Back in March, Reese Witherspoon and her newly-formed Pacific Standard made their first purchase with M.A. Larson‘s debut novel, Pennyroyal’s Princess Boot Camp. The actress has been doing plenty of other things in the meantime — shooting Devil’s Knot with Atom Egoyan, conducting other pick-ups, and so on — but the thing’s starting to become a bigger priority, thanks in full to Summit Entertainment.

Deadline tells us the company have opted to imbue Boot Camp with their powers of distribution, thus giving Witherspoon the task of compiling its complete team and getting things into shooting shape. Larson herself will write the screenplay, suggesting it’ll stick well to the book’s story: a young, orphaned girl is sent to Pennyroyal Boot Camp, whereat those of her sort are trained to be warriors capable of battling witches. (It’s fantasy, you know?) The actress will produce and take a supporting role; she’s the only attached performer at the moment.

In related news, Variety reports that Legally Blonde (related, because…) screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith have sold their new work, Panic Zone, to England’s Ealing Studios; Mark Platt (Drive, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) will produce with Adam Siegel, Barnaby Thompson, and the two writers.

Platt described it as a study of “the perils of being a woman over 35 trying to find love,” with shades of Legally Blonde being the driving point in the very acquisition we have at hand. Thompson, meanwhile, feels it’s a perfect fit for the relaunched company, with Panic recalling prior “sophisticated screwball comedies built around iconic stars.” With any luck, the script is good enough for them to only need some iconic stars. In this day and age, a good screwball comedy shouldn’t be too much to ask for.

Do Princess Boot Camp or Panic Zone scream potential?