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Archive for the ‘Career’ Category
Reese Witherspoon on Her Production Company: “We Support New Female Voices in Film”
With such hits as ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Wild,’ the actress and partner Bruna Papandrea’s Pacific Standard is breaking down the boys’ club barrier.
This story first appeared in the Oct. 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Reese Witherspoon is known for her lovable comedic characters in Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama and her critically acclaimed work in last year’s Wild and 2005’s Walk the Line, which earned her a best actress Oscar. But it’s her work behind the scenes as a producer through her Pacific Standard banner, which she and Bruna Papandrea founded in 2012, that has made her a true industry force. “One of the best parts of our job is we’re buying books and helping authors navigate the process of getting a book all the way to the screen,” says Witherspoon, 39, who will receive the 29th American Cinematheque Award on Oct. 30.
After the successes of Gone Girl and Wild, are publishers flocking to you at Pacific Standard?
When we bought Gone Girl, we could barely get anyone to read it. But there’s been such an incredible response to our company and what we’re trying to accomplish. Cheryl Strayed went from selling 1.5 million [copies of Wild] before the film was announced to selling 6 million books in two years. That’s huge for an author.
Did you and Bruna know you would work well together right away?
I really wanted a partner, not an employee. It’s a self-funded company, and we purposely chose not to be at one studio because we wanted to be able to take material everywhere. I met with her, and I’m sure she didn’t have any idea if I wanted to just develop material for myself or if I had real perspective about other stories or business acumen. Then I sent her Wild, and she said it was amazing and wanted to start this company. The next project we got within a month was Gone Girl.
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Reese Witherspoon & Laura Dern To Produce Drama Project For HBO Based On Book By ‘Wild’ Author Cheryl Strayed
Wild stars Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern have reteamed for another screen adaptation of a book by Wild author Cheryl Strayed, this time for TV. HBO has put in development Tiny Beautiful Things, a drama series based on Strayed’s bestselling 2012 book of the same name, a collection of essays compiled from Strayed’s Dear Sugar advice column. Strayed and her husband, filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, will write the TV adaptation, set to explore love, loss, lust and life through the eyes of a Portland family who live by the mantra that the truth will never kill you.
Witherspoon, Dern, Strayed and Lindstrom will executive produce with Witherspoon’s producing partner at Pacific Standard, Bruna Papandrea, as well as Jayme Lecheryl. Wild was a passion project for Witherspoon and Papandrea who optioned Strayed’s memoir months before it was published. In the 2014 Fox Searchlight film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, Witherspoon portrayed Strayed and Dern played her mother. The movie was well received, with both Witherspoon and Dern earning Oscar nominations earlier this year.
HBO already is hosting a Wild mini-reunion with the limited series Big Little Lies, in which Witherspoon is starring alongside Nicole Kidman, with Witherspoon and Papandrea executive producing and Vallée in negotiations to direct.
– Deadline
As rumoured, Reese graces the cover of the December issue of US Glamour magazine, as one of their Women Of The Year. Here’s the cover, and stay tuned for more asap…
Jean-Marc Vallee In Talks To Helm HBO’s ‘Big Little Lies’ With Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon
In what would be his television debut, Jean-Marc Vallee is in talks to direct the first episode and maybe more on Big Little Lies, HBO’s limited series adaptation of the Liane Moriarty novel that will star Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. The scripts were written by Emmy winner David E. Kelley, and the pending deal with Vallee continues its track as one of the highest-profile limited series packages to come together for HBO since True Detective and it got the same straight-to-series commitment.
As Deadline revealed back in summer, 2014, the book was optioned by Kidman and her Blossom Films production banner partner Per Saari, along with Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea and their Pacific Standard banner. They intended to fashion it as a smart screen vehicle for themselves and that has certainly turned out well.
Nathan Ross, who is Vallee’s producing partner, is joining the project as a producer. The novel is a subversive comedy that tells the tale of three mothers of kindergartners whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.
Vallee continues to establish himself for getting high-water-mark performances out of actors. After Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won Oscars for Dallas Buyers Club, he followed that up with the Witherspoon-starrer Wild (both Witherspoon and Laura Dern got Oscar nominations) and he most recently wrapped and premiered in Toronto the drama Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper. Fox Searchlight will release that next spring. He is also attached to direct Amy Adams in the Janis Joplin pic Get It While You Can, but I’m hearing that he will do this early next year, first. Ross is Vallee’s manager and David Weber his attorney.
– Deadline
Reese Witherspoon, Mila Kunis Series in Development at ABC
Reese Witherspoon and Mila Kunis are getting behind the camera for two potential ABC series. The network is developing dramas with both women attached as exec producers, Variety has learned.
Kunis will serve as an EP on the television adaptation of “Black Stiletto,” based on the novels of the same name, while Witherspoon will work on an untitled romantic mystery from “Cheers” alum Rob Long.
“Black Stiletto,” inspired by Raymond Benson’s book series, follows a young woman’s evolution into a modern day hero when a family secret from the past is revealed and puts the only family she’s ever known in imminent danger.
Kunis will exec produce by way of her Orchard Farm Productions banner with her partners Cami Curtis, Susan Curtis, and Lisa Sterbakov, plus Tony Eldridge and Nancy Moonves. Kunis inked a first-look deal with ABC Studios, which will produce “Black Stiletto,” in late 2014 when she launched her production company. Scribe Javier Grillo Marxuach (“Lost,” “The 100”) sold the script to ABC.
For Kunis, “Black Stiletto” marks her television producing debut. The “Black Swan” and “That ’70s Show” alum was a producer on the 2014 flick “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.”
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Reese Witherspoon Developing Thriller ‘The Dry’ as a Movie
Reese Witherspoon is developing Jane Harper’s Australian crime thriller “The Dry” as a movie.
Witherspoon has acquired the films rights to Harper’s debut novel, set amidst an epic drought in which a farmer turns his gun on his family and then himself in a rural community — prompting the return of an investigator who was the farmer’s childhood friend and left town after being rejected by the community.
Harper is a business writer for the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne. Her book won the $15,000 Victorian Premier Literary Award for An Unpublished Manuscript earlier this year.
Witherspoon will team with partner Bruna Papandrea at their Pacific Standard banner. The duo formed Pacific Standard in 2012 in order to remedy the absence of movies with female protagonists.
Since then, they have actively acquired film rights to novels and produced “Wild” and “Gone Girl.” Pacific Standard is currently developing Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s “Ashley’s War” at Fox 2000, “Big Little Lies,” “The Engagements,” “Pennyroyal’s Princess Boot Camp,” “The Outliers,” Wendy Walker’s “All Is Not Forgotten,” Ruth Ware’s “In a Dark, Dark Wood” and Garth Callaghan’s “Napkin Notes.”
Witherspoon is handled by CAA, LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush and Kaller. Harper is repped by Intellectual Property Group’s Jerry Kalajian and Clare Forster at Curtis Brown Australia and Writers House’s Daniel Lazar.
– Variety
Reese Witherspoon Developing ‘In a Dark, Dark Wood’ Movie
Reese Witherspoon is developing a movie based on Ruth Ware’s mystery novel “In a Dark, Dark Wood.”
New Line Cinema has acquired the film rights from the Gotham Group, which will produce with Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard banner. Witherspoon will team with partner Bruna Papandrea. The duo produced “Wild,” “Gone Girl” and “Hot Pursuit,” and has a dozen projects in the works.
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein (“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials”) will produce for The Gotham Group. Gotham’s Lindsay Williams and Shari Smiley will serve in producorial roles.
“In a Dark, Dark Wood” is the second book-to-film collaboration between Pacific Standard and New Line, which teamed up on Garth Callaghan’s “Napkin Notes” earlier this year. The book was on the New York Times, USA Today and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists when it debuted in August.
The story centers on a reclusive writer who receives an invitation to a bachelorette party of her best friend from high school, who she hasn’t seen in 10 years.
Richard Brener, Andrea Johnston and Walter Hamada are overseeing the project for New Line. CAA brokered the deal on behalf of Gotham Group and Pacific Standard.
Witherspoon and Papandea formed Pacific Standard in 2012 in order to remedy the absence of movies with female protagonists. They are currently developing Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s “Ashley’s War” at Fox 2000, “Big Little Lies,” “The Engagements,” “Pennyroyal’s Princess Boot Camp,” “The Outliers” and Wendy Walker’s “All Is Not Forgotten.”
Witherspoon is handled by CAA, LBI Entertainment, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush and Kaller. Ware is repped by literary agent Eve White and Gotham Group.
– Variety
Matthew McConaughey To Present Reese Witherspoon With American Cinematheque Honor
Matthew McConaughey will present Reese Witherspoon with the midcareer American Cinematheque Award during the organization’s annual gala October 30 at the Hyatt Regency in Century City. Kenny Chesney will perform at the event, which also will honor DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffery Katzenberg with the first-ever Sid Grauman Award.
McConaughey was the recipient of the 2014 American Cinematheque Award so he knows the drill; Witherspoon in fact was one of his co-stars who offered up tributes to him. The award is given to filmmakers “who [are] fully engaged in his or her work,” and “committed to making a significant contribution to the art of the motion picture.” The Cinematheque said her selection was unanimous, citing her work as both an actress and producer.
Katzenberg’s inaugural award is for an individual who has made a significant contribution to the Hollywood film industry in the continuing advancement of theatrical exhibition.
Paul Flattery and Barbara Smith are executive producing this year’s show, Irene Crinita will produce, and Corrine Mann is the event producer.
– Deadline
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The Morning Show (2019)
