"Pizza" centers on a former NFL quarterback whose agent farms him out to a semi-pro team in Parma, Italy. A downward career move actually becomes a blessing when the quarterback falls in love with his adopted homeland.

While Grisham's 1990's courtroom adaptations have been huge at the box-office, his only non litigious novel to be made into a major motion picture, 2004's "Christmas with the Kranks," has not gone down as well with audiences. Maybe it wasn't Grisham's fault. I think Tim Allen had just made one too many Christmas flicks.

Yet the Grisham name still sells scripts, no matter what the subject matter. Case in point: the author's sole work of non-fiction, "The Innocent Man," which was snapped up for the big screen by George Clooney.

No screenwriter has yet been assigned to "Playing for Pizza" by Phoenix Pictures – the same company that brought us "Zodiac" and Martin Scorsese's forthcoming "Shutter Island" with Leonardo DiCaprio.

At this point I would normally include a link to the Hollywood Reporter story, to see why I haven't, read this.