Reese Witherspoon in Talks to Star in ‘The Good Lie’

Inspired by real events, The Good Lie centers on a young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the U.S. with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to his new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.

Monsieur Lazhar’s Philippe Falardeau is set to direct from a screenplay by Margaret Nagle (Warm Springs).

The Good Lie will be produced by Black Label Media, the newly formed production and financing company from The Blind Side’s Molly Smith. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Karen Kehela Sherwood are producers, with Kim Roth and Reliance Entertainment’s Deepak Nayar as executive producers.

Nagle, who won WGA Awards in 2006 and 2011, developed the screenplay in Imagine Writer’s Lab. She is currently adapting Tuxedo Park for Playtone. Nagle is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and attorney David Matlof.

Witherspoon has a slew of films on tap, including Mud on May 26 and the forthcoming The Devil’s Knot. She is repped by Management 360 and CAA.

Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar was nominated for best foreign-language film last year at the Oscars. He is repped by UTA.

The L.A.-based Black Label Media was formed by Smith, Trent Luckinbill and Thad Luckinbill.

– THR

Arnold Oceng: “The film is such a blessing to be part of it’s a personal story to the people of Sudan and it’s a story that needs to be told to the world, and I’m honored to be working with a great cast and crew. Reese is awesome and such a great humble down to earth person who is also a great actor who I am learning from everyday we’re on set.”

– Daily Mail