Reese Witherspoon is in early talks to star opposite Keanu Reeves in the sci-fi romance Passengers.  Directed by Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones), the story takes place on a spacecraft that is transporting thousands of people to a distant colony.  A malfunction in one of its sleep chambers causes a single passenger to awake 90 years before everyone else, and faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he decides to wake up a second passenger.  This is also called the “Complete Lack of Options” play.   According to THR, the production plans to shoot in the tax-break-friendly Montreal.

Witherspoon will next be seen in the West Memphis Three drama, Devil’s Knot.  The Oscar-winning actress is also attached to adaptations of Men Are from Mars, Women Are From Venus, Pennyroyal’s Princess Boot Camp, and Cheryl Strayed‘s memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail as well as the comedy The Beard.

A director has been set for the long-gestating sci-fi film Passengers, which has Keanu Reeves attached to star.  The story takes place on a spacecraft that is transporting thousands of people to a distant colony.  A malfunction in one of its sleep chambers causes a single passenger to awake 90 years before everyone else, and faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he decides to wake up a second passenger.  What follows is a love story under rather unique circumstances.  Deadline reports that Brian Kirk, who has helmed episodes of Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, has been tapped to make his feature directorial debut on the project for Wayfare Entertainment.

Kirk was previously eyed to direct the upcoming Thor sequel before the job eventually went to fellow Game of Thrones alum Alan Taylor.  Passengers has a script by Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts, and with a director now set, production can hopefully get underway sooner rather than later.  The world could definitely use more original sci-fi films, and Passengers promises to be a welcome addition.

At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I was able to land an exclusive interview with Keanu Reeves for his movie Henry’s Crime.  Premiering at the festival, Henry’s Crime stars Reeves, James Caan, and Vera Farmiga.  The film was directed by Malcolm Venville and it’s about an aimless guy who ends up serving time for a bank robbery he didn’t commit. After he gets out, he decides to rob the bank for real.  Things get complicated when he falls for a girl.

While you normally associate Reeves with big budget Hollywood blockbusters, you might be surprised to learn Henry’s Crime is a true indie as they don’t yet have distribution and Reeves was instrumental in getting the film made.

During the interview, Reeves talked about why he wanted to make Henry’s Crime, casting, acting techniques, upcoming projects, and a lot more.  If you’re a fan of Reeves, I think you’ll like the interview as I tried to ask him some questions I’ve never heard him answer.  Read or listen to what he had to say after the jump:

Yesterday afternoon I was offered the chance to interview Keanu Reeves for his new movie Henry’s Crime – which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.  While I’ll have a lot more on the movie tomorrow (it’s a fun crime movie with just the right tone), towards the end of the interview, Reeves game me some brief updates on a number of projects he’s been associated with like Cowboy Bebop, 47 Ronin, Passengers, and Generation Um.   He also told me about a few other projects he developing like the romantic comedy It’s Not Me It’s You and Psyched.  More after the jump:

As we reported back in January, Keanu Reeves is teaming up with Pursuit of Happyness director Gabrielle Muccino for the sci-fi love story Passengers.  Today, with the selling of rights over the film, new details have come to light.  With a budget of $90 million, the producers are saying the film is like “Adam & Eve in Space.”  Allow me to weave THR‘s synopsis with what we already knew: Set in the future on an interstellar spaceship, a mechanic (Reeves) accidentally awakens from pod hibernation 20 years into a 120-year journey and gets lonely and only has “robots and androids” for company.  That is until he decides he doesn’t want to die alone and wakes up a female passenger.

Hit the jump for more details on the project and my slightly-less-than-positive reaction to them.

Writer Richard Matheson has no shortage of fans and Hollywood continues to show its fascination with the author as Parkes/MacDonald Productions have optioned Matheson’s Earthbound in hopes of bringing it to the silver screen, according to THR. Parkes/MacDonald Productions recently partnered with Imagenation Abu Dhabi in October 2009, and this is the first film from the tandem. THR gives this description of the novel:

“Earthbound centers on a married man who starts an affair with a young stranger, only to realize that she may actually be the ghost of a long-dead woman driven by something much more than earthly passion.”

More after the jump:

Gabrielle Muccino is in negotiations, according to Variety, to helm the Keanu Reeves film Passengers, described as a love story in a science fiction setting. Except this has a creepy twist.

The rough description of the film is that a spaceship is making a long journey to reach a distant planet when a computer malfunctions and wakes up Reeves 90 years early. Whoa! Knowing that he is alone and will likely die before any of the others passengers come out of deep sleep, he chooses to awaken a female that he fancies for, you know, love.

Muccino, a prominent Italian director, is known to American audiences for his films Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds, which both prominently feature Will Smith in the leading roles of their dramatic tales. The director expects to begin shooting around summer with a script by Jon Spaihts (writer for Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel).

A few months back, we reported that Ridley and Tony Scott were attempting to resurrect (if you’ll excuse the term and forget your enmity towards the fourth film in the series) the “Alien” franchise by bring Carl Rinsch on board to direct a new installment in the franchise. While Tony Scott confirmed that the fifth film would be a prequel, he offered no details on the story.

Hit the jump to find out how it fell apart and how Fox is trying to put it all back together.