(Yeah MMA made her a household name, but Hollywood magic made her a size 4.)
According to The Hollywood Reporter, female fighter and thespian Gina Carano has signed on for her second leading film role for the upcoming John Stockwell-directed thriller, “In the Blood,” which will likely mean that a return to MMA is not in the cards for the 29-year-old Strikeforce and EliteXC veteran.
“In The Blood” will begin production in Puerto Rico in the spring. The film is scripted by Dumb and Dumber’s Bennett Yellin and James Robert Johnston. Actor-turned-director Stockwell is best known for his work on Cheaters, Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush, Into the Blue, Turistas, and Heart.
The film centers on Carano and her yet-to-be-cast husband, who is kidnapped while the pair vacation in the Caribbean. Carano’s character, who will be similar to Liam Neeson’s in “Taken” and Harrison Ford’s in “The Fugitive”, becomes a primary suspect in the disappearance and decides to take matters in her own hands to find her husband and clear her name.
In an interview he did about the film in November, Stockwell called it “an opportunity to take on a taut, tense paranoid thriller that delivers on a supremely engaging premise: what if the person you love vanished in a foreign land and you were the prime suspect in their disappearance?”
Carano, who hasn’t fought since losing to Cris “Cyborg” Santos in August 2009 at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg, waffled about whether or not she would be returning to the cage in interviews ahead of the premiere of her first film, “Haywire,” which opened last month to mixed reviews. Now it seems like her mind is made up and that the lure of the big screen and bigger paydays coupled with the bonus of not being punched in the face and having to cut weight tipped the scales in Hollywood’s favor.
Goodbye, Miss Carano. We hardly knew you.