After losing its director earlier this year, Pitch Perfect 3 has now found its replacement. Elizabeth Banks, who produced the smash-hit Pitch Perfect, made her feature directorial debut with the successful sequel Pitch Perfect 2 and was signed to return to helm the next installment of the aca-centric franchise. However, Banks exited the director’s chair this summer, with her increasingly busy schedule cited as one of the reasons for her departure. That left Universal’s follow-up in need of a director and fast, given that the project’s initial Summer 2017 release date had already been pushed back to a potentially lucrative December 22, 2017 bow. But now Universal has found Banks’ replacement, and it’s someone who knows her way around a song.

Per Variety, Step Up All In director Trish Sie is set to take the helm of Pitch Perfect 3, marking only her second feature film effort as a filmmaker. A professional dancer and choreographer by trade, Sie helmed the fifth installment in the Step Up franchise, but her resume is more impressive for her music video work. Indeed, Sie helped create, choreograph, and co-direct the treadmill-centric OK Go music video for “Here It Goes Again”, and went on to direct a number of the band’s other similarly impressive music videos like “A Million Ways” and “Upside Down & Inside Out”. So clearly she knows how to craft a show-stopping routine.


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Image via Universal Pictures

Jason Moore directed the first Pitch Perfect, but when the time came to make the sequel, he had already committed to directing the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters. After Banks’ departure, franchise star Anna Kendrick hinted on the happysadconfused podcast that there was hope amongst the cast members that Moore might return to helm Pitch Perfect 3, but in the end it was Sie who landed the job. It’s unclear if Moore was approached and declined or was simply too busy, and while he did a terrific job with Pitch Perfect, it’s nice to see another female filmmaker getting behind the camera on a major Hollywood franchise.

Screenwriter Kay Cannon, who scripted the first two installments, is penning Pitch Perfect 3 while Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Brittany Snow are all confirmed to return. Given the new release date and the subplot in Pitch Perfect 2 it’s entirely possible we’re in for a Christmas-centric follow-up, which would certainly sell a hell of a lot of albums, but as of yet that has not been confirmed.

Banks remains onboard as a producer, and as you can see below, has already taken to voicing her support for Sie landing the job. Expect more news on the Pitch Perfect 3 front in the near future as the project can finally move forward with a filmmaker in tow. For now, watch some of Sie's music video work below.

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/ElizabethBanks/status/771439100331032576[/EMBED_TWITTER]

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Image via Universal Pictures