A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : BESTSELLER BIN : Taking a Cruise Around ‘The Firm’

John Grisham is pleased that Tom Cruise will likely, according to sources, star in the film of his blockbuster novel “The Firm,” but the Mississippi-based lawyer and author hasn’t been very involved in his book’s route to the screen.

“I think Tom Cruise would be perfect,” Grisham says. Cruise would play Mitchell McDeere, an ambitious young tax attorney who goes to work for a Memphis law firm that is concealing a big secret. (A spokesman for Cruise will neither confirm nor deny the report.)

“I’ve never talked to Paramount in the two years since the book was sold, I have never seen the script,” Grisham said. “The excitement over the movie ended a long time ago.”

Paramount bought “The Firm” for $600,000 two years ago, before it was even published. Since then, several factors have figured into the delay in production, including top-level management changes at Paramount and the threat of an actors’ strike. It is currently scheduled to start shooting this fall, for an early 1993 release.

Though he hasn’t been in touch with Paramount, Grisham has learned of the movie’s progress from producers Scott Rudin (“The Addams Family”) and John Davis (“Predator”).

There have already been several scripts. Grisham reports that David Rabe (“Streamers,” “Casualties of War”) was hired and submitted two drafts. The producers were, according to Grisham, “very dissatisfied with both drafts so they hired another screenwriter. Rabe’s no longer associated with the project.”

Now at work on yet another draft, says Grisham, is Dan Pine (“Pacific Heights”). “One reason they got rid of Rabe was that he wanted to create something new, other than what the book was,” Grisham said. “I think when they hired Pine they said, ‘Here’s the book and that’s what we want.’ ”

“The Firm” remained on the hardcover best-seller list for nearly a year. It is currently No. 1 on the New York Times best-selling paperbacks list.

Meanwhile, location scouts are already at work in Memphis. “They’ve been there for the past month and are acting like it’s a big secret, but everybody knows it,” says Grisham.

Grisham’s new book, “The Pelican Brief,” hit stores last week. And, yes, it has been sold to the movies--to Alan J. Pakula (“Presumed Innocent”).

In Grisham’s words, the film rights went for “considerably more” than he made from “The Firm.”