Deadline is reporting that Netflix has beat out other studios and acquired the rights to Pyros, a feature adaptation of Thomas Pierce’s short story Tardy Man starring Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, Big Little Lies, Wild).
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Tardy Man is a science fiction story that 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.
Pierce, whose short story Chairman Spaceman published in The New Yorker is also being adapted into a movie by Fox Searchlight, will pen the script for Tardy Man. Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter will serve as producers via Hello Sunshine. Simon Kinberg and Genre Films’ Audrey Chon will also produce.
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The news follows the recent release of Witherspoon’s upcoming Apple series Morning Show, starring alongside Jennifer Aniston. Witherspoon’s upcoming slate also includes the mini-series Little Fires Everywhere, Sing 2, and Legally Blonde 3.