Reese Witherspoon is Working on a Movie Adaption of Where the Crawdads Sing

Meghan Overdeep
·2 min read

Reese Witherspoon is Working on a Movie Adaption of Where the Crawdads Sing

Kya is headed to the big screen.

Reese Witherspoon is at it again! The book-loving starlet who brought us television adaptions of Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies is reportedly working on a movie version of one of our other favorite books: Where the Crawdads Sing.

Witherspoon, a longtime fan of the best-selling novel by author Delia Owens, highlighted it in her book club in September 2018. Her production company, Hello Sunshine, obtained the film rights to the fictional tale shortly after.

For those unfamiliar with the book, Where the Crawdads Sing (BUY IT: $14; Amazon) is set in two different time periods in coastal North Carolina. The first one follows a misunderstood young girl named Kya (dubbed “Marsh Girl”) as she comes of age in the wetlands. The second takes place in the same marsh several years later—only this time there’s been a mysterious murder.

"There is so much to her story: romance, mystery, and a murder… and it takes place in the breathtaking backdrop of the South. I didn’t want this story to end!" Witherspoon previously said of the book on Instagram.

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I can’t even express how much I love this book! My September pick for @reesesbookclubxhellosunshine is #WhereTheCrawdadsSing by @authordeliaowens. It’s about a young woman named Kya, who’s left to raise herself in the marshes of North Carolina when her family abandons her at a young age. There is so much to her story: romance, mystery, and a murder... and it takes place in the breathtaking backdrop of the South. I didn’t want this story to end! 📚✨

A post shared by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Sep 6, 2018 at 10:58am PDT

No casting details for Where the Crawdads Sing have been released, but the project has recently found a director in Olivia Newman, who wrote and directed Netflix feature First Match, per The Hollywood Reporter. Witherspoon is set to serve as an executive producer alongside longtime collaborator Lauren Neustadter. Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild screenwriter Lucy Aliba is penning the script.

Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar in 2019, Witherspoon said that it's "really exciting" to turn Where the Crawdads Sing into a motion picture.

"It's just one of those really exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities," she said. "It's very fulfilling."

Stay tuned for more information as we get it!