Is Netflix already courting the rights to this crime thriller from the international publishing world?
The fact that the feared lawyer Petrocelli has the same name as the friendly protagonist from the lawyer series of the same name must be a contrafiction.
Because one of them sacrificed himself pro bono for his clients on American television in the 1970s and therefore had to live in a trailer, while the other is currently driving one of the most contested mergers in publishing history.
Penguin Random House wants to buy Simon & Schuster, but since the deal for billions, fictions and authors was stopped by the Justice Department, Bertelsmann's book publishers have been on edge.
I'm Stephen King.
I'm a freelance writer.
Actually, that's the right atmosphere for Daniel Petrocelli.
Now, however, he was dealing with an opponent on an equal footing in the courtroom.
The ministry, which did not shy away from a lawsuit against the planned takeover, had called none other than Stephen King to the witness stand.
And King, who just a few days ago was talking his head off during a fake Russian call - he thought he was talking to the Ukrainian president - this time knew how to place his words, from the first minute.
To the amusement of the audience, he already countered the initial question about his profession with the confession: “I'm Stephen King.
I'm a freelance writer."
That was as true as it was disarmingly self-deprecating for a man whose books have sold more than 400 million copies, topped perhaps only by the Bible and Mao's poetry.
In any case, King shares the view of the prosecution that the merger of publishers leads to less competition and is therefore at the expense of the authors.
King's own career famously began with a $2,500 check he received for his debut "Carrie" - but only after his wife had fished the discarded manuscript out of the dustbin.
To illustrate the complicated legal facts, he revealed many a cheerful scene from his literary and economic work.
Last but not least, he knew how to ensnare the judge, who almost like a fan interrupted him when he reported on his flop “The Gunslinger”:
"I have to ask you that!
How did the novel sell?”
Cinematic renunciation of cross-examination
1,500 times, the answer was given to the woman who will one day decide the $2.2 billion deal.
Fear, anger and repression are the basic experiences in Stephen King's plots, each with its own unexpected consequences.
When the attorney Petrocelli was finally supposed to cross-examine the writer, he instead invited him for coffee, saying he had no questions for him.
A cinematic renunciation that should make some people nervous.