Elizabeth Banks in Talks to Direct YA Fantasy ‘Red Queen’

It seems that Elizabeth Banks’ directorial outing on Pitch Perfect 2 was only a prelude.

The actress, producer and budding director is now targeting Universal’s YA adaptation of Red Queen as another helming project. Sources say she is in negotiations to board the project, which has shades of Hunger Games, X-Men, Game of Thrones and Cinderella. The project would be a major step up for Banks as far as budget and scope for a visual effects–driven feature. 

The YA fantasy is set in a world divided by blood color — red for ordinary people, silver for elites with supernatural abilities. When a street urchin saves her best friend, she is brought before the king and queen, where she suddenly displays special powers — powers impossible for a red blood. To hide this startling news and to keep her under control, the king invents a past for the young woman as a lost princess and sets her up to marry one of his sons. But the woman soon finds herself conflicted as she becomes part of the silver world while at the same time aiding a group plotting a red rebellion.

Gennifer Hutchison wrote the script.

The book Red Queen was written by Victoria Aveyard, who scored a three-book deal a year after she graduated from USC’s screenwriting program in 2012.

Christopher Cosmos will also be involved as a co-producer.

Banks made headlines with Pitch 2, in which she co-stars and produces, when it opened to almost $70 million domestic, giving her the second-largest opening for a female director. The movie has now made over $161 million domestic and over $250 million worldwide. Red Queen is still in development and likely not her next directorial project.

Banks is repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham.

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