Elizabeth Banks is going bad.
The actress has signed on to star as the villain in Power Rangers, Lionsgate’s big-screen take on the 1990s kids television show, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Dean Israelite, who helmed the time-travel found-footage movie Project Almanac, is on board to direct the project, which is being produced by Saban Brands’ Haim Saban and Brian Casentini as well as Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey. Allison Shearmur will executive produce.
A quintet of relative newcomers — RJ Cyler, Becky G, Ludi Lin, Naomi Scott and Dacre Montgomery — are playing the teens who, infused with powers, form a colorful team who must stop the world from being conquered.
Banks will play the classic Power Ranger character Rita Repulsa, an alien witch who has designs on the planet.
Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (The Last Witch Hunter, the upcoming Gods of Egypt) wrote the script.
Last year, Banks directed, acted in and produced Pitch Perfect 2 for Universal and also reprised her role of Effie Trinket for Mockingjay Part 2, the final installment of the Hunger Games franchise that was made by Lionsgate.
She is repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham.
