Blake Lively to step in the ring in MMA drama, 'Bruised'

Image from Gucci

By Darian Scalamoni

            Blake Lively is quietly rising to the top of many directors lists after her most recent turn in what many originally deemed “the shark movie” titled The Shallows last summer which grossed $119 million on a $17 million budget. Now, she’s signing onto another genre movie as Deadline reports that Lively will team with Nick Cassavetes (John Q, The Notebook) for the MMA drama, Bruised.

            Bruised will follow Lively as a former MMA fighter, who’s now a single mother working to make ends meet but must jump back into the octagon after authorities threaten to take her child away from her. It sounds a bit like a female-led version of Southpaw (except MMA not boxing) but this doesn’t sound as great as I’d like it to be. Also, I don’t know if I buy the former star of Gossip Girl as the lead in a fighting movie but I’m interested to see her try, for sure. That’s not to say she’s a bad actress (I loved her in Woody Allen’s Café Society) but it’s hard for an MMA movie to work. Warrior is one of my favorite movies of the last ten years but Never Back Down and Here Comes the Boom were colossal failures.

            Lively will be seen next in All I See is You, a drama in which she plays a blind woman who regains her sight before learning disturbing details about her current marriage. The film also stars Jason Clarke and Danny Huston and is set for a September 16^th release date. Cassavetes hasn’t had a feature film release since 2014’s, The Other Woman (I wonder why…) but hopefully he can regain his directing charm with this latest project.