In news that suggests Elizabeth Banks may be the owner of a time-turner, the prolific multi-hyphenate has added yet another project to her slate. She’s signed on to direct and produce “The Grace Year” for Universal, Deadline confirms. Based on Kim Liggett’s soon-to-be published novel of the same name, the story “examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in between.”
“The Grace Year,” which has been compared to Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Naomi Alderman’s “The Power,” will hit bookshelves this fall. Its title refers to the time when “girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive,” the novel’s official synopsis hints.
Banks and Max Handelman, her Brownstone Productions partner and husband, optioned the manuscript last year under the company’s first-look deal with Universal.
Banks made her feature directorial debut with 2015’s “Pitch Perfect 2,” which grossed over $287 million worldwide. She also produced and co-starred in the aca-trilogy.
A three-time Emmy-nominated actress, the burgeoning mogul is rapidly expanding her resume. She’s directing, producing, and co-starring in Sony Pictures’ “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, set to bow later this year. She’ll also step behind the camera for a “Paper Bag Princess” adaptation and YA dystopia story “The Red Queen,” both for Universal.
Among the other projects on her producing slate are “Shrill,” an Aidy Bryant-starring bowing later this year on Hulu, and “Patty’s Auto,” a comedy about an all-female auto repair shop that just secured a pilot order from Fox.
