According to entertainment industry insiders, Columbia Pictures' 1995 courtroom thriller, The Witness, will soon be made into noted fiction writer John Grisham. The story of a blind boy who hears a racially charged murder take place in a Washington, DC coffee shop, The Witness will become a six-foot-one, 190-pound, best-selling lawyer-turned-author with a penchant for writing gripping page-turners set in the legal world. 'We believe this recent box-office smash will make a great Oxford, Mississippi-based author,' said David Rudner, Columbia Pictures' spokesperson. 'The gripping dialogue and nail-biting trial scenes should have people who meet Grisham on the edge of their seats.' The Witness: The Human Being is due out in July of '97. 