Cannes: Blake Lively to Star in MMA Action-Drama ‘Bruised’

Blake Lively is getting in the cage for the mixed martial arts film Bruised.

The action-drama will be directed by Nick Cassavetes, switching gears from his biggest box-office hits The Notebook and The Other Woman.

Sierra/Affinity is introducing the project to buyers in Cannes this week. The script, written by Michelle Rosenfarb, began circulating to foreign buyers over the weekend.

The film centers on a single mother working two jobs and a former MMA fighter who must return to the cage in order to keep her son.

Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwanyk is producing alongside Linda Gottlieb and Guymon Casady of Management 360. Production is slated to begin in September.

Lively proved that she could carry a film with last year’s breakout The Shallows, which took $119 million globally. She also was on hand at Cannes last year with Woody Allen’s Cafe Society, which opened the festival.

She and Cassavetes are repped by WME.