If you recall, production on the upcoming spy-thriller THE RHYTHM SECTION got underway last year, but thanks to an injury which Blake Lively sustained to her hand, production was suspended indefinitely. It was hoped that filming would get underway sooner, but "Lively's initial hand surgery did not go as planned and the actress must undergo a second surgery and will need more time to recover." At the time, it was said that the crew had been told to find other work and that it could be another five months before they could get back to it, so here we are, five months later.
According to THR, production on THE RHYTHM SECTION is set to resume once again in June in Spain, and Sterling K. Brown (BLACK PANTHER) has joined the cast. The nature of his character is being kept under wraps, but Sterling K. Brown is always a highlight in any project he takes on. Based upon the novels by Mark Burnell and directed by Reed Morano (The Handmaid's Tale), THE RHYTHM SECTION finds Blake Lively starring as Stephanie Patrick, a woman who assumes three different identities as she seeks to uncover the truth behind a plane crash that killed her family — a flight that she was meant to be on. Even with that extended hiatus, Paramount will be sticking to the original release date of February 22, 2019. Good luck. Sterling K. Brown will next be seen in HOTEL ARTEMIS on June 8th, followed by an appearance in Shane Black's THE PREDATOR on September 14th.
A synopsis of "The Rhythm Section" via Amazon:
The Rhythm Section is not a thriller about the hunt for a terrorist, although that is the path Stephanie takes, and it’s not a story about revenge, although justice for her family is her initial motivation. Rather, The Rhythm Section is the story of Stephanie’s attempt to reclaim herself. She has to rediscover who she is through a series of roles that she is forced to play; she is never herself. As a prostitute, she is Lisa, the chemical blonde. Later, she is Petra Reuter, German anarchist turned mercenary terrorist. Sometimes, she is Marina Gaudenzi, a Swiss businesswoman, or she’s Susan Branch, an American student, or Elizabeth Shepherd, an English management consultant.
But whoever she is, she’s never herself because her life depends on her being someone else. This is the way she is trained by the intelligence service that recruits her, but it’s also the way she’s taught herself to be; being someone else has always worked for her and so it does now, until she begins to fall in love for the first time with Frank White. This undermines her completely and poses new questions: which of the many people she has become is the one to have fallen in love? Stephanie? Petra? Or one of the others? With whom has Frank fallen in love? Marina? Or the real Stephanie? More than anything, The Rhythm Section is about a catastrophic crisis of identity.
THE RHYTHM SECTION is set for a February 22, 2019 release.