Following the massive success of Wonder Woman, and with Charlize Theron set to kick serious ass in Atomic Blonde, perhaps studios are finally taking note that audiences may be hungry for more female-driven action films.
007 producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli certainly have, as under the Eon Productions banner, they’ve signed on Blake Lively to star as an assassin in the spy thriller, The Rhythm Section.
The film is based on the novels by Mark Burnell and will serve as the feature length directorial debut of Reed Morano (The Handmaid’s Tale).
Lively will play Stephanie Patrick, whose world is torn apart after the death of her family in an airplane crash, who falls into a downward spiral of prostitution, drugs and alcohol before discovering the crash wasn’t an accident, and becomes set on tracking down those responsible.
Broccoli and Wilson said they are “thrilled to be bringing Mark Burnell’s The Rhythm Section to the big screen with our partners at IM Global. It is exciting for us to be working with the immensely talented team of director Reed Morano and actress Blake Lively who have a strong vision for this very compelling story driven by a female protagonist”.
While the above synopsis doesn’t offer much more than a generic elevator pitch, Lively is an immensely talented actress who recently excelled as the star in Jaume Collet-Serra‘s The Shallows, which should hopefully lead her to more starring roles like this.
With Morano behind the camera, anyone that’s seen The Handmaid’s Tale will vouch for him and hope this film retains the same darkness and visual palette he brought to life within his episodes on the show.
Production on The Rhythm Section is set to begin this autumn with stops in the US, UK, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland. Lively can next be seen in another dark thriller, Marc Forster‘s All I See Is You, which hits cinemas Friday, August 4.
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