“Blake Lively to Star in and Produce ‘The Survival List’ Amid Justin Baldoni Legal Dispute”

Blake Lively to Star in and Produce New Film ‘The Survival List’ Amid Legal Battle With Justin Baldoni.

Blake Lively has reportedly signed on to star in and produce the upcoming action-romantic comedy The Survival List. The 37-year-old actress joins a project from Wicked producer Marc Platt, with a script by Tom Melia, co-writer of the 2023 rom-com Rye Lane.

In the film, Lively plays a reality TV producer assigned to work alongside a famous survival expert, Chopper Lane. When the pair become shipwrecked on a deserted island, she discovers that her star is ill-prepared to survive, forcing her to take charge.

This marks Lively’s first cinematic release since her 2024 drama It Ends With Us, which achieved box office success but was overshadowed by her ongoing legal dispute with director/co-star Justin Baldoni. Lively has sued Baldoni for sexual harassment and retaliation, alleging he orchestrated a smear campaign against her after she raised complaints on set. Baldoni denies the allegations, and a trial is scheduled in New York for March 2026, with both stars expected to testify.

Since then, Lively has appeared in Another Simple Favor, a sequel to her 2018 hit A Simple Favor, which premiered at SXSW in March and released via Amazon Prime in May.

Speaking at the premiere, Lively shared her excitement about reprising her character:

“I love this character so much – this is probably my favorite character I’ve ever been fortunate enough to play. And so when [director Paul Feig] asked us to come back, I was so excited … I was really nervous on the first one, because we didn’t know if we were making a drama or a comedy. We asked Paul and he said, ‘Yes,’ which is not really an answer to the question, but it worked out.”

About the sequel, she added:
“I was like: ‘OK, no nerves, I know what I’m doing this time.’ And then right before we started shooting, [Feig] said: ‘I have a little bit of a curveball idea,’ which I’m not going to say, because we don’t want to give anything away … It definitely upped the ante. It was very uncomfortable to watch in this theater with you all.”