'Gone Girl's' Hollywood Homecoming — Reese Witherspoon to Produce (and Star?)

Gone Girl hasn't left the bestseller list since June, and now it hasn't left Hollywood either: 20th Century Fox has bought Gillian Flynn's marriage-as-crime-scene thriller for a reported $1.5 million, with Reese Witherspoon's new production company shepherding and the actress widely expected to circle the role of Amazing Amy herself.

Flynn's novel — dueling unreliable narrators, a wife's disappearance, a husband who photographs poorly at press conferences — is that rare phenomenon: a literary thriller that both book clubs and critics claim. The twist economy alone makes it filmable; the voice is the hard part, since half the book's pleasure is being lied to in first person.

Flynn, a former Entertainment Weekly critic, will adapt her own novel — a condition of the sale and an increasingly common flex for authors with leverage.

Update: the homecoming took a turn: David Fincher signed on, cast Rosamund Pike over his producer's implied claim, and Witherspoon graciously stayed behind the camera. Pike got an Oscar nomination; Witherspoon got a masterclass in producing (see also: Big Little Lies, Wild). Everyone won — details on the film's page.