MGM, New Line and Warner Bros. will produce a comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, the companies said Thursday. Scheduled to open in theaters May 8 of next year, the movie will enter production in New Orleans this month. Witherspoon plays an uptight cop charged with protecting the sexy widow (Vergara) of a drug kingpin.
Universal acquired John Quaintance and David Feeney’s spec script last summer when it was called “Don’t Mess with Texas.” MGM picked it up in February after Universal put it in turnaround. MGM allied with Warner Bros. and New Line for distribution, forming the same trio responsible for “The Hobbit” films.
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Witherspoon will produce the movie with Bruna Papandrea, her production partner at Pacific Standard Time, and Dana Fox. Vergara and her manager Luis Balaguer will be executive producers.
Jonathan Glickman and Cassidy Lange will oversee production for MGM while Richard Brener and Michael Disco will handle those duties for New Line.