Elizabeth Banks (Brightburn) will star in Universal’s Invisible Woman, an entirely different movie from Universal’s Invisible Man featuring Elizabeth Moss (Handmaid’s Tale). Deadline says that Banks, who just directed the third Charlie’s Angels movie, pitched the idea for this film to Universal and will direct it as well. Erin Cressida Wilson, who previously wrote the script adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ best-selling thriller The Girl on the Train, will write the script for Invisible Woman as well.
Universal originally released Invisible Woman in 1940. While the studio’s previous movies about invisible people were straightforward horrors and thrillers, this was more tongue-in-cheek in nature. Its story follows a former department store model Kitty Carroll (played by Virginia Bruce), a test subject in an experiment with an invisibility machine. At first, she uses her newly-gained power to prank the boss who fired her. But, when a group of thugs steals the invisibility machine, it’s up to Kitty to stop them.
Universal’s big plans for a shared cinematic universe of its own crashed when its blockbuster remake of The Mummy tanked at the box office in 2017. The studio changed its strategy and is now turning towards more low-budget and creative riffs on its catalog of classic movie horrors.