to Chicago lawyer Scott Turow’s phenomenal first novel “Presumed Innocent.”

“It began a sort of Hollywood mania,” Turow recalled. “It was one weekend’s madness.” And the big-budget film version, which starred Harrison Ford, Raul Julia and Brian Dennehy, subsequently became one of the critical and commercial hits of 1990.

But Turow seems perfectly content that “The Burden of Proof,” his best-selling 1990 follow-up to “Presumed,” has gone the miniseries route. The four-hour mystery airs Sunday and Monday on ABC.

In fact, Turow said he saw the handwriting on the wall after watching “Presumed Innocent.” He said he quickly realized Hollywood couldn’t make a movie out of “Burden” without compromising the story or his characters.

“This is not a critical comment on ‘Presumed Innocent’ at all,” Turow said during a recent visit to Los Angeles. “But it was the first time I realized what it meant to have something filmed in terms of frankly what gets left out. At that point, I realized that to take this book, which was in manuscript about 30% longer (than “Presumed Innocent”), and try to package it in the usual 90- to 100-minute film, was simply not doable in any form.”

After discussing the options with his film and literary agents, Turow said, “We all really began to recognize that TV might be the right venue for this.”

Turow admitted, though, that his decision was also based on the fact he had no firm feature offers.

“ ‘Burden of Proof’ in either venue had some obvious problems,” Turow said. “The biggest one being that a bald-headed 50-year-old man is not this town’s idea of a main character.”

And the main character of “Burden of Proof” is Sandy Stern, a “bald-headed 50-year-old” defense attorney, who “Presumed” fans will remember was Rusty Sabich’s attorney. Hector Elizondo stars as Stern.

In “Burden,” Stern’s life is shattered when his wife commits suicide for no apparent reason. At the same time, he is confronted with a growing legal case against his powerful brother-in-law, Dixon Hartnell (Brian Dennehy), a leading commodities broker who is under federal investigation by a team of U.S. attorneys lead by the brilliant Sonia Klonsky (Mel Harris). As Stern uncovers frightening facts about his late wife, he enters into affairs with Hartnell’s executive, Margy Allison (Victoria Principal), and family friend Helen Dudak (Stefanie Powers).

One man who saw the potential of “Burden of Proof,” which spent 11 weeks nestled atop the New York Times Best Seller list, was producer/director Mike Robe, who directed the 1991 ABC miniseries “Son of the Morning Star,” based on Evan Connell’s acclaimed book on George Custer.

“I am a Scott Turow fan,” Robe said. “Scott is prone to do a very convoluted and complicated mystery. It has a number of characters that really needed development in order to weave through the story.”

So Robe flew to Chicago to meet and spend a day with Turow to discuss the possibility of a miniseries.

“I tried to pinpoint the advantages of extra length and screenplay,” he said. “I thought this story of a man who discovers great complications in his family life and what he can do to deal with them--those kind of themes are well-served by TV.”

Turow, Robe said, was one of the nicest people he has ever worked with, as well as one of the shrewdest.

“You don’t have the prosecuting experience and be anybody’s fool,” Robe said. “Before we met, he didn’t know who I was and asked to look at a little bit of film I had done. I think I sent him eight hours of tape. This was just about two days before I met him.” By the time Robe arrived in Chicago, Turow had watched it all.

Turow also talked with several people who had worked with Robe. “They thought very highly of him,” Turow said. “It just seemed the right way to go.”

Robe made certain Turow was involved in every aspect of the production. “I felt a personal obligation to do Scott Turow’s book as faithfully as we could for TV,” he said. “I really wanted to bring Scott in as partner in what we were doing.”

“I said to Mike I would like to occupy the role my editor has with me, which is sort of to make suggestions,” Turow said. And that included reviewing every draft of John Gay’s screenplay. “He visited the location twice and he looked at every foot of the dailies,” Robe said. The two also conferred on casting. Robe said Raul Julia, who played a far more romanticized Stern in “Presumed,” was never a consideration for the miniseries. “He wasn’t available,” Robe said. “He was booked for two features. So we were able to take a fresh take on the casting. We concentrated on the roles of Sandy Stern and Dixon Hartnell first and I will tell you that Hector and Brian were our first choices. Happily, we were able to persuade them.”

“It is a terrific cast,” Turow said. “Hector is better-looking than my Sandy Stern. Raul was the first to say he was a long way from the character.”

Turow, who still practices law in Chicago, is busy at work on two books. “I am very very grateful for the success of my novels,” Turow said. “It is truly, truly beyond my wildest dreams. Every now and then it sort of comes over me in waves what has happened to me. I really and truly was an unemployed lawyer writing in my basement five years ago and here I am!”