Elizabeth Banks is still ready to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy. Her next big screen outing will see her finally stepping into some pretty big shoes. She will play Ms. Frizzle in a live-action The Magic School Bus movie. And if that news sounds familiar it’s because we first reported it six years ago.
Scholastic, Legendary Pictures, Banks’ Brownstone Productions, and Marc Platt Productions are teaming up to bring the animated kids’ icon to theaters. Legendary, which recently acquired the rights to the project, is once again turning to Rob Letterman to adapt a big IP. He previously handled Legendary’s 2019 Detective Pikachu. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Letterman is writing a treatment for the film. He will also direct. He also has a history with Scholastic, as Letterman wrote 2015’s Goosebumps.
While his involvement is new, Banks’ is not. She was first attached to a live-action take on The Magic School Bus in 2020. It was in development at Universal and was supposed to be a hybrid live-action/animated take. It’s unclear what approach Legendary will take with its adaptation. It’s also unclear how the movie might attempt to fit into the history of the cartoon, which originally starred Lily Tomlin as the colorful and energetic teacher who takes her students on amazing adventures via her magical school bus. Netflix’s The Magic School Bus Rides Again reboot that launched in 2017 starred Kate McKinnon as Ms. Frizzle’s younger sister. Tomlin also reprised her role as the original teacher on the sequel series.
Could Banks’ version of the character be related to both of them? Or will her live-action Ms. Frizzle be entirely separate? We’ve had a long time to consider that question. Hopefully we’ll soon get an actual answer with a movie that has been waiting a long time to go on a big screen adventure.
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