Reese Witherspoon To Produce And Star In Sci-Fi Film 'Pyros'

For the past few years, Reese Witherspoon has been using her clout to boost rising creatives and develop projects that spotlight women. So her next project will be naturally be a sci-fi movie with...Dark Phoenix's Simon Kinberg? The writer-director is certainly in need of a boost following the critical and commercial disappointment of Dark Phoenix, but it seems like he doesn't need to worry much — Pyros, the sci-fi film that he and Witherspoon are producing, which Witherspoon is set to star in, has become the next hot package in Hollywood.

Deadline reports that Witherspoon and Kinberg's package for Pyros has "numerous" studios bidding for it. Witherspoon is attached to star in the sci-fi film, which will be written by Thomas Pierce, who is adapting his short story Tardy Man, published last year in The New Yorker. Pierce is an in-demand writer as of late — his short story Chairman Spaceman was bought and is being developed by Fox Searchlight, with Kinberg also producing. That perhaps explains why Kinberg is attached to Pyros despite his recent spotty track record with the poorly received X-Men films.

According to Deadline, Tardy Man follows "a group of augmented people who are fitted with indestructible fire suits that are fused to their spines. They work for a corporation that recovers objects for wealthy people when their houses are burning. It is strictly forbidden for them to veer from their salvage missions, even when other humans are in danger. The protagonist decides to make an exception to this rule and that is the jumping off point."

It sounds like an intriguing action-packed sci-fi film that would allow Witherspoon to play in the sci-fi realm — a genre that she hasn't worked in much apart from films like A Wrinkle in Time. It's uncertain whether Witherspoon would play the protagonist or whether she would cast a newcomer in the role and play a supporting character. The latter seems more likely, as Witherspoon, as of late, has enjoyed producing titles in which she gives the spotlight to other actors. Witherspoon is producing Pyros through her banner Hello Sunshine alongside Lauren Neustadter, with Genre Films' Audrey Chon.