As far as directorial debuts go, Pitch Perfect 2 was one hell of a first effort by Elizabeth Banks, racing past Mad Max: Fury Road at the box office and making more money in its opening weekend than the first Pitch Perfect made in its entire theatrical run. (That should serve as a pretty firm slap to the face of any studio executives out there who still claim movies made by women don’t make money.)
Now, Deadline reports that Universal is in talks with Banks to bring her magic touch to another feature project based on Red Queen, a young adult novel written by Victoria Aveyard. Like Pitch Perfect 2, the Red Queen adaptation will also be—gasp—written by a human woman: Breaking Bad writer Jenny Hutchinson, who knows a fair amount about blood—the driving force behind The Red Queen—from her time on the show.
Red Queen, which is the first installment of the Aveyard trilogy, introduces a world divided by a caste system based on blood. In it, red-blooded commoners serve the silver-blooded elite, who have superhuman abilities. The protagonist is a 17-year-old common girl named Red who accidentally discovers she has a power of her own. From there, things presumably get even bloodier.
Meanwhile, while Kay Cannon is in talks to write Pitch Perfect 3, there’s no word on whether Banks will be back to direct the third installment of the a cappella franchise.