The fact that the Charlie's Angels franchise was receiving a reboot probably didn't surprise many people. However, the film's choice of director may have. Elizabeth Banks has been tapped to helm the new project, but with an actress like Banks involved, the obvious question becomes, will she cast herself as one of the angels? As it turns out, she's really not interested, the work involved just doesn't appeal to her.
Not as an Angel. No. Too much [mimes a punch] and [mimes another punch] and I have to train and like, ugh! I can't. I'm so tired.
One would assume that Elizabeth Banks did a fair amount of training for her recent role as Rita Repulsa in Power Rangers, so she's likely not averse to the training in principal. In fact, it could be that work that made her so tired in the first place, leading to these comments to ET. Besides, Banks didn't have to also direct Power Rangers so it's not too crazy to see that she's just got her plate full directing and has decided that she can't do both well. That will leave all of the "angel" positions available for other actresses. At this point, nobody has been officially cast.
More than likely this is because the script isn't quite ready yet, so casting would be premature. Recently The Tracking Board revealed that Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, the duo behind the Netflix series Narcos have been hired by Sony to rewrite the script. The previous script was written by Evan Spiliotopoulos, the writer behind Dwayne Johnson's Hercules film. It's unclear how extensive the rewrites are, but the studio is apparently confident enough to give the project a release date. The Charlie's Angels reboot has been set for June 7, 2019, which will put it smack in between a pair of major summer releases. Star Wars: Episode IX will be out the weekend before and Ben Affleck's Batman movie will be out the weekend after. On the one hand, it would seem that Sony was giving Charlie's Angels a solid summer release date, showing some confidence in the film. However, in between those two big releases the movie could be eaten alive.
Charlie's Angels seems to be a true passion project for Elizabeth Banks. She says she really wants the film to matter, which means that, summer release date notwithstanding, she may be trying to make something more than simply entertaining summer movie fair. Based on the fact that Banks has been part of the movie for a year, and it's still another two years away, she's clearly taking her time to make sure that everything is just right.
Previously, Charlie's Angels saw a pair of movies that starred the trio of Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore. While those films weren't without their entertainment value, few would classify them as films that "mattered.: We're curious to see the new approach that Elizabeth Banks will take to the material. We'll find out in June of 2019.
