Reese Witherspoon clocks Midnight

It looks like Reese Witherspoon is doing her best to avoid the curse of the Recent Oscar Winner, at least skipping the awful likes of Catwoman and Aeon Flux that scuppered the kudos avalanche of previous golden baldie-clutchers.

And her latest movie sees her pairing with a fellow award winner – Little Miss Sunshine scribe Michael Arndt. She’s signed up to star in a remake of the 1939 comedy Midnight, which makes us relieved that someone’s finally remaking a movie most of the audience (except a few elderly grandparents) won’t have seen when it came out originally. Are you listening, Platinum Dunes?

The original had Claudette Colbert in the lead as a poverty stricken girl used as a pawn by a wealthy man (John Barrymore) trying to ditch his wife’s lover. And Arndt has some shoes to fill – the script was provided by Mitchell Leisen and someone called Billy Wilder. Oh, yeah… only one of the greatest comic minds to get involved with films.

But Arndt sees it as a challenge: "Midnight has long been one of my favourite films, and it is easily one of the best comedies of the '30s," he gushed to Variety. "Being given the chance to update the film with Reese in the lead is simply a dream come true."

Let’s hope that dream doesn’t become a nightmare…