Blake Lively got her start in the early 2000s in popular titles like Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and over the years, she has impressed on the big screen under the direction of Ben Affleck, Oliver Stone and Paul Feig. The actress’ next project will mark her first time directing a movie, but luckily, she had a head start thanks to Taylor Swift.
This past November, Lively got behind the camera for the first time to direct her famous friend Taylor Swift in the music video “I Bet You Think About Me.” The video that also starred Miles Teller amassed over 37 million views and scored some award nods. Now that the actress has gotten her feet wet with directing, she’ll be helming Seconds. The movie will be an adaptation of a graphic novel of the same name from the creator of the Scott Pilgrim books, Bryan Lee O’Malley.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Blake Lively will direct Seconds from a script by Edgar Wright, the writer/director of 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Wright, who also helmed movies like Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho, will also produce Blake Lively’s directorial debut alongside Marc Platt (La La Land, Scott Pilgrim and Legally Blonde).
Seconds is about a talented young chef named Katie who receives the power to fix her past mistakes by writing them down, ingesting a magical mushroom and then going to sleep. Katie becomes obsessed with her newfound powers and uses her dresser full of mushrooms to fix every mistake in her life she can think up. This has unintended consequences that begin to threaten not only her life, but the fabric of space and time.
Seconds was picked up by Searchlight Pictures, which is a studio known for more prestigious films. This was most recently shown with Best Picture nominee Nightmare Alley, but other releases from the studio include Jojo Rabbit, Nomadland, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Black Swan. It’s impressive Blake Lively is already working with the acclaimed studio and the well-loved Edgar Wright on Seconds so early in her directing career.
Lively is also set to be a producer for the first time for the crime drama The Husband’s Secret, which she will also star in. The movie is an adaptation of the Liane Moriarty book of the same name about a suburban housewife’s life being rocked by a peculiar letter from her husband she finds.
Blake Lively is married to Ryan Reynolds and has three kids with him. Reynolds also made a switch from purely an actor to delving into writing and producing, most notably with the Deadpool movies. We’ll be excited to see how Lively paves her own path as a director with Seconds and hopefully more upcoming movies.