Reese has been rumoured to be appearing in numerous films over the years – here are some of the projects that she’s dropped, rejected, or was just inaccurately linked to.
• Pale Blue Dot
• The Intern
• Passengers
• Big Eyes
• Sex Tape
• Trouble With The Curve
• The Better Woman
In 2012 it was reported that Reese had considered this project, but eventually decided to pass on it. Bridesmaids director Paul Feig is in line to direct the romantic comedy. The story would center on a young executive whose fiance leaves her for a much older woman. The executive then searches out the older woman to find out about what went wrong in the relationship.
• Pharm Girl
Universal and Reese Witherspoon are going into the pharmaceutical business. In 2009 the studio started development on Pharm Girl, an aspirational comedy centering on one woman’s odyssey through the drug industry. The project centers on a woman (Witherspoon) who gets a job at a pharma powerhouse but begins to see the underbelly of the industry as she rises through the company’s ranks. Reese will also act as a producer on the film with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa writing and directing.
• This Means War
Another romantic comedy, first reported in February 2010. The film is about two best friends since childhood who fall for the same woman (Witherspoon). Their friendship ends and their fight grows to epic proportions, taking out an entire city. Bradley Cooper was orginally linked to the project as one of the male leads, but dropped out to focus on the sequel to The Hangover. Seth Rogen and Chris Pine are currently (May 2010) believed to be front-runners for the male leads. McG is in line to direct with Role Models writer Tim Dowling scripting. Fox have been developing the project since 1998.
• The Pioneer Woman
In March 2010 Columbia Pictures announced a deal to develop this romantic comedy for Reese to star in. Reese would play a woman who falls in love with a cowboy while on a cross-country road trip and winds up living on an Oklahoma ranch, transforming from spoiled city girl to domestic ranch wife. The story is based on a blog by Ree Drummond (thepioneerwoman.com) about how this detour on her trip from L.A to Chicago changed her life.
• Paper Wings
In 2010 the LA Times reported that Reese and Tom Cruise would be teaming up for this rodeo love story. Cruise would play a rodeo champion who falls for an up-and-coming country singer, played by Oscar-winning Witherspoon. Gabriele Muccino is one of the directors being considered for the film.
• Nice
In 2008 it was rumoured that Reese had signed on for this film, about a woman who is just too nice to break up with her boyfriend. So she kills him instead. When she finds she gets away with it, she does it again… Since the original report nothing further has been heard about Reese’s involvement.
• Downsizing
Fans were excited at the prospect of Reese working with her Election director again in 2009. Reports said that Reese, alongside Sacha Baron Cohen, Paul Giamatti and Meryl Streep, were in line to star in the film. A few weeks later the film was given a title – Downsizing – and the plot surrounded a man low on money who decides he can have a much nicer life if he undergoes a process to shrink himself. Reese would play a pint-sized woman he meets on his journey. As of May 2010 no progress on the film has been reported.
• The Days Before
This sci-fi project would’ve been a new genre for Reese, but nothing more has been heard of it since its original announcement in 2009. Reese would’ve co-starred with Robert Downey Jr. in the story about “a race of aliens who invade Earth by traveling backwards through time and wiping out humanity, one day at a time, yesterday by yesterday. One man attempts to stay “a yesterday ahead of them”, and every time he must try to convince the world that “the end is coming”, again.”
• Untitled Cameron Crowe Project
Variety reported that Reese and Ben Stiller had signed on to an untitled romantic comedy project with Cameron Crowe in 2008. Details on the film were limited, but SlashFilm.com reported that the story would focus on a disgraced US weapons consultant who is sent to Hawaii to supervise the launch of a new spy satellite. He must win the approval of the local Hawaiian council, and while doing so he “discovers himself”. Whilst promoting Monsters And Aliens in 2009 Reese confirmed that this project had been put on hold, and that she would be filming How Do You Know in that Spring instead.
• Tokyo Suckerpunch
In 2007 it was reported that Reese would re-unite with her Pleasantville director Gary Ross and co-star Tobey Maguire for this romantic comedy/action/modern noir hybrid that uses live-action and anime. Special effects would feature heavily. The film did not materialise, and Reese possibly chose to shoot Four Christmases instead.
• Monte Carlo
Reese was linked to this film, to star opposite Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep. Initial reports came to nothing, and in 2010 the film went in a younger direction with Selena Gomez and Leighton Meester among the new young cast.
• Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian
Reese’s name was linked to this sequel, for the role of Amelia Earheart, but Amy Adams took the role instead (2007).
• Morning Glory
Reports of Reese’s involvement in this romantic comedy surfaced in 2007. The story was about a faltering morning news producer who recruits an iconic but difficult anchorman to help boost her ratings. The film was eventually made in 2009, with Rachel McAdams as the news producer Becky Fuller, and Harrison Ford as the new achorman. The Roger Michell directed film is set for release in 2010.
• Midnight
Reese Witherspoon as Eve Peabody/Baroness Czerny
ANNOUNCED in 2007
According to Variety, Universal Pictures will develop a remake of the 1939 comedy Midnight as a star vehicle for Reese Witherspoon, scripted by Michael Arndt, who won the Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine. Stuber/Parent partners Mary Parent and Scott Stuber will produce with Witherspoon and her Type A Films partner Jennifer Simpson. Arndt hatched the idea, which prompted the producers to team. In the original, Claudette Colbert starred as a destitute young woman in Paris who becomes a pawn when a wealthy man tries to get rid of the gigolo wooing his wife. John Barrymore also starred in the film that was directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. The original was released by Paramount but became U property when the studio bought the pre-1948 Par library.
Project will not be next for Witherspoon, who’s deciding between several films for her next slot.
Source Variety, May 2007
Links IMDb
• Under the Bridge
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2007
According to Variety, Reese Witherspoon’s Type A Films is developing Under the Bridge, based on Rebecca Godfrey’s true-crime account of a brutal high school murder. Thirteen helmer Catherine Hardwicke is in talks to direct the pic. There’s no word yet on whether Witherspoon will star in Bridge, which will chronicle the 1997 killing of high school student Reena Virk in a small British Columbia town and the ensuing investigation and prosecution. Godfrey, who’s from the same area, returned to her hometown to research the eight high schoolers who were charged in the case, investigating the cliques at the group’s well-off school as well as the life of Virk, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Two of the students were convicted in 2005. Type A has bought both film rights to the book and life rights to Godfrey’s story, with the possibility of the author herself becoming a character in the pic.
Update (04/2010) – Canadian indie producers Brightlight Pictures and Rhombus Media have reportedly joined up with Type A Films to develop this. No word on creative elements and casting.
Source Variety, May 2007
Links IMDb
• London Is the Best City in America
Reese Witherspoon as Emmy
ANNOUNCED in 2006
According to InStyle magazine, Reese has optioned for the rights to film London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave and is set to star as the 20-something heroine who finds herself where she least expects to be.
The writer of the novel confirms the rumours: “Reese is attached to play Emmy, and her production company, Type A, is producing the film along with Mandalay Pictures and Universal Studios. Everyone involved is great: very smart, very creative. I’ve met the other producers and the screenwriter, a woman named Gwyn Lurie. She recently completed the script and did a superb job. It’s very funny and moving and surprising. I often hear that writers worry about their books being turned into movies, but I’m not worried. The movie feels like its own thing, and I’m looking forward to it.Even before Reese Witherspoon optioned the script, I thought she’d be a dream Emmy. She has this amazing capacity for comedy and for drama. Ever since I saw The Man in the Moon, I’ve been a fan.”
Source iVillage, InStyle, 2006
Links IMDb
• Our Family Troubles / Bell Witch
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2005
Universal Pictures has acquired Don Winston’s script Our Family Troubles and will develop the drama as a starring vehicle for Reese Witherspoon and her Type A Films. Witherspoon and her Type A Films partner Jennifer Simpson will produce. The drama, which will get a new title, casts Witherspoon as a first-time mother so plagued by unexplained phenomena that she doubts her own sanity. When she returns to her Tennessee home, she fixates on the legend of the Bell Witch and becomes convinced the evil spirit is intent on harming her son. U senior veep Holly Bario will oversee the film.
Update (06/09) – Mentioned in an article about Pharm Girl as something Reese and Type A Films are developing and producing.
Update (10/06) – It seems that Our Family Troubles is still very much in the works but under a new title and script writer. Scott Kosar, who wrote hits The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror, has been hired by Universal Pictures and Type A to write Bell Witch.
Source Variety, December 2005
Links IMDb
• The Reckoning
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2003, 2005
Originally announced in 2003 and brought back to headlines in 2005. Witherspoon is developing the dramatic thriller The Reckoning through her Type A Films as a possible starring vehicle. The story centers on a photojournalist who arrives in Cambodia to cover the U.S. military search for the remains of an American pilot shot down during the Vietnam War. The book, written by Jeff Long, was published in 2004. Ted Tally wrote the screenplay, which is currently out to directors.
“There is a movie I am working on for Paramount called The Reckoning about a New York Times photojournalist that goes to Cambodia to look for MIA soldiers from the Vietnam War. We are trying to get it going now. I have no idea about the logistics yet”, Reese said in November 2005.
Source Hollywood Reporter, November 2005
Links IMDb
• Sports Widow
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2002, 2004
Originally announced in 2002 and brought back to headlines in 2004. Witherspoon to produce and play the lead. A woman has lost her husband to televised sports events. Reese plays one such wife who decides to take back her life and ends up one-upping her football-obsessed husband by becoming an expert on the sport.
Source Hollywood Reporter, April 2004
Links IMDb
• Around the World in 80 Dates
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2005
Universal Pictures has optioned the film rights to Jennifer Cox’s memoir and Jeff Rake has signed on to write the adaptation says. The book is part travel guide and part relationship primer, combining dating realities with romantic settings. A bestseller in England, it tells the story of a British travel writer’s attempt to find her soulmate. She sent her profile and her specs for a soulmate to contacts around the world and traveled the globe, going on dates with the top 80 candidates in 16 countries. Reese Witherspoon’s Type A production company is producing and she will have first crack to star in the film if the script is to her liking.
Update (06/2009) – Mentioned in an article about Pharm Girl as something Reese and Type A Films are developing and producing.
Update (12/06) – Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama) has signed up to direct the film.
Source Hollywood Reporter, May 2005
Links IMDb
• One for the Money
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2004
Reese Witherspoon’s Type A Films shingle is developing Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mystery novel One for the Money as a possible starring vehicle for Witherspoon at Columbia. Wendy Finerman, who’s been developing the project for years, will produce along with Type A. Story concerns a down-on-her-luck native of Trenton, N.J., who convinces her bail bondsman cousin to give her a shot as a bounty hunter. Her first assignment is to track down a former cop on the run for murder — the same man who broke her heart years before. Col is seeking a writer to adapt the novel. Amy Baer is overseeing for the studio.
Update (02/2010) – New reports state that Katherine Heigl will now take this role.
Source Variety, November 2004
Links IMDb
• The Dog Walker
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2004
Universal Pictures has acquired The Dog Walker, the new novel by former Dell editor-in-chief Leslie Schnur.
The film will be adapted by How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days‘ scribes Kristen Buckley and Brian Regan and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Type A Films partners Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Simpson. Since the project is a romantic comedy revolving around a young woman, Witherspoon will get first crack at the title role of a gal who’s laid off from her publishing job and fills in for a pal who walks dogs for the Gotham elite. Gig allows her to snoop through their apartments, observe their lives and figure out what she wants to do with hers.
Source Variety, July 2004
Links IMDb
• The Proposal
Reese Witherspoon as Unknown
ANNOUNCED in 2004
Pairing up for the first time, Reese Witherspoon has partnered with Revolution Studios to co-produce romantic comedy The Proposal, in which she will star. Project follows a couple as they plan their wedding. Witherspoon will produce the project through her Type A Films production shingle. Company developed the laffer with Nicole Eastman, who will pen the script. Revolution partner Todd Garner will oversee the project as executive producer with Denise Decker. “Reese and I have been looking to find something to work on together for a long time, and we are excited that we finally have that opportunity,” Garner said.
Source Variety, April 2004
Links
IMDb
• Whiteout
Reese Witherspoon as Carrie Stetko
ANNOUNCED in 2002
Witherspoon will star in the pic, which Wolfgang Petersen and producer Gail Katz are developing through Petersen’s shingle, Radiant Prods. Reese’s Type A Films will also produce the pic, though some of the individual producing credits are still being negotiated. Whiteout is the story of a female U.S. marshal living in self-imposed exile in Antarctica. Her quiet life of relative solitude is dramatically changed when she is called upon to investigate the first murder on that continent.
Update (1/07) – Reese drops out of Whiteout. Kate Beckinsale will star instead.
Source Variety, November 2002
Links IMDb
• Bunny Lake Is Missing
Reese Witherspoon as Annie Lake
ANNOUNCED in 2003
Witherspoon’s Type A Films is developing a remake of the 1965 Otto Preminger film which was based on a novel by Evelyn Piper. Reese would play Annie Lake, an American woman who has just moved to England with her four-year-old daughter Bunny. Dropping her daughter off at a new school, Annie leaves Bunny alone to wait for her teacher. When she returns Bunny is missing and nobody seems to remember her. She calls the police to report her missing, but when she looks for a photograph she’s shocked to find that all of Bunny’s things have suddenly vanished from their apartment. There’s no trace of Bunny Lake and the police begin to wonder if she ever really existed.
Update (8/06) – The screenwriter of the movie, Doug Wright, has confirmed that the movie has been scrapped for now. “Unfortunately I don’t think the studio is going to make the script. But I worked on it for almost a year. I wish they were going to, but I think they decided it was too expensive and too high-risk a project. But it was great fun to work on it and it was thrilling to meet her, she is a lovely young actress.”
Update (12/06) – Joe Carnahan has signed on to direct the film. Spyglass Entertainment is in talks to finance the picture, with Columbia Pictures to distribute domestically. Doug Wright and Carnahan are currently re-writing the script.
Update (3/07) – Five weeks before production was scheduled to begin, Reese abruptly dropped out of the film, much to the chagrin of director Joe Carnahan.
Source IGN, October 2003
• Other mentions
» Used Guys (2010) – sci-fi film developed by Fox, mentioned in 2010
» Honey West (2001 and 2007)
» Brothers (2007) – Reese was said to be interested in this film. Leonardo DiCaprio’s name was also attached at the same time.
» Sammy (2007)
» Manhattan Baby (2004)
» Daughter of the Queen of Sheba (2003)
» Mother To Mother (2003)
» Cape Fear (1991) – Reese auditioned for the role which eventually went to Juliette Lewis. She told People magazine in 1999 – “It was my second audition ever. My agent told me I’d be meeting Martin Scorsese. I said, ‘Who is he?’ Then he mentioned the name Robert De Niro. I said, ‘Never heard of him.’ When I walked in I did recognize De Niro, and I just lost it. My hand was shaking and I was a blubbering idiot.”
» Mallrats (1995) – Reportedly auditioned for a role.
» Mindhunters (2004) – Was initially offered the role of Sara Moore. Kathryn Morris played the role in the end. Coincidently, Reese’s then husband Ryan Phillippe was also offered a role in this film, but declined.
» Romeo + Juliet (1996) – Considered for Juliet. Claire Danes played the role eventually.
» Scream (1996) – Turned down a lead role.
» Secretary (2002) – Reese was reportedly in discussions for the lead role, but backed out. Maggie Gyllenhaal took the role of Lee Holloway instead.
» Urban Legend (1998) – Turned down a lead role.
» Wimbledon (2004) – Reese was signed on to play the lead female role of Lizzie Bradbury at one point. It’s possible she dropped out due to becoming pregnant with Deacon.
» Dallas (2008) – Considered for a role in.
» I Dream of Jeannie (2008) – Considered for a role in.