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It looks like Charlie's Angels will have a female director before Marvel will

It looks like Charlie's Angels will have a female director before Marvel will

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Marvel has yet to put a woman in charge of one of its films, but that's not stopping anybody else from stepping into 2015: Sony is in negotiations with Pitch Perfect 2 director Elizabeth Banks to handle a reboot of Charlie's Angels. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Banks will produce as well as direct the film, which will soon be in the hunt for a writer. Angels first came to life as a 1970s TV show about a trio of female detectives, before getting the big-screen treatment in both 2000 and 2003 at the hands of McG; the new version would be a franchise reboot.

Banks started her career as an actor before transitioning to directing, making her feature debut with Pitch Perfect 2 earlier this year. That film upended all expectations, nearly tripling the domestic box office of the original and instantly putting Banks on the map as a director to watch. It quickly led to the filmmaker signing up to direct another big feature, the feature adaptation of the young adult novel Red Queen.

Painfully slow and incremental change

Hollywood has been shockingly incapable of waking up to the fact that there are strong female filmmakers who aren't named Kathryn Bigelow, but there are signs that is slowly, painfully, incrementally beginning to change. Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones director Michelle MacLaren was originally set to direct the upcoming Wonder Woman movie from Warner Bros., and when she ended up leaving the project she was replaced by another strong voice, director Patty Jenkins (Monster). With Charlie's Angels, Banks would potentially be kicking off an entire franchise, one that mixes action with the comedic skills she's excelled with both in front of and behind the camera.

Marvel, however, has found itself under incredibly scrutiny both for its treatment of its female characters (fans have been clamoring for a Black Widow movie for years at this point) and for more diversity behind the camera, as well. Marvel's Kevin Feige has been insinuating that both things would be changing with the upcoming Captain Marvel and Black PantherSelma director Ava DuVernay did in fact meet on the latter film — but as of yet nothing has been announced. That's to say nothing of the Star Wars franchise, which thus far has announced six directors for five different movies — all of whom are incredibly talented, but look awfully the same.