Continuing her quest to make sure more strong female-driven movies get made in Hollywood, Reese Witherspoon has set her sights on cyber thriller Second Life.
The Oscar winner is developing the adaptation alongside her Pacific Standard partner Bruna Papandrea, following on from the action-comedy Hot Pursuit, in which she co-stars with Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara. They also produced Wild, for which Witherspoon was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and are working on a whole host of other adaptations.
Not to be confused with the online virtual world game of the same name, Second Life is based on the novel by S.J. Watson (Before I Go To Sleep, itself adapted last year into a film starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth) and follows a woman who creates a fictionalized online persona for herself in order to discover the truth about her sister’s violent murder, losing herself in the lies she creates as she goes.
There’s no word yet on if Witherspoon will also star in the film although it seems quite likely. That said, she did produce David Fincher’s hit mystery thriller Gone Girl – itself an adaptation of a best-selling novel – but Rosamund Pike took the crucial title role in that (to Oscar-nominated effect).
Whether she ultimately decides to star in it or not, it sounds like an intriguing film. I can’t say I’m familiar with the source material but I did enjoy the hokey mystery thrills of Before I Go To Sleep. Here’s hoping it delivers the same sort of thrills but with added depth this time.
Sources: Variety, Forbes (image)