Elizabeth Banks won’t be directing the Barden Bellas for a second time.
The actress appeared at the Producers Guild’s Produced By conference where she confirmed reports by Variety she was leaving the directors chair for Pitch Perfect 3 after it was pushed to Christmas 2017. Banks said the scheduling conflicted with her parental responsibilities.
“The new schedule butts up against my parental responsibilities in a way I’m not really comfortable with,” she said.
Banks and her husband Max Handelman will still produce the third Pitch Perfect film.
“Development always takes longer than you expect it to,” she said. “We feel obligated to put out the absolute best next movie; we’ve been developing our asses off.”
It’s hard to blame her for leaving the film. Banks’ children are still very young, so it’s no surprise she doesn’t want to miss time with her kids.
Banks did a solid job in her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2. It was an entertaining follow up to the 2012 breakout hit. It honestly had no right to be as good as it was. Banks might actually dodge a bullet by dropping out of the directors chair as it’s going to be extremely hard to replicate the success of the first two films again. Pitch Perfect 2 didn’t feel entirely necessary and third films in comedy franchises (Hangover 3, Home Alone 3 and countless other examples) rarely can pull off the acclaim of the originals. Usually, they run out of creative mileage.
Banks is an extremely talented actress who’s got a busy schedule with multiple directing and acting projects on the horizon. I’m sure she was game to return to Pitch Perfect 3 but when the schedule didn’t work out, she didn’t want to sacrifice time with her children. It’s more than a valid reason to back out.
