Witherspoon, who produced and championed the project, spoke with ET on Monday.
For Reese Witherspoon, bringing the sprawling tale of Where the Crawdads Sing to the big screen has been a passion project since she first read the bestselling novel.
Witherspoon spoke with ET's Rachel Smith on the carpet at the world premiere of Where the Crawdads Sing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on Monday, and she reflected on the journey she's been on to get the adaptation off the ground.
According to Witherspoon, her Hello Sunshine Book Club -- which promotes and celebrates tomes penned by female authors -- picked up Delia Owens' novel of the same name in September 2018, where it then took off and became a massive hit.
"Shortly after, one of my very dearest friends and closest collaborators called me and said, 'So we make it into a movie? And I was like, 'Yessss! That would be amazing!" Witherspoon shared. "From there we just started going and it's just been a dream come true."
Witherspoon produced the mystery crime drama under her Hello Sunshine, and tapped Beasts of the Southern Wild co-writer Lucy Alibar to pen the screenplay and First Match director Olivia Newman to helm the moody thriller.
The story follows a young girl named Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who grew up on her own in the swamplands of North Carolina after being abandoned by her family. When she grows up, she gets entangled in a romance with local football star Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), who winds up dead, and all evidence points to Kya as the killer. Kya is thrust into the media spotlight amid a murder trial as she denies the charges and tries to avoid being found guilty of murder.
Bolstering the film's haunting themes is an original new song from Taylor Swift, titled "Carolina," which she wrote specifically for the end credits -- and has sparked buzz about the singer earning her first Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
Where the Crawdads Sing is in theaters July 15.
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