Witherspoon takes on Inherent Vice

(Cover) - EN Movies - Reese Witherspoon may be due for a screen reunion with Joaquin Phoenix in Inherent Vice.

The actress is in negotiations to join the ensemble of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming screen adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel.

Deadline reports Reese will co-star with Joaquin should she take on the role.

Pynchon’s tome is a detective story set in Los Angeles during the 1960s. An investigator named Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello goes to work on a girl’s kidnapping case while high on drugs.

Helmer Paul will write the script for Warner Bros. The studio has financed Inherent Vice and will also serve as distributor.

The picture is set to begin filming sometime this summer.

Reese worked with Joaquin previously in Walk the Line. The 2005 biopic about Johnny Cash earned Joaquin a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Reese walked away with a Best Actress trophy from her performance as June Carter in the picture.

It was recently announced that Reese will also be re-teaming with Walk the Line director James Mangold on forthcoming drama Three Little Words.

Reese is currently starring in Jeff Nichols drama Mud, opposite Matthew McConaughey.

She completed filming biography crime drama Devil’s Knot and is now working on Philippe Falardeau drama The Good Lie.

When production wraps she is set to begin work on Paul Feig’s Wish List, followed by Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, based on the best-selling book.

The latest casting news comes nearly a month after Reese’s April 19 arrest for disorderly conduct in Atlanta, Georgia.