THE ARMY WAY Claire (Judd) tries to communicate with her husband, Tom (Jim Caviezel). In the end (below), she has no choice but to defend him herself.

Yang hired the husband-and-wife team of writers Yuri Zeltser and Cary Bickley to adapt Finder’s novel, then began to cast around for a director who could bring out the strengths of the story. She contacted Franklin. “I wanted a film-maker who had gotten consistently great performances from his actors,” she explains. “I wanted High Crimes to be more than just a thriller.” Franklin, meanwhile, admits he was drawn by the David and Goliath aspects of the story.

“The story’s political underpinnings add a dynamic quality and texture,” adds Judd, noting the way in which Franklin has angled the story towards a woman battling against a system that is never ready to admit that it’s in the wrong. “There’s a genuine synthesis between the impassioned, dramatic moments and the thrills. Carl told us that he saw High Crimes as both a drama and a thriller. Because, as he said, ‘We need the fear… the threat.’”

Franklin’s initial response to the screenplay was to make a subtle but significant shift in the character of Claire, turning her from the conservative, slightly repressed legal professional of the original novel into an edgier, more rebellious lawyer able to work effectively within a system while being all too aware of its faults. And, in doing this, the director is only too ready to toss back at Judd the compliment she pays him about his ability to find greater depths in the character. “Ashley is extremely bright and verbal,” he says, “with a questioning and curious mind. For those reasons she felt right for Claire: that’s our character.”

The other change Franklin made was to move the film from Boston, where the novel had been set, to San Francisco. For one thing, this would enable them to work to the schedule (which required a winter shoot) without turning High Crimes into a ‘snow movie’. And for another there was Alameda Naval Base, a slightly sinister, art-deco complex just across the bay in Oakland, which would provide a setting that would visually underline Claire’s dilemma. “We wanted to avoid the traditional way of depicting military bases on film,” he says. “Our goal was to make Claire a fish out of water by putting her in a place that had a tougher environment than you’d find in traditional-looking bases. The base is a formidable foe to our protagonists.”

But Claire doesn’t end up battling against the military establishment on her own: she realises early on that she does not know enough about the set-up to be as effective as she needs to be. So she contacts Charlie Grimes, the ‘wild card’ character who gives High Crimes its truly distinctive edge - all the more so since Charlie is played by three-time Oscar nominee Morgan Freeman.