Blake Lively To Star In Director Reed Morano’s Espionage Thriller THE RHYTHM SECTION

Production will begin later this year on a new female driven international espionage thriller THE RHYTHM SECTION, with financing from leading independent studio IM Global, it was announced today by Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions in London and IM Global Founder and CEO, Stuart Ford in Los Angeles.

Wilson and Broccoli, who have produced the last eight Bond films (Spectre, Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale, Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies, Goldeneye), will produce. Ford and IM Global’s Academy Award winning head of production Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, upcoming Detroit) and author/screenwriter Mark Burnell will serve as executive producers.

THE RHYTHM SECTION is a contemporary adaptation of the first of British thriller writer Mark Burnell’s “Stephanie Patrick” series of four novels.

Heroine, Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) is on a path of self-destruction after the death of her family in an airplane crash, a flight that she was meant to be on. After discovering that the crash was not an accident, her anger awakens a new sense of purpose and she rises to uncover the truth by adapting the identity of an assassin to track down those responsible. The new, and lethal, Stephanie Patrick is on a mission to fill the void between what she knows and what she is told.

Other novels in Burnell’s popular series include “Gemini”, “The Third Woman” and “Chameleon”.

Blake Lively most recently starred in the worldwide box office hit The Shallows for Sony Pictures, which garnered her a People’s Choice Award. That same summer, she appeared in Woody Allen’s Cafe Society, which premiered at Cannes. Lionsgate’s The Age of Adaline, for which Lively played the title character, was also a box office success. She received praise for her performance in Warner Brothers’ The Town. Other films on her resume include Rebecca Miller’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films based on the best-selling YA novels by Ann Brashares. She is currently in pre-production in director Paul Feig’s film A Simple Favor for Lionsgate.

Reed Morano recently served as a director and executive producer of the of the first three episodes of critically acclaimed The Handmaid’s Tale for Hulu and MGM based on Margaret Atwood’s book. The New York Times described Morano’s work on the show as “unflinching, vital and scary as hell.” One of Playlists’ 20 Best Breakthrough Directors of 2015, Morano also earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for cinematography in her stunning directorial debut Meadowland starring Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson, where she also served as the film’s cinematographer. In June of 2017, Morano was presented with the Distinguished Vanguard Filmmaker Award at the UCLA Directors Spotlight.

Morano is a lauded cinematographer as well, known for her work on critical favorites such as Frozen River, Kill Your Darlings and Shut Up and Play the Hits. In 2013, she was inducted into the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers as the youngest member as well as one out of only 12 female cinematographer members at the time. Morano’s latest feature (where she again served as director and DP) called I Think We’re Alone Now, with Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning, is in post-production and will premiere in 2018.

Said Wilson and Broccoli, “We 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”.

Said Ford: “In Stephanie Patrick Mark [Burnell] has created a unique female heroine who turns so many of the current cinematic clichés surrounding so-called “kick-ass” female leads on their head. To be bringing such a fresh, realistic and bold international thriller to the big screen with EON Productions, Reed and Blake is an exciting proposition for us all at IM Global.”

THE RHYTHM SECTION will commence production in the Fall of 2017 and shooting is likely to take place in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and the US.