Actress Reese Witherspoon's production company is developing a movie based on the 1997 killing of Reena Virk, the 14-year-old from Saanich, B.C., who was murdered by schoolmates.

Type A Films said Friday that it had optioned the book Under the Bridge, an account of the killing by Canadian writer Rebecca Godfrey.

Catherine Hardwicke, who directed Thirteen and The Nativity Story, is set to helm the movie.

Witherspoon, a Hollywood A-lister, won an Oscar for portraying June Carter Cash in the biopic of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line. Her other screen credits include the Legally Blonde films and Election.