Reese Witherspoon won't be playing America's Sweetheart in her next big movie role.
At the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, Worldview Entertainment announced it will finance Devil's Knot, costarring Oscar winners Witherspoon and Colin Firth, 51.
Based on the 2002 best-seller by investigative journalist Mara Leveritt, Devil's Knot tells the story of three teenagers falsely convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys as part of a satanic ritual. Later dubbed the West Memphis 3, the defendants were finally freed in August 2011 after spending 18 years behind bars.
Directed by Atom Egoyan (Chloe, Exotica), principal photography will begin in Georgia in June. Two of the three falsely convicted Tennessee teens, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, will also co-produce the film.
Pregnant actress Witherspoon, 36, last appeared in the box office bomb This Means War, costarring Chris Pine, 31, Tom Hardy, 34, and Chelsea Handler, 37. She is currently expecting her first child with CAA agent husband Jim Toth, 41; she shares custody of daughter Ava, 12, and son Deacon, 8, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, 37.
