Susan Sarandon is in talks to become the matriarch of the Barkley clan.

Kate Edelman Johnson is producing a feature film version of “The Big Valley,” based on the TV show created by her late father, producer Louis F. Edelman, and writer A.I. Bezzerides. The Western series, which ran on ABC from 1965-69, starred Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch of a ranching family in the 1870s San Joaquin Valley.

Sarandon would take on the part of Victoria Barkley, originated by Stanwyck.

Edelman Johnson’s producing partner, Daniel Adams (“The Lightkeepers”), has written the feature screenplay and will direct. Johnson and Adams’ Panther Entertainment will produce, with a May start date planned for principal photography in Michigan and New Mexico.

“I am so thrilled to be filming this project, not only to honor my father and Miss Stanwyck but to bring a great woman’s part to the screen as head of this historical family saga,” Edelman Johnson said.

Fox, which distributes the TV show on DVD, has first option on the North American distribution rights to the feature project. Sales agent Arclight Films will rep the film internationally, beginning with the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival, which begins today.

The ICM-repped Sarandon last appeared in “The Lovely Bones” and will next be seen in the Oliver Stone-directed sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” which Fox will release in April.

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Ryan Phillippe To Shoot ‘The Big Valley’ With Susan Sarandon, Billy Bob Thornton In May

Ryan Phillippe was down at South By Southwest last weekend to promote “MacGruber,” in which he plays a relatively straight role to Will Forte’s MacGyver-like running joke. While chatting MTV’s Josh Horowitz up with fellow star Kristen Wiig about the film, Phillippe mentioned another project that he’ll soon get started on.

“I think I’m doing a Western in May, with Susan Sarandon, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Dreyfuss [and] Bruce Dern,” he said. “It’s called ‘The Big Valley,’ which was a [television] series in the ’60s, and so it’s sort of based on that.”

Of the director, Phillippe said, “He’s a young guy and this is his first film, so you wouldn’t know him yet.” This is at odds with the movie’s IMDb listing, which as Daniel Adams down as the writer and director of “Big Valley.” While he’s only directed a handful of films, his first was 1989′s “A Fool and His Money,” which featured an early starring role from Sandra Bullock.

The original “Big Valley” was a TV series that ran for four season, from 1965 to 1969. The show starred Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Long, Peter Breck, Linda Evans and Lee Majors. It was set on a ranch loosely based on the real-life Hill Ranch, in California. As IMDB describes the film, “Heath, the illegitimate son of murdered millionaire rancher Tom Barkley, arrives in Stockton, California in 1876 to assert his claim on the Barkley family fortune.”

Josh also asked Phillippe if we’ll ever see him return to daytime television — one of his early roles was a multi-episode run on “One Life to Live” — just as James Franco recently did on “General Hospital.” The actor seems okay with his mantle having been passed to the former “Spider-Man” star.

“I don’t think [I'll be going back to daytime TV]. I think [Franco] did it, you know, he owned that. I’m gonna let him have it,” Phillippe explained. “Actually, that was my first job. I was 17 years old, and it was kind of the best training you could have in a lot of ways. Getting a new script every day and having to learn it… yeah, it was good training.”

– moviesblog.mtv.com

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