Rachel McAdams in talks for Passengers

Rachel McAdams is in talks to replace Reese Witherspoon in ‘Passengers’.

The Canadian star is in talks to join Keanu Reeves in the sci-fi drama, after Witherspoon had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts.

The film got one of the biggest deals at this year’s Cannes film festival and has been scripted by ‘Prometheus’ writer Jon Spaihts. It will be directed by Brian Kirk, who has previously worked on TV series’ ‘Game Of Thrones’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire’.

‘Passengers’ takes place aboard a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant planet. They are placed into artificial hibernation but due to a malfunction in one of the sleep chambers, a lone passenger [Reeves] wakes up 90 years early. Facing the prospect of life alone he decides to wake up another passenger – the role McAdams would take – and a romance buds.

McAdams is currently filming a Cameron Crowe directed romantic comedy and recently finished making Wim Wenders movie ‘Every Thing Will Be Fine’.

McAdams has returned to the movie industry after initially dropping out in 2006 because she was struggling to come to terms with her new-found fame.

She has previously said: ”Everything was happening really quickly … I wanted to step away so I could hear my own voice again.

”There was no instruction book available about how to deal with it, and also, truthfully, I never really wanted to be a big movie star. I never ever wanted to work outside of Canada, or outside of the theatre.”