Reese Witherspoon has been sued by a writer who claims the 2014 hit film Gone Girl is a rip-off of a screenplay penned by her.

A screenwriter named Leslie Weller has claimed she wrote a screenplay called Out of the Blue back in 2005 and a copy was sent to a script consultant which has led to her work being lifted by someone.

Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike went on to earn nearly $370 million in worldwide box office collections thereby attaining a hit status.

She adds that the book Gone Girl, which was published in 2012, is a rip off of her screenplay.

Citing similarities between the book and her screenplay, Weller stated they both laid an emphasis on the strained relationship between a married couple where the husband and wife are slowly drifting apart. 

"They both contain a key twist where the wife is not the nice, normal, and somewhat naive housewife and is, in fact, a psychopath who sets up her husband," she said.

Witherspoon went on to receive several awards for producing Gone Girl. Weller is also suing the book's author Gillian Flynn and the movie's director David Fincher.