Coben's 'Innocent' optioned by Plum

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Plum Pictures has picked up the film rights to Harlan Coben's book The Innocent, reports Variety.

The novel revolves around Matt, a middle-class New Jersey boy who serves a four-year jail term for manslaughter after leaping to his friend's defence in a drunken brawl.

After being freed from prison, Matt struggles to rebuild his life and leave his past behind.

Corben's novel Tell No One was adapted as a French-language thriller by Guillaume Canet in 2006. The film was a critical and commercial hit, taking $17 million in its first month on release in France.