Elizabeth Banks Withdraws as Director of 'Pitch Perfect 3'

Variety.com reports that Elizabeth Banks will no longer direct upcoming Pitch Perfect 3 movie. While Banks isn't leaving the franchise in favor of a specific project, sources say, her increasingly packed schedule did play a part in her exit as director.

Universal recently pushed the release date from July 21, 2017 to December 22, 2017.

Banks will continue to serve as producer, a job she has held since the first film, and will reprise her role as Gail. She helmed the most recent installment which grossed $285 million worldwide including $183 million domestically.

"Pitch Perfect 3" now becomes one of the town's hottest directing assignments given the success of the previous two installments. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Brittany Snow are all signed on to return with Kay Cannon penning the script.

Joining Banks as producers are Paul Brooks and Scott Niemyer of Gold Circle Films.

Elizabeth Banks is an American actress, producer, and director. Banks made her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy (1998), and is known for her roles in such films as Wet Hot American Summer, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002-07), Seabiscuit (2003), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Role Models (2008), The Next Three Days (2010), Pitch Perfect (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), and The Hunger Games films (2012-15). In 2014, she portrayed Melinda Ledbetter, the girlfriend and later wife of the Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, in Bill Pohlad's film Love & Mercy and made her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2, whose May 15-17 $69M opening weekend gross set a record for a first-time director.

Pitch Perfect is a series of musical comedy films created by Kay Cannon, loosely based on the non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella GLORY by Mickey Rapkin. Jason Moore directed the first film and Elizabeth Banks directed the second, and the upcoming third installment is set to be released on July 21, 2017. Paul Brooks, Max Handelman, and Banks produced the films. It features an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine, Ben Platt, Alexis Knapp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Hailee Steinfeld, Chrissie Fit, Katey Sagal, John Michael Higgins, and Banks. The series is distributed by Universal Pictures.

PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Bank's Official Facebook Page

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