Elizabeth Banks, the actor-turned-film-maker who made her debut behind the cameras on hit comedy Pitch Perfect 2, is in talks to direct a remake of Charlie’s Angels, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Banks, best known for her role in the Hunger Games films and as the voice of hero Wyldstyle in The Lego Movie, would be in charge of reinvigorating a franchise that suffered in the wake of lukewarm reviews and middling box office for 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. An earlier effort, 2000’s Charlie’s Angels, was well reviewed and scored $264m worldwide on a budget of $90m.
Both films starred Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu and were directed by McG. The series is based on the 1970s TV show of the same name, the best known lineup for which was Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.
Banks, 41, won plaudits for her work on Pitch Perfect 2, the comedy sequel about a women’s a cappella group, with the film boasting a 67% “fresh” rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The actor took a small part in the film as an a cappella competition commentator, reprising her role in the first movie.
Female film-makers continue to struggle in Hollywood, with only 23% of directing positions and 26% of key behind-the-scenes roles filled by women, according to a study of films shown at major film festivals sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University last year, with only 6% of big-studio productions over the same period being directed by women.
Banks joins Monster’s Patty Jenkins – hired by Warner Bros in April to replace Michelle MacLaren as director of Wonder Woman – Angelina Jolie, Catherine Hardwicke, Kathryn Bigelow and a handful of others on a short list of women who have been given the chance to take on a big-budget Hollywood production.
