Elle Woods is ready for her close-up … again! Legally Blonde 3 is in the works, according to multiple reports.
Deadline, which was first to break the news, reports that MGM is near a deal with Reese Witherspoon to reprise her role as the lead character. Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and Karen McCullah are reportedly in final talks to return as the screenwriters, while original producer Marc Platt is teaming up with Adam Siegel as well as Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company. A director has yet to be secured.
According to the website, the film will be centered around female empowerment. The creative team reportedly hopes to draw back the audience that helped make the original 2001 flick a success.
The first Legally Blonde, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best musical or comedy, grossed $141.8 million worldwide. It followed a wealthy, pink-loving sorority sister (Witherspoon) who tried to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) by enrolling at Harvard Law School. It also starred Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Victor Garber and Jennifer Coolidge.
Witherspoon, 42, returned for the 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, alongside Sally Field and Regina King. Though it opened to largely negative reviews, it became another box office success and has since grossed $124.9 million worldwide.
Legally Blonde was adapted into a stage musical in 2007. It premiered in San Francisco before moving to Broadway in New York City, where it earned seven Tony nominations. The West End production in London opened in 2010.
Witherspoon has been teasing for years that she’d love to step into Elle’s shoes again. “I actually think it’s kind of great right now [to do a third movie] because we’re talking about women in politics and how important that is to get more women,” she said on Fashionably Late With Rachel Zoe in October 2015. “I think it’d be kind of a cool thing to have [Elle] be a Supreme Court Justice or somebody who runs for office, like president.”
