Reese Witherspoon is eager to shake off her awkward cop role in Hot Pursuit and switch from comedic movies back to drama, now that she is attached to star in the astronaut flick called Pale Blue Dot by Fox Searchlight.
She will be producing the movie together with her partner Bruna Papandrea, while Claudia Lewis, David Greenbaum and Taylor Friedman are overseeing for Searchlight, Variety exclusively revealed.
Meanwhile, Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi will be taking charge of writing the script that would focus on a married astronaut who returns to Earth after an emotionally daunting mission and starts an affair with a fellow astronaut.
Because of her affair, she goes on a downward spiral and loses touch with her family and friends. Things hit rock bottom for the character of Witherspoon when her lover begins another affair with an astronaut trainee.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Pale Blue Dot has the tone of both Foxcatcher and The Right Stuff, a 1983 drama about the original Mercury 7 astronauts. At the same time, it is inspired by the real life story of an astronaut who was involved in a love triangle. It became so unbearable for the female mission specialist that she attempted to kidnap a rival back in 2007. This story made the headlines and even inspired an episode in the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Witherspoon is one of the few female Hollywood stars who can easily transition from comedy, romance, action, and drama films. She made her debut role in The Man in the Moon back in 1991, then appeared in Pleasantville back in 1998.
Her star was on a steady rise when she appeared in the 1999 drama Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair, and ex-husband Ryan Philippe. Their marriage lasted for eight years, and they divorced back in 2007.
When she portrayed an obsessive student in Election in 2000, Witherspoon earned a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical.
However, it was her role as lovable aspiring lawyer Elle Woods in Leglally Blonde back in 2001 that really cemented her commercial success. She followed this by starring in Sweet Home Alabama in 2002 with Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey.
Some of her more recent works include Water for Elephants (2011) with Robert Pattinson, Wild (2014), and just recently, Hot Pursuit, where she co-starred with Sofia Vergara.
