‘Pitch Perfect 3’ Hunts for New Director after Elizabeth Banks Drops Project due to Parental Duties

‘Pitch Perfect 3’ is currently left without a director after Elizabeth Banks exited the project in favor of parental duties. She admitted that all the production delays resulted in hectic scheduling with other projects, which would eventually clash with her parental responsibilities.

According to Variety, Banks has exited the third installment in the musical comedy series as its director due to personal reasons. In addition, Universal pushed the scheduled release date from July 21 to December 22, 2017.

Although Banks will no longer helm the film, she will continue to stay on as producer. She is also set to reprise her role as Abernathy-McKadden, a commentator for the ICCAs.

The first film released in 2012 was directed by Jason Moore. It earned $115.4 million worldwide against a $17 million budget and became the second highest-grossing comedy film after ‘School of Rock’ starring Jack Black. It was then greenlit for a second film following its mainstream success with a new production budget of $29 million.

Banks took over the director’s chair for the sequel with Paul Brooks producing the film for Golden Circle Films together with Banks and Max Handelman. According to Box Office Mojo, ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ overtook its predecessor’s box office gains in just five days after earning $287.5 million. It took in $69.2 million on its opening weekend alone.

The 42-year old actress and filmmaker announced her decision to step down as director for the third film at the annual PGA Produced By Conference in Culver City, California. According to US Weekly, she said, “We have been in development and it took longer than we thought, and I needed to shoot another movie in the summer. If we pushed into fall it bumped up against my parental responsibilities, which made me feel uncomfortable.”

Banks has two children with husband Max Handelman via gestational surrogacy. She has been candid about her pregnancy struggles in past interviews. She also shared that her tight schedules hardly gave her enough time with the kids and this made her “slightly miserable”.

Joining Banks as producers for ‘Pitch Perfect 3’ are Paul Brooks and Scott Niemyer of Gold Circle Films. Stars Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Brittany Snow have also signed on to reprise their roles as the hilarious members of the Barden Bellas.

‘Pitch Perfect 3’ is an upcoming musical comedy film scheduled to be released on December 22, 2017.