Elizabeth Banks will direct and star in Invisible Woman for Universal, based on her own original pitch.
Scribe Erin Cressida Wilson (“The Girl on the Train”) penned the script with Banks and Max Handelman is producing for their Brownstone Productions. Brownstone’s Alison Small will executive produce.
Banks’ pitch is very different from the Invisible Man film coming out in February that stars Elisabeth Moss, and there is no crossover potential on either film.
Meanwhile, “Rocketman” director Dexter Fletcher is helming “Renfield,” which is a new take on Dracula’s henchman and, like “Invisible Woman,” fits into a new strategy Universal is taking when it comes to its IP.
The studio had originally planned on creating an interconnected universe with its vast catalog of monster IP. However, the studio decided to move forward with filmmaker-driven projects based on the monsters’ legacies, focusing on what made the characters endure over time.
Instead of prescribing a mandate that the films be part of a larger scheme, Universal loosened those restrictions and open-sourced to filmmakers to create their own unique stories.