Reese Witherspoon, actor, producer and fashion brand owner is becoming one of the most powerful players in Hollywood. The Legal Blonde actor, who won an Oscar for Walk the Line is adapting books to tell strong stories. As of 2019, Reese Witherspoon is among the richest (multi-talented) Hollywood darlings.
After adapting Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty into a series with executive producer credits, she has also adapted the upcoming Kerry Washington co-starrer Little Fires Everywhere. A novel of the same name by Celeste Ng was first published in 2017.
While Little Fires Everywhere airs this March, the other Reese Witherspoon series, The Morning Show that aired in 2019, was also heavily inspired from journalist Brian Stelter’s book, Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.
Fans of the books may agree or disagree on the adaptations but there’s another one coming up. Reese Witherspoon has also reserved right to option’s much loved book, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. The winner of the 2017 Costa Debut Novel Award, the book is stunning in prose but Reese has optioned it for a film. Having read the book, we do wonder whether it is a good idea. Not all adaptations do justice to the material. The adaptation of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn managed it beautifully with Amy Adams as the central character but Big Little Lies didn’t if you’ve read the book. It also stretched the story when there was no room for it. Here’s hoping Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Little Fires Everywhere do fairness to the books.
