Continuing to dance around the the possibility of a female James Bond by making movies that fit that description in practice but not in name, Variety reports that Blake Lively is going the way of Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie and playing a not-quite-007 role in an upcoming spy thriller. This particular project even has the pedigree of a Bond film thanks to producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who have been in charge of steering the Bond ship since 1995’s Golden Eye.
But rather than Ian Fleming’s novels, this particular project will be based on British author Mark Burnell’s Stephanie Patrick books, a four-part series detailing the adventures of a college-aged woman who gets sucked into clandestine assassin agency Magenta House after her whole family dies in a plane crash. Far from the pampered ”It Girl” she became famous for playing on Gossip Girl, Lively’s character in this one is an alcoholic and former sex worker whose existence is driven by only one thing: To kill the motherfuckers who orchestrated the explosion that killed her family. There’s still a good chance that she’ll run in heels, though.
Called The Rhythm Section, the project also has Reed Morano, a former cinematographer who recently made the leap into directing and whose resume includes three episodes of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, on board to direct.