Blake Lively has a lot of haters out there, but the box office on the last two movies she's led, The Age of Adaline and The Shallows, prove she also has a lot of fans. Will they follow her as she enters the Octagon to play an MMA fighter? Sounds like a stretch role for her, but there's no reason to think this will disappoint.
Lively will star in Bruised, and the story is just as on-the-nose as the title. Sounding a lot like a female version of Southpaw, the film finds Lively as a former MMA fighter now a struggling single mom, who starts fighting again when the authorities threaten to take away her son. Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog) will direct from a script by Michelle Rosenfarb, and it should be interesting to get a female writer's take on this typically male-centric material.
Shooting should kick off in September assuming everything comes together at Cannes. [Deadline]
