Eon to produce non-Bond spy thriller

Barbara Broccoli

Eon Productions will produce a non-007 spy movie, The Rhythm Section, which will star Blake Lively, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Financing the film is independent studio IM Global, according to the entertainment news website. Production will begin later this year, THR reported.

Another entertainment news site, The Wrap, carried the full text of the project’s press release. Here is an excerpt:

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”.

The project adds to Eon’s move to diversify its film portfolio. The film production company has been involved with dramas such as the upcoming Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. The last 007 film, SPECTRE, wrapped production two years ago and was released in the fall of 2015. Timing for the next Bond film is uncertain.

Eon’s Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson will be producers of The Rhythm Section while IM Global’s Stuart Ford and Greg Shapiro and Burnell, who also is adapting his novel, will be titled as executive producers, according to the statement.