It appears that The Wolverine director James Mangold has settled on his next project, and it’s looking like it will mark a reunion of sorts for the helmer and his Oscar-winning Walk the Line star Reese WitherspoonTHR reports that Witherspoon will star in an adaptation of Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s memoir Three Little Words, which Mangold will produce and direct.  Rhodes-Courter entered the child welfare system in Florida at the age of four, and years later an unpaid volunteer discovered the girl and set out to convince her biological mother to surrender her parental rights so that the teen could begin a new life.

Witherspoon will play the volunteer and Amanda Seyfried is in talks to play the young girl’s biological mother.  The project, written by Lewis Colick (The Fighter) and Michael Petroni, marks a bit of a palate clenser for the versatile Mangold after The Wolverine, but he’s already proven adept at the Western (3:10 to Yuma), biopic (Walk the Line), and action-comedy (Knight and Day) genres so one presumes he’ll do a fine job with the drama-leaning Three Little Words.  Production is hoping to begin this September in Florida.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the memoir.

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Here’s the synopsis for Three Little Words:

An inspiring true story of the tumultuous nine years Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent in the foster care system, and how she triumphed over painful memories and real-life horrors to ultimately find her own voice.

"Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama." Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words. As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system.

Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative, humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice. [Amazon]