Reese Witherspoon is attached to yet another exciting movie. This time, she’s reportedly teaming with Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg on an in-development sci-fi film that is currently sparking a bidding war among studios.

According to Deadline, Witherspoon and Kinberg have joined forces on an adaptation of Thomas Pierce‘s short story “Tardy Man,” which originally appeared in The New Yorker in 2018. The working title for the film right now is Pyros. The project marks a rare trip into the sci-fi/fantasy genre for Witherspoon, whose last movie of this ilk was the Ava DuVernay-directed adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. Witherspoon should be in good hands with Kinberg, whose past writing and producing credits include similarly genre-specific fare including The Martian, Logan, and X-Men: Apocalypse, and the upcoming remake of Logan‘s Run.

Deadline’s report also includes a brief synopsis of “Tardy Man” — and it sounds like a heck of a set-up.

Tardy Man deals with a group of augmented people who are fitted with indestructible fire suits that are fused to their spines. They work for a corporation that recovers objects for wealthy people when their houses are burning. It is strictly forbidden for them to veer from their salvage missions, even when other humans are in danger. The protagonist decides to make an exception to this rule and that is the jumping-off point.

It seems as if Witherspoon may be playing a gender-flipped version of what sounds like the male protagonist in the story but with no confirmation on her specific role, it’s difficult to confidently confirm. Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter will serve as producers via the Hello Sunshine banner as well as Genre Films’ Audrey Chon.

via Flickering Myth