Actress in talks for sci-fi drama…
Back in May it was being reported that Reese Witherspoon was set to take the female lead opposite Keanu Reeves in Irish helmer Brian Kirk’s sci-fi drama ‘Passengers.’ Now Variety is hearing from sources close to the project, that Witherspoon is out due to a scheduling conflict, with Rachel McAdams (‘A Most Wanted Man’) now in negotiations to replace Witherspoon.
‘Passengers’ is set in the future on a spacecraft making a centuries-long interstellar voyage to a new planet. Due to a computer glitch, a single passenger (Keanu Reeves) awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he, in turn, awakens a beautiful woman.
Long-gestating, the project features a script by ‘Prometheus’ scribe Jon Spaihts. Reeves and Stephen Hamel are producing the filmvia their Company Films banner along with Ben Browning and Michael Maher of Wayfare Entertainment.