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'Sherlock Holmes' Actress Kelly Reilly Will Take 'Flight' with Zemeckis

by Ethan Anderton
September 12, 2011
Source: Deadline

After hearing in April that director Robert Zemeckis might return to live-action filmmaking, it has since been confirmed that he will indeed direct Flight, a new thriller starring Denzel Washington. The story follows the redemption of “Whip” (Washington), a commercial airline pilot who pulls off a heroic feat of flying in a damaged plane, saving 98 lives on a flight carrying 106 people. However the everyman struggles with this label in the face of an investigation that brings into question his behavior the night before the flight. Now Deadline reports Sherlock Holmes star Kelly Reilly has landed the lead female role in the film.

Reilly was merely on a shortlist before the weekend, but now the actress is negotiating to take the role of Nicole Devlin, a drug addict who is at rock bottom when she meets Whip. The two become friends as each of them try to get their respective demons under control. Though Reilly has been working regularly for a little over a decade, this will be the most high profile role for the British actress who has also previously appeared in films like Eden Lake, Me and Orson Welles and Pride & Prejudice. She'll also be appearing in the forthcoming sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows as Watson's wife, but with Flight, she'll have the opportunity to turn in a performance that should make her a big name soon.

Related categories: Casting, Development, Movie News

Xerxexx

Sounds good, and she is stunning.
Anonymous

Hm. A film in which Denzel Washington is a hero (again) and there's a woman in it somewhere. Male hero + some woman = 98% of action movies ever made. It's the default pattern we never question, but perhaps we should? Pretty sure there are chicks who can fly planes, right? This sounds like one film that requires a hero with skill (rather than one made of pure, muscle-ripped testosterone) in which a female could just as easily have done lead duties, while Denzel was a drug addled offsider. Could have, but...no. I don't mean to single this poor film out for criticism, it's just...this is the next one, to be followed by 99 more like it. And instead of there being one or two female action heroine based films per year, and having them be overanalyzed for the novelty of being about "women kicking butt", I hope one day they're as common and everyday an occurrence as your average Denzel Washington hero flick. (It'll never happen, but a girl can still ask 'why not?')

Xerxexx

Washington isn't the Typical Action-Jackson...he really has the "Everyman" look which makes him likealbe. That being said I agree, I would like to see more Female lead action films, and it is indeed possible. However when we finally get a female based action flick its usually pretty bland, which is sad. Sucker Punch comes to mind, while I enjoyed it, it wasn't the best written female led action film. I'm sure it will change...but I've been wrong before.
hhv

Lol tsode will have to write the same comment to every post.. It's weird you chose this one, because maybe 5% of pilots are women.