Entertainment

Reese Witherspoon Is Working On Another Film

The actress formerly known as Elle Woods has been getting gritty and Oscar bait-y lately in films like Wild and Mud, so I'm as surprised as I am excited to inform you that Reese Witherspoon is working on a new comedy. Yesssss! I'm getting flashbacks to the gloriousness that was Legally Blonde. Witherspoon is great in pretty much any role she takes on, but I personally think she has a particular talent for comedy, so I'm delighted by the news she's moving back in that direction. The project she's eyeing in this case is based on a book — that actually hasn't even been published yet — called Opening Belle.

It was written by Maureen Sherry Klinsky and is vaguely based on her own experience working on Wall Street in 2007, which is a year that might sound familiar to you as the one right before a little thing called the financial crisis happened. Maybe you've heard of it? Klinsky was raising three children at the time, so she had to balance that with the entire country collapsing — which sounds like either a nightmare or a comedic pitch for Warner Brothers. Apparently, Klinsky has found a way to make it both.

The book won't come out until later this year, but the film is already being adapted, and Witherspoon is both co-producing, and the first choice for the lead. And, not that anyone asked me, but, as exhausted as I am by movies wondering whether working mothers can "have it all," I think I trust Witherspoon not to minimize it down to that level. She's done a great job lately of pumping out movies with female leads through her production company Pacific Standard, so I think we can rely on her to handle this with finesse. In her hands, Opening Belle won't turn into a movie with a protagonist who's equal parts bad mother and bad Wall Street exec. Fingers crossed, and be very ready to laugh.