Variety are reporting that American television network, ABC has ordered a script from Lionsgate (Saw, Abduction) that would see the 2011 thriller The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughy feature as a drama series for the network.

The 2011 film which was based on the 2005 novel by Michael Connelly was the first to feature McConaughy’s character, Mickey Haller as an LA criminal defense attorney who does business from the back of a chauffeured Town Car. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four, saying, “The plotting seems like half-realized stabs in various directions made familiar by other crime stories. But for what it is, The Lincoln Lawyer is workmanlike, engagingly acted and entertaining.”

Lionsgate will co-produce with Lakeshore Entertainment, which was also behind the film. “Lawyer” screenwriter John Romano and Michael Connelly, the novelist who created the property adapted to film, will co-write the pilot script and exec produce along with Joel Gotler and Lakeshore’s Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg.

Oddly enough, an adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer would not be the first legal-themed movie turned into TV show as NBC is set to bring an adaptation of The Firm, the 1993 Sydney Pollack film starring Tom Cruise based on the John Grisham book, to the small screen in midseason.

Having a so-called “pre-sold” concept could provide a marketing hook for “Lawyer,” a value-add ABC Entertainment chief Paul Lee just talked up at TCA press tour on Sunday when discussing “Charlie’s Angels” and “Pan Am.” The project could fit into ABC’s ambition to add more procedurals to its schedule, with “Castle” and “Body of Proof” currently the only hours it has in stock that could fetch top coin in syndication.

The other day, I spoke about movie actors moving from the big screen to the television screen but now I beg the question about actual films being adapted for television. I would be quite intrigued about Lawyer being on television, especially as there are further novels written by Connelly starring the same character and therefore further stories which could be adapted but at the same time, I wonder where the original stories for television are and why today we have adapted on top of adaption. What do you think?