Bond producers launch new female spy thriller with Blake Lively

Reed Morano will direct The Rhythm Section, adapting the first in a series of popular novels by Mark Burnell

Why wait around for Bond when we can watch Blake Lively kick butt instead?

Variety reports the actor's signed on to lead new spy thriller The Rhythm Section, straight from director Reed Morano (who directed a few episodes of The Handmaid's Tale) and Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

It's a fantastic-sounding project that puts women both in front and behind the camera, adapting the first book of Mark Burnell's Stephanie Patrick series; Lively will play a woman whose life is thrown into chaos after the death of her family in an airplane crash - a flight that she was meant to be on.

After she discovers the crash was caused by an onboard bomb, she undergoes a complete self-transformation into a deadly assassin, hell-bent on tracking down those responsible.

With three other novels in Burnell's series, there's plenty of franchise potential here if the film becomes a success, and there's a good chance it will: Lively's already proven she's a stellar action lead and box office draw in last year's surprise hit The Shallows.

"We are thrilled to be bringing Mark Burnell’s ‘The Rhythm Section’ to the big screen with our partners at IM Global," Broccoli and Wilson said. "It is exciting for us to be working with the immensely talented team of director Reed Morano and actress who have a strong vision for this very compelling story driven by a female protagonist."