Actress Reese Witherspoon and producer Simon Kinberg have a new sci-fi movie coming, but not how you might think. Coming off the second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies, Reese Witherspoon joins Simon Kinberg, who recently made his directorial debut with Dark Phoenix, for a science fiction film that’s headed not to theaters, but to Netflix.
Alongside producer Simon Kinberg, Reese Witherspoon will produce and star in Pyros, an adaptation of the science fiction short story Tardy Man by author Thomas Pierce. Multiple studios, including Sony Pictures, were interested in this attractive package of talent and material, according to Deadline. So this feature could have been a theatrical release, but ultimately Netflix won out and Pyros is headed for the streaming service.
Thomas Pierce will write the script for the film based on his own short story, which appeared in The New Yorker last year. Tardy Man follows a group of people who wear indestructible, fire-retardant ‘Tardy suits’ that are connected to their spine and allow them to endure dangerous conditions. The Tardy Men work for an insurance corporation to salvage the belongings of rich people during fires and other natural disasters.
The Tardy Men are not allowed to divert from their mission of object recovery to help people in need. The launching point for the story is when a Tardy Man disobeys this strictly enforced rule in order to save someone. On the surface, it sounds somewhat Fahrenheit 451-esque, but if you read the short story, it also has some interesting parallels to last year’s Sorry to Bother You.
Like lots of great sci-fi, Tardy Man seems to be using science fiction to tell a story that says something about the real world, and since the short story is well, very short, Pyros will be able to really expand on the concept and mythology for a feature film. It’s also cool that Thomas Pierce, whose other short story Chairman Spaceman is being developed by Fox Searchlight, will be adapting his own story for the Netflix film Pyros.
As of yet there is no director or other cast attached for Pyros, nor is there a release date. Reese Witherspoon and Simon Kinberg certainly both have plenty on their plates in addition to this sci-fi film. Simon Kinberg is shooting his second feature film 355, a spy thriller starring Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Sebastian Stan, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o and Bingbing Fan.
Reese Witherspoon isn’t just headed to Netflix for Pyros. The Oscar-winning actress also has the mini-series Little Fires Everywhere headed to Hulu and the series The Morning Show, which will also star Steve Carell and Jennifer Aniston, headed to Apple’s upcoming service,
Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of everything headed to theaters this year and for all the latest movie news, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
