Witherspoon joins West Memphis Three drama.
Variety reports that Reese Witherspoon is set star to in ‘Devil’s Knot,’ the Atom Egoyan-directed drama about the West Memphis Three.
Based on Mara Leveritt’s ‘Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three,’ the film will chronicle the prolonged murder trial of defendants Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. The trio were convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993; they were released from prison in August after nearly two decades.
Witherspoon will play Pam Hobbs, the mother of one of the murder victims. Hobbs originally believed the trio murdered her son, but as the case dragged on and more details were revealed, she began to question their conviction.
Egoyan (‘Chloe’) will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Paul Boardman (‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’). Filming begins next summer.