Casting News: Kelly Reilly lands a female lead role in 'Flight' opposite Denzel Washington

Deadline reports that Kelly Reilly is in negotiations for the lead female role in Robert Zemeckis’ Flight opposite Denzel Washington. Apparently, Ms. Reilly was in a shortlist of actresses in consideration for the role along with Olivia Wilde and Dominique McElligott for the female lead role Nicole Devlin this past weekend and Kelly got the part! Yay for Kelly! Interesting she's another P&P actress cast in another Paramount Pictures film as just recently Rosamund Pike got cast in a female lead in One Shot film (opposite Tom Cruise), which starts filming later this month.

Flight starts shooting in Atlanta (GA) this October for a possible 2012 release.

Here's an article via Deadline...

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount is negotiating with Kelly Reilly to play the female lead opposite Denzel Washington in Flight, the Robert Zemeckis-directed thriller. This is a real opportunity for the British actress, who scores a role that a lot of actresses wanted. The short list going into the weekend was Reilly, Olivia Wilde and Dominique McElligott. In the John Gatins-scripted drama, Reilly is negotiating to play Nicole Devlin, a drug addict who is at rock bottom when she meets Whip (Washington), a commercial airline pilot who heroically flies a damaged plane to safety, saving saving 98 lives on a flight carrying 106 people. That achievement comes under a cloud when an investigation ensues over whether or not he had been drinking. The pilot and the girl become friends as each tries to get their demons under control. Reilly, whose credits include Sherlock Holmes, its upcoming sequel and Pride & Prejudice, is repped by ICM and Troika in the UK.

Speaking of Kelly Reilly, she will be seen next in the sequel of  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows reprising her Mary Morstan role opposite Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr., which will be in theaters December 16th! Her upcoming TV and film projects include Edwin Boyd co-starring with Scott Speedman, 1320, and a 4th season of Above Suspicion: Silent Scream (with co-star Cirian Hinds) following it's continued success on UK's ITV1.