Southern Darkness

Reese Witherspoon is eyeing a return to heavy drama in a movie about the high-profile West Memphis Three.

The actress could be playing the mother of one of the three 8-year-old boys three teenagers were accused of murdering in 1993 in Atom Egoyan in Devil’s Knot, a movie based on Mara Leveritt’s Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, a novel that chronicled the teens’s prolonged and notorious trial.

So far, Witherspoon’s the only A-Lister attached to the project. A Peter Jackson-produced documentary on the subject will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next month.

Photo: NYDailyNews.com.