Reese Witherspoon Out, Kristen Wiig In For Alexander Payne’s Downsizing

Soon-to-be Ghostbuster Kristen Wiig is boarding Alexander Payne’s Downsizing in place of Resse Witherspoon, according to Deadline.

Scheduling conflicts resulted in Witherspoon’s exit, though Paramount wasted no time in filling the actress’ shoes. Now, Wiig will be rubbing shoulders with Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz and Hong Chau in Payne’s atypical social satire, representing the director’s third collaboration with Paramount – his latest, Nebraska, debuted to critical acclaim in 2013.

Forget Bruce Dern’s troubled alcoholic, though, Downsizing centers on “an Omaha man who joins the throngs of people undergoing a new process that reduces people to a tiny fraction of their size before moving to one of the many communities of small people that are sprouting up around the world.” Well, we did say it was out of the ordinary.

Behind the scenes, Payne is reuniting with long-term writing partner Jim Taylor. Over the years, the Oscar-winning duo have worked across a handful of features, most notable of which are Sideways, Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Mark Johnson will produce the feature.

Despite a casting switcheroo, it’s still early days on pre-production for Downsizing, though as always we’ll keep you updated on the progress of Payne’s latest creative effort.

Reuniting with her Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, Kristen Wiig will next be seen donning a proton pack for Sony’s rebooted Ghostbusters movie.