{"id":721645,"date":"2026-06-23T18:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721645\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:13:10","slug":"magic-school-bus-live-action-movie-with-elizabeth-banks-lands-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721645\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Magic School Bus’ Live-Action Movie With Elizabeth Banks Lands Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA live-action \u201cThe Magic School Bus<\/a>\u201d movie, starring Elizabeth Banks<\/a> as Ms. Frizzle, is regaining momentum after six years in development. <\/p>\n

\n\tLegendary Entertainment has acquired the rights from Universal, which initially optioned the project in June 2020<\/a>. Meanwhile Rob Letterman (\u201cShark Tales,\u201d \u201cDetective Pikachu\u201d) has signed on to write and direct the film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Magic School Bus\u201d is based on the beloved children\u2019s books by authors Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. Though plot details for the movie haven\u2019t been confirmed, the educational series follows the eccentric teacher Ms. Frizzle and her class as they go on field trips in their yellow school bus that magically transforms into everything from a plane and submarine to a spaceship and surfboard to help them navigate terrain like outer space and the human body.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the \u201990s, PBS adapted \u201cThe Magic School Bus\u201d into a popular animated series, which aired in more than 100 countries and featured Lily Tomlin as the voice of Ms. Frizzle. An animated TV sequel, \u201cThe Magic School Bus Rides Again,\u201d featuring Kate McKinnon as Ms. Frizzle\u2019s sister, Fiona, debuted on Netflix in 2017.<\/p>\n

\n\tLegendary Entertainment is producing the new \u201cMagic School Bus\u201d with publisher Scholastic. Producers include Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman for Scholastic, Banks, Max Handelman, and Alison Small for Brownstone Productions, Marc Platt and Adam Siegel for Marc Platt Productions, and Mary Parent, Ali Mendes, and Cale Boyter for Legendary.<\/p>\n

\n\tLegendary\u2019s recent projects include \u201cA Minecraft Movie,\u201d \u201cDune\u201d and \u201cDune: Part Two\u201d as well as the \u201cMonsterVerse\u201d installments such as \u201cGodzilla vs. Kong.\u201d Upcoming films include Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu starring Tom Cruise\u2019s \u201cDigger\u201d and \u201cDune: Part Three,\u201d as well as adaptations of \u201cMagic: The Gathering\u201d and \u201cStreet Fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A live-action \u201cThe Magic School Bus\u201d movie, starring Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle, is regaining momentum after six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[74456,88,310576,206],"class_list":["post-721645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-elizabeth-banks","tag-entertainment","tag-magic-school-bus","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}