THR is reporting that production on the Reed Morano-directed spy thriller The Rhythm Section has shut down temporarily owing to a hand injury sustained by star Blake Lively during the filming of a stunt sequence last month.
“Hiatus on the production of The Rhythm Section has been extended due to an ongoing issue with Blake Lively’s hand injury sustained while filming an action sequence on the action thriller at the end of last year,” reads the official statement from the films producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions.
According to THR’s report, production on The Rhythm Section was put on hold after the accident last month, but the hiatus has now been extended as Lively requires a second operation, which has five months of recovery time. Close to have of the film has been shot at this point, and as yet it’s unclear whether the delay will push back the planned release date of February 22nd 2019.
The film is an adaptation of the first book in Mark Burnell’s Stephanie Patrick series of spy novels, and sees Lively in the title role as a character who “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.”