Back in September, it was announced that Sony Pictures was developing a big-screen Charlie’s Angels reboot with actress-turned-Pitch Perfect 2 helmer Elizabeth Banks in the director’s chair. Now movement continues as the studio has hired hot scribe Evan Spiliotopoulos to tackle the new adaptation’s screenplay.
Although his most high-profile studio film has been Dwayne Johnson’s 2014 Hercules, Spiliotopoulos cut his teeth on Disney animated features (The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie) and has The Huntsman Winter’s War coming out next year and Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast in 2017. He was also recently brought on to rewrite Universal’s Wanted sequel, so his credits speak to a perfect balance of action and humor that an Angels reboot will no doubt need.
“The original ethos of women who graduated from the police academy, and then were given the jobs of crossing guard and meter maid, I feel like that’s still very real in the world right now,” Banks told the trade of her guiding impetus in making the film. She is also set to produce the new film alongside her husband Max Handelman through their Brownstone production company.
The original show focused on three women who worked as a team of private investigators, receiving their orders from the mysterious Charlie Townsend (voiced by John Forsythe, but whose face was never revealed). Although the lineup changed during the course of the series, the four key headlining actresses were Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Facett, Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd.
The popular series ran for five seasons and, in 2000, launched a feature film franchise starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. That film also turned out a 2003 sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
A television “Charlie’s Angels” reboot was attempted in 2011 with Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly, Rachael Taylor headlining. Airing on ABC, it only lasted eight episodes.
