Robert Zemeckis’ Flight is really taking off. It was just the other day that Denzel Washington was officially confirmed to be involved in the project, and now it already as a female lead: Kelly Reilly, most recognizeable as Watson’s love interest, Mary Morstan, in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes and its upcoming sequel, A Game of Shadows.
Reilly may not have been the most familiar candidate for the role (Olivia Wilde, who is set to be in an even greater mass of movies next year than she was in this year, was also being considered), but her strengths are hardly invisible. In addition to her Holmes role, Reilly can be fondly remembered for Richard Linklater’s (so you know it’s good) Me and Orson Welles and Joe Wright’s adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.
The story of Flight will cover a commercial pilot’s brave landing of a damaged plane, and the subsequent legal investigation that is set to pin the fault of the near-accident on the pilot (who will be played by Washington and, even better, will be named Whip). Kelly Reilly’s character will be a drug addict named Nicole Devlin who becomes a friend to Whip in the heat of the investigation.
Reilly’s talents as an actress, though plentiful, are hardly the stuff of public familiarity just yet. However, a project like this, with a director like Zemeckis and a star like Washington, might be just what her career needs to soar.
Source: Indiewire
