Fox 2000 Acquires Americanized ‘Get Her Off The Pitch’ For Reese Witherspoon
Fox 2000 has acquired Depth Of Field, a screenplay by J. Mills Goodloe that is an Americanized version of Get Her Off The Pitch, the 2009 bestselling memoir by Times Of London cultural critic Lynne Truss. Elizabeth Gabler bought it with the idea of shaping it as a star vehicle for Reese Witherspoon, who’ll produce it with Twilight Saga‘s Karen Rosenfelt and Bruna Papandrea.
Truss, once a self-described proud sports atheist, was sent on a lark by her editor to cover the World Cup. Her readers were amused, and Truss eventually spent four years covering major sporting events throughout Europe and America, writing humorous and somewhat academic essays. Along the way, she slowly became a convert, discovering the significance of sport, and how it affected her own life and relationships. Get Her Off The Pitch was never published in the U.S., but Goodloe discovered it in a bookstore while on a trip to Sydney. He transplanted Truss’ story to an American sport.
This seems like a good fit for Witherspoon, who has done well with fish-out-of-water pics from Legally Blonde to Sweet Home Alabama. It becomes another strong project she and Papandrea have set up to produce under their Pacific Standard banner at Fox. They include Gone Girl, the Gillian Flynn bestseller that I keep hearing will be David Fincher’s next film. Witherspoon just opened opposite Matthew McConaughey in the Jeff Nichols-directed Mud. Goodloe most recently adapted the Nicholas Sparks novel The Best Of Me for Warner Bros and director Michael Hoffman. Witherspoon is repped by CAA and Evelyn O’Neill at Management 360. Goodloe is repped by UTA and Eryn Brown at Management 360.
– Deadline