Elizabeth Banks in Talks to Direct New 'Charlie’s Angels' Movie
By Borys Kit
Charlie’s Angels is getting a new shot at the big-screen, this time with Elizabeth Banks involved.
Sony is rebooting the franchise, about three attractive and able lady private detectives, and is in negotiations to hire Banks to direct the new movie.
Banks will also produce with her husband and producing partner Max Handelman. The studio and producers will begin a search for a writer to tackle the reboot.
Angels was a hit television series in the 1970s that told of three detectives — played by Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith — that worked for a mysterious benefactor named Charlie while joshing with their sidekick, Bosley.
At first known as Jiggle TV and not taken too seriously, the show became a breakout hit and the actresses household names. Fawcett soon left and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Tanya Roberts also joined the cast in later seasons as ratings were declining.
The property got a female-empowerment big-screen treatment in 2000 when Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu starred in an action comedy hit directed by McG. (Bill Murray played Bosley.) That was followed by a bloated and not well-received sequel, 2003’s Charlie’s Angles: Full Throttle, that effectively killed the movie franchise.
Read More: Elizabeth Banks’ $200M Path to Directing ‘Pitch Perfect 2’
An attempt to revive it as a television series in 2011 only lasted four episodes.
Banks, who has demonstrated a gift for comedy and drama as an actress, has also shown an affinity for female-empowerment projects as the steward of the Pitch Perfect franchise. The movies focus on an all-girl a cappella group that takes on male rivals.
Banks made her feature directorial debut with Pitch 2, one of Universal’s massive summer hits. The movie, with a budget in the $30 million range, opened to almost $70 million domestic, giving her the second-largest opening for a female director. (The movie has made almost $184 million domestic.)
The movie also opened up a new career chapter, that of a director. She is already attached to direct YA fantasy Red Queen at Universal. Although Universal is putting together the pieces for Pitch 3, her involvement as director remains unclear.
She is repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham.
