Elizabeth Banks Wanted To Direct Thor: Ragnarok (And A Catwoman Movie)
You know those directors you keep rooting for, even though they've yet to really knock one out of the park? That's Elizabeth Banks for me at this stage in her career behind the camera. Her first two times at bat, on "Pitch Perfect 2" and the 2019 "Charlie's Angels," provide fun-if-hollow female empowerment, though that's more to do with their energetic performances (most notably, Kristen Stewart radiating Big Queer Energy every second she's on screen in "Charlie's Angels") than their direction, which tends to be flat and lacking for flair.
Luckily, Banks' next outing as a director, "Cocaine Bear," is the perfect chance for her to turn on the juice and see what shakes loose. Will it be the next "Snakes on a Plane," i.e. a very R-rated comedy-thriller that couldn't quite live up to its outlandish title and capitalize on the sheer hype it generated among the Very Online demographic, or will it be a riotous good time that doubles as a searing indictment of the dubious (and not-so-secretly racist) "War on Drugs" launched by the Reagan administration? Hopefully the latter, of course, but either way, Banks has no intention of slowing down and aspires to continue challenging herself as a filmmaker going forward.
How so? Well, as it turns out, before Variety could ask Banks if she's interested in directing a superhero movie (a question that every fledgling filmmaker or seasoned pro loves and is totally not tired of being asked), she revealed she's already tried to do that once before, back when she put in a pitch to helm "Thor: Ragnarok." She's not solely interested in playing for Team Marvel, either, having also come up with a Catwoman movie pitch that she would love to make a reality ... though she isn't, per se, counting on it.
'But maybe someday'
Look, I'm on the record as being a big fan of Taika Waititi's irreverent, color-blasted, anti-colonialist take on the God of Thunder with "Thor: Ragnarok," so I won't pretend I'm unbiased when it comes to the matter of what another director might have done with the film. Fortunately, Elizabeth Banks isn't interested in convincing anyone my boy Taika wasn't right for the job, either. "Nothing ever happened. No one called me. Taika Waititi got the job. Rightfully so," she told Variety, regarding her "Ragnarok" pitch.
As for "Catwoman," that's an interesting prospect, in light of James Gunn and Peter Safran being appointed as the co-chair and co-CEOs of DC Studios. Gunn previously directed Banks in his 2006 cult sci-fi horror-comedy "Slither" and served as a producer on the Banks-starring 2019 superhero horror movie "Brightburn," so it's only natural that Variety would ask Banks if she has reached out to her old pal about working behind-the-scenes on his and Safran's vision for the DC Universe. She playfully laughed off the idea, but made it clear that doesn't mean she wouldn't be interested, should the opportunity present itself:
"I had a pitch for a Catwoman movie a while ago that I don't think will fit into the mandate right now. But maybe someday."
While it seems as though Banks would be afforded the room to make a far more audacious "Catwoman" movie under her buddy Gunn's watch than she would've in the past, I might prefer for her to continue along the path she's started down with "Cocaine Bear" and keep making the type of weirder genre movies the major studios tend to shy away from. On second thought, it's probably best to hold off and revisit this conversation after "Cocaine Bear" opens in theaters on February 24, 2023.