Natalie Portman will replace Reese Witherspoon Fox Searchlight’s drama Pale Blue Dot.
Witherspoon departed due to scheduling conflicts with Season 2: Big Little Lies though she will continue to produce with Bruna Papandrea.
Noah Hawley (“Fargo” and “Legion” creator) is directing from a script by Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi.
Pale Blue Dot concerns a successful female astronaut who, after coming back home from a mission in space, starts to unravel when confronted by her seemingly perfect American dream life. The film explores the theory that astronauts who spend long periods of time in space begin to lose their sense of reality when they return home.
Searchlight hopes to get the film into production soon. Hawley is done shooting his FX series “Legion,” and his other show, “Fargo,” would return in 2019.