The Road to Barbie: All the Attempts to Make the Feature Film

Barbie is an unmatched phenomenon. Just step into any mall and notice the wave of storefronts and people in pink clothes or the groups gathered in the ticket line. On the internet, the thing gains even more weight with posters and memes on social networks, "Barbenheimer" and all the rest. Warner Bros., then, must be in the greatest euphoria.

The same cannot be said about a large other portion of Hollywood. This is because, until hitting the big screen in 2023, Barbie went on an adventure worthy of its own film. Created by Ruth Handler and launched on the market in 1959, the doll became a pop culture icon and undoubtedly one of the most well-known toys in the world.

And believe me, trying to take the doll out of the box and put it on the big screen was not easy at all. Omelete shows here all the attempts to make a live-action Barbie over the years.

2009: THE FIRST STRIKE

It literally took 50 years for a Mattel executive to get out of his chair and approve the idea of ​​a doll movie. But what a delay, huh?

According to Richard Dickson, the company's director of operations, the company still did not feel comfortable with the idea of ​​exploring the brand in this way. But with the turn of the decade, the beginning of the explosion of networks and the internet everywhere, everything changed. "In the last 10 years, Barbie has evolved from a toy to intellectual property," he explained to Variety. And for them, millions acquired in merchandise, online ventures, and a fashion empire were no longer enough. The next logical step would be a movie.

So a real race for the doll's rights began. And in the end, it was Universal Pictures that arrived first, with the ambitious plan to create a universe with several live-action films - not just one. For that, they decided to cast Laurence Mark, the producer behind Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, Dreamgirls - In Search of a Dream, Glitter - The Shine of a Star, and Romy and Michelle. There was no shortage of caliber. What was lacking, however, seemed to have been the initiative.

From 2009 to 2013, Universal simply sat with the doll's rights and didn't lift a finger - at least that's what the lack of records or company announcements for the project beyond Mark's hiring during the period indicates. In 2013, Mattel launched Mattel Films, and immediately in the following year, Universal lost the rights to Barbie.

2014: WITH A SCREENWRITER, WILL IT HAPPEN NOW?

After the fiasco with Universal, Mattel Films closed what seemed to be a good deal with Sony Pictures, especially because Amy Pascal herself, the executive behind the success of Spider-Man, Spider-Verse, and the like, decided to handle this negotiation. Suddenly, the film was truly underway. Pascal announced that filming would begin by the end of 2014 so that Barbie would be released in 2017.

In addition, Jenny Bicks, known for writing one of the most infamous episodes of Sex and the City, in which a drunk socialite slips and dies in front of an entire party, was hired to write the screenplay. What also cheered Mattel Films was the addition of Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes, the producers of MIB - Men in Black.

With a script underway and a great duo of producers on board, the film finally seemed to be moving forward. But it did not.

2015: HOPE IN DIABLO CODY

This is when Barbie's situation began to become critical.

Dissatisfied with Bicks' draft, Amy Pascal recruited Diablo Cody, Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay for Juno, to polish the material. "Diablo's originality is precisely what Barbie was looking for. We chose Cody because her ideas are brilliant, but, even more significant, she has a true love for Barbie," Pascal said at the time.

Cody really seemed to have a good fit with the project, just take a look at her filmography: the underestimated - and now cult hit - Jennifer's Body, the acidic Young Adult, and the inventive United States of Tara. However, for the writer, it simply did not work. In 2018, she revealed to ScreenCrush (via. /Film) that the responsibility was immense and that she could not handle it. "I was literally unable to write a script for Barbie. God knows I tried."

This year, with the release of the film, she also gave more details about what went on behind the fiasco. "The idea of ​​an anti-Barbie Barbie made a lot of sense given the feminist discourse of ten years ago," she told GQ. "At that time, I did not really have the freedom to write something that was true to the [doll's] iconography; they [the executives] wanted a kind of girlboss feminist approach to Barbie, but I could not understand, because that is not what Barbie represents."

These difficulties soon reached the press, and in the same year, Sony hired three more screenwriters: Bert Royal (Easy A), Hilary Winston (Community and Happy Endings), and a newcomer Lindsey Beer (who would write Sierra Burgess is a Loser a few years later). The plan was much simpler: whoever finished writing the best draft would get the project. Beer was the best in this.

2016: MEET THE FIRST BARBIE

Despite all the fuss in the press over the years, Barbie's face never officially came to be announced. At least until 2016.

After an incredible 2015, with the blockbuster Trainwreck and an Emmy win, Amy Schumer was cast to give life to the doll. In addition to starring, she would also fix Beer's text with the help of her sister, also screenwriter Kim Caramele. Even with a producer, script, and lead actress, nothing seemed to make the film start filming. In March 2017, Schumer left the project and blamed her "busy schedule." Today, however, we know that the story was not quite like that.

In an interview on Watch What Happens Live, in June of this year, she revealed that she simply did not like the script. "At the time, we said that the departure was due to scheduling issues, but in fact, it was because of creative differences," Schumer said. "But now there is a new team behind the film, and it looks really cool and feminist, so I'm going to watch." When host Andy Cohen asked if the original script was not "cool and feminist," the comedian replied affirmatively, but without giving further details.

2017: A NEW BARBIE

Without Schumer, Barbie was back at square one again. But in June 2017, a glimmer of hope appeared. Rumors began to circulate that Anne Hathaway was in talks with Sony to play the doll. The star would also not be alone: she would bring Alethea Jones, from Fun Mom Dinner (comedy with Toni Collette and Molly Shannon), to sit in the director's chair and Olivia Milch - who helped show a more comedic side of Hathaway in Ocean's 8 - to write the new script.

By this point, it was already more than clear that Sony would not be able to release the film in 2017, as promised before. The producer then announced yet another new date. This time, the promise was that in 2020 the world would finally get the doll's movie.

But it was no use. Even with all efforts, the company did not start pre-production. In 2018, the film rights expired, and Mattel Films decided not to renew with Sony - which was officially out of the Barbieverse. At the same time, Mattel ran to Warner.

2019: FINALLY AT HOME

Forget everything you've read up to now. Schumer, Hathaway, Sony, Universal. That's because nothing mattered anymore to Mattel Films, which was ready to restart everything at Bugs Bunny's house. They even found a new Barbie.

On a high in the market, Margot Robbie had just come out of an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for I, Tonya - which she also helped produce with her label, LuckyChap Entertainment, and was put on the project directly by the new CEO of Mattel, Ynon Kreiz. "Barbie is one of the most iconic franchises in the world, and we are excited to partner with Warner Bros. Pictures and Margot Robbie to bring her to life on the big screen," he said.

Robbie took the reins of Barbie and was confident enough to announce that the movie would bring $1 billion to the company. Quite impressed with Greta Gerwig's version of Little Women, the Australian decided to bring the filmmaker to take over the direction and script of the project. Gerwig agreed, but on the condition that she also bring her partner, Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), to spruce up the text.

"For me, this seemed exciting somehow, something that promised quite a lot. I turned to Noah and said 'I'm going to do this,'" the director told Vogue. Warner was pleased with the new creative direction and gave the green light for the team to start pre-production - for the first time in a decade, it's worth noting.

And the rest is history. Or rather, it's a history being made.