For director Brad Furman, 'The Lincoln Lawyer' could be a pivotal film

Brad Furman had a dilemma.

His low-budget indie debut, "The Take," starring John Leguizamo, had received good reviews and positive buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Furman was being considered a director on the rise.

After years directing shorts and music videos and working behind-the-scenes for Julia Roberts, he didn't want to make a bad decision on his follow-up project.

"I was struggling not to make the wrong choice," Furman said this week by phone from Los Angeles. "You give so much on a movie. I want to make movies that stand the test of time."

But there's artistic integrity and the reality that a guy's got to eat, so he read scripts.

Lots of scripts.

Furman, who grew up in Lafayette Hill and attended Penn Charter and Friends Central (where he concentrated on basketball), said he read more than 300 scripts, "of which three were good, maybe."

One of the possible films at the top of his to-do pile was "Bone Game," a passion project of Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey had responded positively to "The Take" and "Matthew wanted to hire me to do 'Bone Game,' " Furman said, "but that and two bucks gets me two bucks."

"Bone Game," as is the way in Hollywood, is still in development, but McConaughey recommended Furman for "The Lincoln Lawyer," based on the book by Michael Connelly (who recently gushed about the film adaptation in the Los Angeles Times).

According to Furman, when McConaughey talked him up to producer Tom Rosenberg, head of Lakeshore Entertainment, Rosenberg said, "Who?"

But Furman convinced Rosenberg he was the man for the job and last week "The Lincoln Lawyer" had a big Hollywood premiere, attended by all the stars (except for Marisa Tomei and John Leguizamo, who were both onstage in New York) and 30 - THIRTY! - of Furman's childhood friends from Philadelphia, for whom he pulled off a major miracle to get tickets.

"Sharing it with them made it so special," the grounded director said. (Furman is also returning home this weekend to see the film with family and friends. Tonight they'll be at the Rave in Voorhees, N.J.)

Also at the premiere was producer Sidney Kimmel, who said to Furman, "You're a Philly guy?"

"I think Brad's career will be established with this film," said star Ryan Phillippe, who's from neighboring Delaware. "He really worked hard to keep the film from falling into predictable territory."

Furman gives McConaughey, who recommended him, and Rosenberg, who stuck with him, a lot of credit for that.

"Tom had the guts and cojones to make a drama like this when these types of movies aren't being made," Furman said.

But Furman also had the guts to speak frankly to McConaughey (who held all the power) about what type of performance he expected. Furman told him flat-out he wasn't interested in the McConaughey of light romantic comedy but wanted to work with the intense actor McConaughey was in his early days.

"I wanted to capture him as the new Paul Newman," Furman said. "We talked a lot about Paul Newman."

If "Lawyer" performs at the box office, there could be a sequel (Connelly's written more books featuring attorney Mickey Haller).

"That's the goal of McConaughey and Rosenberg for sure," Furman said.

As for whether Furman would return, "Tom has told me he would love that," he said.

"I'm really blessed at this crossroad," Furman said. "I now have more opportunity than ever.

"I've passed on five films already and this movie's not even out yet."

His longtime goal is to make "movies from the heart," movies that speak to race relations and that draw on his growing up both in the suburbs and the city. He'd also like to make a movie telling the story of his mom, one of Philadelphia's first female litigators.

"I just want to take this opportunity and run forth with it," he said.