the industry

Blake Lively to Turn on the Green Lantern

Blake’s Got a New Role: Blake Lively will star opposite Ryan Reynolds in Warner Bros.’ The Green Lantern. She’ll play Carol Ferris, the Lantern’s lady and the owner of an aerospace company that hires Hal Jordan before he becomes the Lantern. Felicity alums Keri Russell and Jennifer Garner were also in the mix for the role, which calls for an older actress, but Lively beat them out after producers realized she had two unique assets. [THR]

Bald Spots: John Malkovich has joined Bruce Willis in Red, Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of of the DC Comics series about a black-ops agent (Willis) who is constantly fighting off younger assassins attempting to kill him. Malkovich, who is replacing John C. Reilly, plays the agent’s friend and a retired CIA agent himself who thinks everyone is out to kill him. Its like a spy version of The Bucket List. [THR]

Far(si) Out: Iranian comic Maz Jobrani will star in Barry Sonnenfeld’s ABC comedy pilot Funny in Farsi. The show is based on the Firoozeh Dumas’ memoir about growing up Iranian in Newport Beach. Jobrani will play the family patriarch, an engineer who moves his family to California from Iran. That’s right, a Middle Easterner on TV who’s not a terrorist. [THR]

KO: Channing Tatum has joined the cast of Knockout, Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller starring MMA-er Gina Carano as a spy who is convinced that her allies have betrayed her. Tatum plays a member of Carano’s team who tries to bring her back after she’s been double crossed. Antonio Banderas is also in talks to join the cast, which includes a whole host of men who are going to get their asses kicked by a woman. [The Playlist]

Memories: Frances McDormand and Maura Tierney are going to appear together in the Wooster Group’s incarnation of North Atlantic. The play is a satiric look at the military and technology in the early 80s. The production “plays with nostalgia for the analog (pre-digital) 1980s through slang, song and dance.” Hopefully this mean Frances McDormand in hammer pants. [Playbill]

Blake Lively to Turn on the Green Lantern