What can’t Elizabeth Banks do? One of our favorite actresses at the moment, she can move from fearless, broad comedy (“The 40 Year Old Virgin,” her current run on “30 Rock”) to serious drama (“Seabiscuit,” “W”) to grindhouse horror (the underrated “Slither”) without breaking a sweat, and this year she’s set for two of her biggest roles to dates, in the indie drama “The Details,” alongside Tobey Maguire, and in Paul Haggis’ thriller “The Next Three Days” alongside Russell Crowe.
She’s apparently she’s already lined up her next project, according to an unsubstantiated rumor from Coming Soon (they call it that themselves) — joining Bradley Cooper in Neil Burger’s thriller “Dark Fields.” Again, at this point it sounds like nothing more than a rumor (or an email tip received), but, we obviously enjoy her work so we hope it happens.
The project, for Relativity Media, is about a writer who gets his hands on an experimental drug that makes one more intelligent. Unfortunately, the drug has unforeseen side effects (including making time move with “a stop-motion quality,” apparently), and he finds himself pursued by sinister forces. There’s no word on what role Banks will play, but we hope it’s more interesting than the thankless girlfriend roles she’s sometimes stuck with.
Burger, who previously helmed “The Illusionist” and the virtually-unseen “The Lucky Ones” is one of those directors who’s made consistently interesting films without ever making a particularly good one, but he’s certainly got potential, and we hope he’ll step up to the next level with this (even though it all sounds a bit like an episode of “The Outer Limits” to us…). “30 Days of Night” DP Jo Willems and “Fight Club” VFX supremo Christopher Scollard are also on board the project. We’re tentatively hopeful.
