If you woke up in the middle of a trip and only had a Keanu Reeves character to talk to and associate with for the next few decades, how long do you think you would make it?
That’s a question Reese Witherspoon may have to ask herself, as The Hollywood Reporter reports she is in talks to star with Reeves in the Wayfare Entertainment sci-fi drama Passengers. This would be quite an interesting project for the actress, whose sci-fi experience is pretty much limited to her voiceover work in DreamWorks Animation’s Monsters vs. Aliens. The new film will be helmed by Irish director Brian Kirk, who has a strong career on the small screen, directing episodes of series such as Game of Thrones and Luther. The script was most recently rewritten by Jon Spaihts, who wrote the first draft of the script for Ridley Scott's Prometheus. The plot will focus on a giant spacecraft transporting thousands of humans to another soon-to-be colonized planet. Something within the ship malfunctions, and Reeves’ character is woken up 90 years too early. Because being alone for that long is no fun, he wakes up another passenger (possibly Witherspoon) and sparks fly. They will presumably become a part of the Millions of Miles High Club.
The deal is reportedly close to complete, and the production is set to take place in Montreal - though no timeline has been reported. I hope somebody’s got some booze on that ship, or it might get ugly.
Jokes aside, Witherspoon is in the recently-released Mud from director Jeff Nichols, and is currently filming the Sudanese lottery drama The Good Lie. And we’ll also be seeing her soonin Atom Egoyan’s West Memphis Three drama Devil’s Knot, provided the project can find U.S. distribution.
