Variety has reported that Tommy Lee Jones will not be directing or starring in The Lincoln Lawyer, Lakeshore Entertainment’s adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel. Jones was set to star next to Matthew McConaughey but it is reported Jones “has left the project over creative differences on the script.” With that script, written by John Romano, Lakeshore is in a scramble to find another director and start production next spring. Tommy Lee Jones is a busy man as Variety lays out his other projects below.

Jones is in post-production on HBO’s The Sunset Limited, a telepic based on the Cormac McCarthy play that Jones directed. He stars with Samuel L. Jackson. He’s also readying an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream. On the bigscreen, Jones most recently wrapped the John Wells-directed The Company Men with Ben Affleck and Kevin Costner.

The plot for Michael Connelly’ Lincoln Lawyer novel is below:

Mickey Haller has spent all his professional life afraid that he wouldn’t recognize innocence if it stood right in front of him. But what he should have been on the watch for was evil. Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers — they’re all on Mickey Haller’s client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence — it’s about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it’s even about justice. [read the rest at the official site]

Are you upset Jones isn’t directing? Who would you like to see take command?