According to the Hollywood Reporter, Universal has picked up the rights to the Whiteout graphic novels written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Steve Lieber and published by Oni Press. Reese Witherspoon, who just moved her production company to Universal, will star as U.S. Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko and executive produce the film. Top-drawer director Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, Air Force One), who originally optioned the property, is still attached to the project, though it is unlikely that he will end up directing it.
Set in the brutal climate of Antarctica, Whiteout is a tough, unrelenting crime thriller that shows Rucka, one of the top writers working in comics today, at his very best. The story is a far cry from the typical comic fluff (Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama) that Witherspoon has been doing, but it should provide her with an excellent opportunity to display her acting talent as the beleaguered Carrie Stetko, who has been exiled to the remote polar research station because of the death of a prisoner in her custody. Even if the current vogue for silver screen superheroes dissipates, Whiteout is the kind of gritty, cinematic graphic novel thriller that was made to be filmed and should find favor with discerning audiences and critics.
