Sitting Pretty

Winning an Oscar usually means that actors have projects lined up almost overnight--one right after another--not so for the 2005 best actress, who's been pretty quiet, that is, until now.

Steven Zeitchik of Variety has the story:

Reese Witherspoon' [pictured]'s Type A Films [production company] is developing "Under the Bridge" based on Rebecca Godfrey 's true-crime account of a brutal high school murder.

"Thirteen" helmer Catherine Hardwicke is in talks to direct the pic.

There's no word yet on whether Witherspoon will star in "Bridge," which will chronicle the 1997 killing of high school student Reena Virk in a small British Columbia town and the ensuing investigation and prosecution.

Godfrey, who's from the same area, returned to her hometown to research the eight high schoolers who were charged in the case, investigating the cliques at the group's well-off school as well as the life of Virk, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Two of the students were convicted in 2005.

Type A has bought both film rights to the book and life rights to Godfrey's story, with the possibility of the author herself becoming a character in the pic.

Witherspoon is aboard to star in horror pic "Our Family Trouble," which Type A is producing. It's set up at Universal

Hardwicke most recently directed "The Nativity Story" for New Line....

I can't imagine Whitherspoon not taking the lead in "Bridge" The material seems right up her alley...Hardwicke's "Thirteen" is a stark gut wrencher about teen girls. She makes a good fit to be the one calling the shits on this crime drama.