Rosamund Pike in talks to star in 'Gone Girl'

Ever since Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl rocketed up the bestseller list and became an instant Hollywood go-picture, some of the biggest actresses have reportedly circled the juicy role of Amy Dunne, the beautiful and enigmatic New Yorker who goes missing after reluctantly following her husband back to his hometown in Missouri. There was Reese Witherspoon, who’s producing the movie adaptation, and Charlize Theron, and Natalie Portman, to name just a few Oscar winners. But as Gone Girl‘s director David Fincher demonstrated with Rooney Mara in Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, he’s not one to always pick the hottest actress du jour. Fincher already has Ben Affleck aboard as the male lead, the laid-off and laid-back Nick Dunne, blessing Gone Girl with plenty of star-power. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the search for Amy has turned away from the usual suspects and towards the luminous Rosamund Pike (Jack Reacher).

Pike’s reps didn’t respond to EW for comment, but I can’t help but get excited over the possibility. The 34-year-old Brit is one of those I-know-that-face-from-somewhere actresses and it’s finally time that she receives her Hollywood A-List card. She was a Bond Girl in the laughable Die Another Day more than a decade ago, but she never quite made the leap to stardom despite some well-calibrated roles in indies and likely because of big-budget misfires, like Jack Reacher and Wrath of the Titans. In Reacher, Pike tried her best to lift the role of hot/idealistic attorney from out of the hackneyed-female-love-interest prison, and as Andromeda in Titans, at least she showed some major dedication to kicking a–.

But one only needs to check out her small-but-powerful performance as Helen in An Education — Pike melted into her ’60’s-era character like butter on a hot summer day — to see her potential.

And while Keira Knightley received all the love for her performance in Pride and Prejudice, Pike stole her scenes as Lizzie Bennett’s more demure sister Jane. That scene when Bingley proposes? Gets me every time.

The Oxford-educated Pike is certainly a beauty, which also doesn’t hurt. But unfortunately it appears that Pike’s beauty sometimes hinders her ability to land top projects — ones that she actually deserves, in my opinion. It’s hard for audiences to take their eyes of her in a Diane Kruger kind-of-way. But she also has a kind of classic beauty that somehow projects wisdom (a rarity in Hollywood nowadays when most pretty girls project “I go to the tanning salon”). And she has eyes so expressive that even while she’s being quiet in a corner, you can feel her presence.

Okay, I’m obviously a fan, but I honestly feel like Pike would make a great Amy Dunne. I don’t want to give anything major away, but the perfect young wife who goes missing is the most fascinating character in the novel. And although readers get to know her best through old diary entries, her social-butterfly-with-dark-thoughts personality needs to be played to perfection onscreen or else the rich layers of the character will easily disappear. (No pun intended).

Pike might not have the resume of a Portman, Theron, or Emily Blunt, but this could be the role that elevates her into their ranks. So what do you think PopWatchers, does Pike seem right for the role? Who would you cast?