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Archive for the ‘Role Rumors’ Category
It seems that Wild, the book that Reese bought the rights to for her production company, is moving forward, with book author Cheryl Strayed tweeting that Nick Hornby is on board to write the script:
Earlier this year it was reported that Reese would be starring in ‘One Hit Wonder’, a musical comedy to be directed by Glee creator Ryan Murphy. Vulture.com are now reporting that Murphy is still working on the script, so there could still be life in it:
Back in February, Ryan Murphy went out to dinner with Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, and Cameron Diaz, and they all decided that it would be fun to make a movie-musical. Lo, One Hit Wonders — about a handful of washed-up nineties musicians who form a pop supergroup — was born. At last night’s God’s Love We Deliver event, Ryan Murphy told us he’s still working on the script, but there is one plot point on which he is decided: M.C. Gwyneth Paltrow and D.J. Jazzy Cameron Diaz (of the infamous Chelsea Handler video) will not be making an appearance. “No rapping. No,” he said firmly. And then once more to be clear: “No. It’s much more about pop music.” Sorry, M.C. Gwyneth!
Cheryl Strayed optioned the movie rights for her acclaimed memoir “Wild” to Reese Witherspoon’s production company and admits it will be strange to see her story as a film — with the Oscar winner portraying her on the big screen.
Strayed will serve as an associate producer and consultant on the film adaptation, which will be written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right”).
The moving memoir documents her gruelling, solo 1,770-kilometre hike of the Pacific Crest Trail from California to Oregon — with no previous experience as a long-distance hiker. Strayed makes the impulsive decision to embark on the journey following her mother’s death and the subsequent fracturing of her family and marriage — all part of a harrowing downward spiral.
“Inevitably, there are going to be scenes that are very close to the book … that they take almost exactly how it is in the book, and it’ll be very strange for me to see somebody who’s playing me. That’s the weird part,” Strayed said in an interview at Random House of Canada’s downtown offices during a promotional tour.
“I’m going to watch a famous actress playing a younger version of myself,” she added, laughing. “It’s just strange all around.”
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The Hollywood Reporter: Reese Witherspoon is heading back into romantic comedy territory with The Beard.
Chernin Entertainment has dipped into its discretionary fund to pick up the project, a spec script by Becca Greene.
Witherspoon will star in the project and produce with Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping of Cherinin Entertainment and Mason Novick.
While it might be tempting to see a story about Witherspoon growing facial hair, the “beard” in the title refers to a member of the opposite sex — usually a woman — who acts as a date for a gay person, giving the illusion the person isn’t gay. Story details were not revealed.
Witherspoon is shooting Devil’s Knot, Atom Egoyan’s take on the West Memphis Three murder case that also stars Colin Firth. She also has the indie drama Mud, with Matthew McConaughey, in the can. Her most recently romantic comedy was the action-filled This Means War with Tom Hardy and Chris Pine; the movie grossed $156 million worldwide.
Green was a staff writer on Good Vibes, an MTV series of animated shorts created by David Gordon Green and starring the voices of Adam Brody and Josh Gad. This is her first feature script.
Witherspoon is repped by CAA, Management 360 and Hansen Jacobson. Greene is repped by CAA and managers Novick and Michelle Knudsen.
In a whopping summer auction that reached seven figures, 20th Century Fox acquired Gone Girl, the Gillian Flynn novel that was just published by Crown and is atop The New York Times Bestseller List for the second week in a row. The book will be produced by Pacific Standard’s Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea, along with Leslie Dixon. Flynn will write the screenplay. Other studios including Universal were in on the action and I think the Fifty Shades Of Grey action has elevated interest in bestsellers geared to female readers.
A woman disappears on the day of her fifth anniversary and all roads point to her husband as the killer. Flynn, who has three novels on the bestseller lists all at once, has two other movie projects in the works. Dark Places has Amy Adams attached to star, with Gilled Paquet-Brenner directing and her first novel, Sharp Objects, was optioned by Alliance with Blumhouse’s Jason Blum producing. Fox’s New York office, headed by Drew Reed, was all over this book. Reed and Chris Goldberg teamed with Peter Kang to bring it in. It was sold by Smiley Group’s Shari Smiley, the former longtime CAA agent who teamed with Stephanie Rostan of Levine/Greenberg Literary Agency. Smiley also sold the screen rights to the Cheryl Strayed book Wild, which currently sits atop the Non Fiction bestseller list. Pacific Standard bought it, with The Kids Are All Right’s Lisa Cholodenko adapting to direct.
- Deadline.com
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The previously announced ‘An Evening With Reese Witherspoon Hosted By The Gene Siskel Film Center’ took place in Chicago last night, and Reese accepted her award looking chic in a little navy blue dress. Election director Alexander Payne presented the award to her, and Reese told reporters before that he “was a big champion for me early on, and said, ‘That’s the girl I want in my movie,’ so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for him. And we’ve subsequently become very close friends.”
Reese gave an interview to the Chicago Sun Times for the event, and you can read that below. Over 50 photos from this event – most of which are HQ – have been added to our Gallery for you!
Congratulations to Reese on this wonderful honour!
• An Evening With Reese Witherspoon Hosted By The Gene Siskel Film Center x57
     
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Bryan Buckley returns to features on the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus at Lionsgate Summit. The film is based on the John Gray self-help title, a guide to relationships and marriage that is the best selling non-fiction hardcover book of all-time (excepting the Bible and Koran) with over 7 million copies in circulation. Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont have written the script and Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun are set to produce with Andrew Mittman co-producing and Meredith Milton overseeing for Summit. Plan is to shoot the film in January.
While Buckley has stuck mostly to commercials, you’ve likely seen his work. Called “King of the Super Bowl,” he has directed over 40 spots for the annual NFL title game. In the process, he has won 37 Cannes Lions, and gotten 6 Emmy nominations. He’s directed everything from the recent Siri campaigns for the Apple iPhone to the American Express spots with Ellen DeGeneres and Conan O’Brien, and the baseball rivalry campaign with John Krasinski and Alec Baldwin. Latter campaign, which pits the Yankees loving Baldwin against the Red Sox loving Krasinski, was just added to the permanent connection at the Museum of Modern Art. Buckley most recently wrote and directed the film Asad, which was honored as Best Narrative Short at the Tribeca Film Festival 2012. The film, which now qualifies for this year’s Oscars, features a cast comprised entirely of Somali refugees.
Buckley is repped by Apostle’s George Heller, WME, and Bloom Hergott.
- Deadline.com
The actress optioned “Wild” late last year as a starring vehicle, months before the memoir was published this spring.
When Oprah Winfrey announced June 1 that Cheryl Strayed’s hiking memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail was the first pick of her revived book club, among those most excited by the announcement were Reese Witherspoon and her producing partner Bruna Papandrea. The pair, who recently joined forced on their new Pacific Standard banner, had optioned the book in November, four months before its March publication date, as a starring vehicle for the actress.
“It was the first thing we picked up together,” Papandrea says of the project, which Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) is on board to direct. As a result of the Winfrey pick, the Knopf book has seen its Amazon sales position spike from No. 175 to No. 16.
“Wild is a magical and evocative book about losing everything – family, money, your mother, your partner – and finding your true spirit alone in the woods,” Witherspoon tells THR. “I urge everyone to go out and read this amazing story of one woman’s journey to find herself.”
Pacific Standard is the combined shingle of Witherspoon’s Type A Films —whose projects included Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Four Christmases and This Means War — and Papandrea’s Make Movies, which is behind the upcoming zombie feature Warm Bodies, helmed by Jonathan Levine (50/50).
- HollywoodReporter.com
IndieWire.com reports that The Kids Are Alright director Lisa Cholodenko has signed on to direct Wild, one of the movies Reese acquired and is producing under her new production line Pacific Standard. We previously reported details on Wild here and here, so have a read of them to refresh your memory.
Director Lisa Cholodenko recently sat down with The Playlist moments before her panel with fellow alum Shari Springer Berman and Nicole Holofcener at the Columbia University Film Festival this week, to debate the glass ceiling and how it affects making their films — during the course of which, Cholodenko let slip a couple of her yet-to-be announced projects among her other updates.
Witherspoon is also slated to produce and star in one of Cholodenko’s other new projects, an adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of her 1,100-mile solo hike in the wake of personal tragedy, “Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.”
“The author sent it to Reese, going, ” ‘I can’t imagine who else would do this,’” Cholodenko said. “And then I sniffed around it, without realizing ‘Wild’ had already been given to her [to produce], and then I somehow got involved in it, and now I’m doing that.” Chodolenko will write and direct, while Strayed confirmed over email that she’s acting as a resource and a consultant as the script is developed, and that she will be an associate producer on the film as well.
- IndieWire.com
The success of the blog turned book turned movie Julie & Julia sent Hollywood on a frenzied search to uncover possible blogs for film adaptations. Back in 2010 Sony had jumped on mommy blogger Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman, optioning it for a possible Reese Witherspoon vehicle. The blog—like the book that would follow The Pioneer Woman: From Black Heels To Tractor Wheels—detailed how Drummond’s kismet meeting with a charming cowboy inspired her to leave behind her city slicker life in favor of a home on the range.
With Witherspoon’s warm yet sharp charisma, this proposed picture seemed a good fit for her. Unfortunately, The Pioneer Woman stalled out in 2011 when executive producer Laura Ziskin died. The unfinished screenplay—penned by Robert Harling of Steel Magnolias fame—was shelved and he moved on to create the ABC dramedy series GCB. Witherspoon remained attached to the property, but the future of The Pioneer Woman movie was uncertain.
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This Means War (2012)
Mud (2013)
Devil's Knot (2013)
The Good Lie (2014)
