Elizabeth Banks has built herself a solid career as an actress for two decades, being nominated 3 times for the Primetime Emmy Awards, and having participated in numerous hit movies like Spider-Man (2002), Slither (2006), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), The Uninvited (2009), Power Rangers (2017), Brightburn (2019), and the Pitch Perfect and The Hunger Games sagas. But lately she has developed an interest in being behind the cameras. Debuting as responsible for the segment Middleschool Date in Movie 43 (2013), she signed her first feature film with Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) which has been followed by the recent Charlie’s Angels (2019) reboot. Now it’s been announced that she has been chosen by Universal to direct and star the upcoming remake for The Invisible Woman.
The movie will be a remake of A. Edward Sutherland’s The Invisible Woman (1940), with a story centering an attractive model with an ulterior motive who volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine. The current draft of the script has been written by Erin Cressida Wilson, also writer of Secretary (2002) and The Girl on the Train (2016). According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources of the production say the tone of the project is Thelma & Louise (1991) meets American Psycho (2000).
After the poor reception Tom Cruise starred The Mummy (2017) suffered, Universal dropped their idea of bringing back their classic monster movies with newly updated remakes under the Dark Universe brand. But this year they have moved forward with the idea, focusing on a “more individualized and filmmaker-driven approach”. The first one in the list is Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man (2020), more horror-oriented and co-produced by Blumhouse. Plans say a Dracula-themed movie entitled Renfield, with Rocketman (2019)’s director Dexter Fletcher attached, will follow. Also, Dark Army, with the director of The Heat (2013), Spy (2015) and Ghostbusters (2016) Paul Feig to be ahead of the project, is also in early development.
Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman will also be producers of The Invisible Woman through their Brownstone Productions banner, and with Alison Small as executive producer.
