When major toy company Mattel
noticed during the 1990s that one of their flagship franchise, the iconic
fashion doll brand Barbie, was losing ground to some serious competition, one
of their ideas for making the line relevant again with girls and young children
was the development of a direct-to-video 3D-CGI animated film series, beginning
with 2001’s “Barbie in The Nutcracker.” Over the last two decades, the movies
Mattel produced with a variety of animation studios brought some respectable
revenue and kept Barbie in the spotlight. But aside from this animated
universe, there has been some discussion on making a live-action adaptation,
which intensified recently following the announcement of a director.
Vanity Fair tells us that the years-spanning percolation of a
live-action “Barbie” movie took a significant step towards realization over the
past weekend. The word is that filming for the project, set to star Australian
actress Margot Robbie (“Suicide Squad”), will begin next year in 2022.
Furthermore, filmmaker Greta Gerwig, already co-writing the script treatment
alongside Noah Baumbach, has taken up the director’s chair to bring the plastic
world of Barbara Millicent Roberts (yes, Barbie’s full name) to live action,
and present it on the big screen for the first time (barring “Toy Story”
appearances).
Gerwig has some major Hollywood
clout while going into the development of the “Barbie” film, seeing as her last
feature-length directorial effort, a new adaptation of classic novel “Little
Women” (2019) from Sony/Columbia Pictures starring Emma Watson and Florence
Pugh, was highly-rated by reviewers and got six nominations at the 92nd
Academy Awards (winning Best Costume Design). This development was noted by
prospective star Robbie, who says that while understandable that making a
Barbie movie invites criticism due to “nostalgic baggage,” having a proven
auteur like Gerwig as writer-director finally gets naysayers to “shut up.”
But before Barbie can come on and
go party as it were, the lead star and the writing-directing team must first
finish up their current projects. Margot Robbie is reprising DC Comics
anti-heroine Harley Quinn in Warner-DC Films’ upcoming “The Suicide Squad” from
director James Gunn. It premieres this coming July 30. Director Greta Gerwig
and co-writer Noah Baumbach are also working on Netflix original movie “White
Noise,” where Gerwig is co-starring opposite Adam Driver (Kylo Ren of Disney’s “Star
Wars” fame), for release in 2022. “Barbie” is to be produced by Mattel Films
and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Image courtesy of Paper Magazine
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