Elizabeth Banks & Avenue Q's Jason Moore Throw A PITCH PERFECT!

By Matt Holmes / July 2, 2011

Congrats, I guess, to Universal for finding a gap in the film market and that movie about a college capella group that literally four people on the planet had been dying to see is coming true. Variety reports that the studio will distribute a new movie from Gold Circle Films titled Pitch Perfect and although no firm plot details have emerged yet, we do know it's about a backing vocals singing group. Pitch Perfect will be scripted by 30 Rock writer Kay Cannon and directed by Tony Award winning Avenue Q Broadway helmer Jason Moore. It's based on the non-fiction book by Mickey Rapkin about the rivalry between stateside universities which we have to presume will be the plot of the film;

According to GQ senior editor Rapkin, today's lively collegiate a cappella groups boast hip-hop repertory, professional vocal arrangements, competitions at Lincoln Center and a world shrunk by the Internet. During the 2006€“2007 college season, Rapkin, an alum of a Cornell all-male singing club, followed three a cappella powerhouses: Divisi, an all-girl group from the University of Oregon, the testosterone-driven Hullabahoos of the University of Virginia, and Beelzebubs, from Tufts. Each is a collective with a score to settle, a tradition to honor. Robbed of a championship in 2005, Divisi wants payback; the Hullabahoos want respect without forfeiting their frat-boy charm; and the controversial Bubs want to hone their edge. Throughout, Rapkin engages with celebrity trivia (Heroes' Masi Oka sang a cappella at Brown) and music criticism. He profiles the cottage recording industry built from college a cappella. Most notably, he riffs through signature events and crisis moments with a snarky humor (onstage Divisi looks like the women in that Robert Palmer video) that turns each chapter into a picaresque progression toward graduation.

The lovable Elizabeth Banks is producing the flick with her husband Max Handelman via their Brownstone Productions company whose previous credits include the Bruce Willis sci-fi vehicle Surrogates. Ok so it's not the kind of film What Culture! would usually cover but Cannon's 30 Rock, Moore's Avenue Q and Banks herself are all funny people, so we almost can't help this film from being on our radar. No word yet if Banks is eying a role for herself in the movie but we'd hope so... she brightens everything she is in.