Reese Witherspoon on hunt for Legally Blonde prequel star

Reese Witherspoon has announced an open casting call to find the star of her new TV show.

The actor and producer is looking for someone to play her iconic lead role, Elle Woods, in a TV "prequel" to the 2001 movie.

"Hey everybody. OK, I have big news to announce today," Reese, 48, declared in a video uploaded to her Instagram account.

"As you probably know, we at Hello Sunshine are partnering with Amazon to launch a new television show called Elle, which is the prequel to Legally Blonde."

Hello Sunshine is Reese's production company. She went on to explain the casting call was completely open to all applicants.

"And today... I can't wait to tell you... that we are starting the casting process, and we are making it open," Reese continued.

"Yes, that is right. This is an open casting for the young Elle Woods when she was in high school."

She concluded by directing would-be Elles to send in their submissions online.

"So send your submissions to the link in my bio," Reese told her followers. "I cannot wait to see all the Elle Woods' out there. This is gonna be really fun."

The new show is set to begin filming in March 2025 and will stream on Amazon's Prime Video service.