Reese Witherspoon’s Peggy Lee Film Lands Director

The untitled Peggy Lee film starring Reese Witherspoon is back on, with Far From Heaven helmer Todd Haynes directing.

The project, based on a Nora Ephron screenplay, had been put on hold after Ephron died in 2012. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife) picked up the reins and did a rewrite of the screenplay. His credits include both the stage and film versions of Quills.

Witherspoon, who is at the Toronto Film Festival promoting Wild and The Big Lie, has long eyed the story of the Fever singer whose career in music spanned six decades. Lee died in 2002.

The project is set up at Fox 2000, which made Walk the Line, for which Witherspoon won a best actress Oscar.

Marc Platt, who produced Witherspoon’s two Legally Blonde films, is producing.

Haynes, who is known for directing strong female performances like Julianne Moore’s Oscar-nominated turn in Far From Heaven, most recently directed the Bob Dylan pic I’m Not There. He is in post-production on the Rooney Mara-Cate Blanchett starrer Carol.

Haynes is repped by CAA and attorney John Sloss.

Wright is handled by ICM Partners.

– THR