Beals heads back to big screen with "Eli"

Actress Jennifer Beals poses at the 2008 Primetime Creative Arts Awards in Los Angeles September 13, 2008.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jennifer Beals, who made her splashy debut with the iconic 1983 movie "Flashdance," will return to the feature film world with a role in the action thriller "The Book of Eli," starring Denzel Washington.

Albert and Allen Hughes are directing the film for Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment.

The script, by Gary Whitta with a rewrite by Anthony Peckham, centers on a lone hero named Eli (Washington) who must fight his way across the wasteland of a near-future America to protect a sacred book that might hold the key to saving humanity. Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis are also in the cast.

Beals is playing Oldman's sexual prize and Kunis' mother, a blind woman doing anything she can to protect her child.

For the past several years, Beals has starred in the Showtime series "The L Word." The drama just entered its final season.

"Eli" reunites Beals with Washington, with whom she starred in 1995's "Devil in a Blue Dress."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter