Class is back in session. Elizabeth Banks is attached to star as Ms. Frizzle in a live-action adaptation of The Magic School Bus, with Legendary Entertainment and Scholastic Entertainment developing the film and Rob Letterman set to write the treatment and direct. Banks will also produce. Deadline first reported the news.
The project lands at Legendary after the rights lapsed at Universal, which had originally set up a live-action version of the property back in June 2020 with Banks already circling the lead. That means this adaptation has been in development for roughly six years, and the version moving forward now reunites Legendary with a filmmaker it already trusts with big intellectual property.
Letterman directed Legendary’s 2019 Detective Pikachu, and he is no stranger to Scholastic either, having helmed the publisher’s 2015 Goosebumps movie that starred Jack Black. The plan is for him to deliver a treatment for the new film, which is being described as a live-action hybrid take on the books and the animated series rather than a fully live-action one.
For anyone keeping track of the talent assembling behind the camera, the producer slate is deep. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman are producing for Scholastic. Banks, Max Handelman, and Alison Small are producing for Brownstone Productions. Marc Platt and Adam Siegel are on board for Marc Platt Productions. Mary Parent, Ali Mendes, and Cale Boyter round things out for Legendary.
The timing is hard to miss. The Magic School Bus turns 40 this year, with author Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degen publishing the first book in 1986. The series has since sold more than 90 million copies in print and grew into one of the most recognizable educational franchises in children’s media.
Most fans know the property through the original PBS animated series, which ran from 1994 to 1997, aired in more than 100 countries, and featured Lily Tomlin as the voice of the eccentric Ms. Frizzle. A sequel series, The Magic School Bus Rides Again, debuted on Netflix in 2017 with Kate McKinnon voicing Ms. Frizzle’s younger sister, Fiona, while Tomlin returned to reprise the original role. That follow-up ran for three seasons before wrapping in 2021.
What makes this announcement notable is that, across the entire history of the brand, The Magic School Bus has never had a feature film. Banks stepping into the role on the big screen would mark the franchise’s theatrical debut, taking the shape-shifting yellow bus and Ms. Frizzle’s chaotic field trips into a format the property has never occupied.
For now, the open questions outnumber the answers. There is no confirmed plot, no additional casting, and no release window. Letterman still has a treatment to write, and Legendary has not staked out a production timeline. What is locked is the headline pairing: Banks as Ms. Frizzle, Letterman directing, and a property celebrating its 40th anniversary finally heading toward theaters.
Sources: Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, TheWrap
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