REEL DEAL: Inspirational Bestselling Memoir Adapted In "WILD"

A messed-up woman’s coming of age unfolds in cinemas in “Wild,” produced and starred in by Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.”

Thinking she’d lost everything, Cheryl Strayed walked out of her broken-down life and into the deep wilderness on a 1,100-mile solo hike that would take her to the edge. “Wild” began with Cheryl Strayed’s own personal story – that of a woman still reeling from the sudden loss of her inspiring mother, a wrecked marriage and a headlong dive into unabashed self-destruction who decides to put a halt to it all and takes a seemingly preposterous adventure.  With zero outdoors experience, a monstrously heavy backpack and fueled by little but her own ragged will, Strayed set out to hike the PCT, the longest, toughest and wildest through-trail in America, completely alone.  Barely a few minutes into her trek, she considered quitting.  But she persevered and during those few months, she found reminders of joy, courage and beauty amid the fear, exhaustion and peril.  It was an adventure that helped her put her life back together again and emerge with a raw but remarkable story.

REEL DEAL: Hiking America's Roughest Trail For 94 Days In The "WILD"

Pacific Crest Trail, America’s wildest through-rail, with its infamous harsh passages, has recently rose to further prominence in the latest Reese Witherspoon starrer – “Wild,” based upon the personal accounts of Cheryl Strayed’s  journey to bring her life back together after losing everything that deeply meant to her.

Wilderness epics have been around since the beginning of cinema. But from the 1912 silent film “The Conquest of the Pole” to “Jeremiah Johnson” to “Into The Wild” to “127 Hours,” nearly all have traced the paths of men far from civilization.  But the fact that WILD takes a different, less expected direction drew a devoted group of filmmakers.

Says Witherspoon, who produced the film with her partner Bruna Papandrea:  “Wild” is about so many things that touch people.  It's about life, love, loss and family. It’s about how a woman who thought she was completely broken, but found a way to reconstitute herself.”