Reese Witherspoon [AFP]

Oscar-winning scriptwriter Michael Arndt, who won an Academy Award this year for his script of "Little Miss Sunshine," also has signed on to the project, the entertainment industry Bible reported.

Witherspoon, 31, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 2006 for her starring role in "Walk the Line," will tackle the role Claudette Colbert played in the original version, in which a dancer passes herself off as an aristocrat in Paris.

She rose to fame for her turn in the "Legally Blonde" series of Hollywood comedy films.