Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is set to become the biggest blockbuster of this summer. Ever since the first trailer, which stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken along with an all-star cast, came out, fans have been dying for this movie to hit the theaters. From what we can see, the film will be a lot of fun. Plus, it does a great job of bringing to life everyone’s favorite doll!
While there’s no doubt that Margot Robbie will make a great Barbie, fans couldn’t help to notice that the Suicide Squad actress was not the first choice for this role. Originally, the live-action Barbie movie was set to be written by Diablo Cody, with a popular comedy actress in the lead role. But after those plans fell through, Robbie snatched the role of Barbie.
Mattel Had Been Wanting to Make a Life-Action Barbie Movie For Years
In 2009, Mattel started working on developing a film based on the Barbie toy line. The toy manufacturing company first partnered with Universal Pictures to make this happen, with Laurence Mark as producer. Unfortunately, nothing came to fruition and the idea was discarded.
Then, in 2014, Mattel brought the project back to life. This time around, they partnered with Sonny Pictures to produce the film. Jenny Bicks, who has written films such as Drew Barrymore’s Never Been Kissed (1999) and What a Girl Wants (2003), was set to write the screenplay, while Laurie Macdonald and Walter F. Parkes were the set to produce it through the Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation banner.
Filming was set to begin by the end of the year. But in 2015, Diablo Cody, who wrote the script for movies such as Juno (2007) and Jennifer’s Body (2009), joined the project to rewrite the screenplay. Likewise, Little Women (2019) producer Amy Pascal joined the producing team. But this didn’t work out either.
In 2018, Diablo Cody told ScreenCrush that she didn’t even get to write the script, “I never even produced an initial draft. I failed so hard at that project. I was literally incapable of writing a Barbie script. God knows I tried.”
Then, the Jennifer’s Body screenwriter added, “To be honest, the timeline coincided with my writing Tully. I was really overwhelmed at the time, and I think I was really only capable of reaching in and pulling out something super personal. Look, I think the idea of a Barbie movie is super cool and I hope something goes in there and kills it.”
Following this, Sonny had to hire three other writers to help rewrite the script.
Before Margot Robbie, Amy Schumer Was Cast to Portray Barbie
When Diablo Cody was hired to rewrite the script for the live-action Barbie movie, stand-up comedian and actress, Amy Schumer was set to play the lead role. Months after Schumer’s casting was announced, the comedian pulled out of the Barbie movie, citing scheduling conflicts.
However, it was later revealed that Schumer left the project due to artistic differences.
“They definitely didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it, the only way I was interested in doing it,” Schummer told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022.
Apparently, the actress had envisioned Barbie as a creative inventor, but when the studio asked that her invention be a high heel made of Jell-O she knew it was not the role for her. “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal.’”
In 2017, after Schumer left the project, Anne Hathaway was considered for the role of Barbie. Around that time, Sony hired Olivia Milch to rewrite the screenplay and was in the talks to get Alethea Jones to direct it, all in an attempt to get the Princess Diaries star on board.
However, their efforts proved futile because Sony’s opportunity to work on the film expired in 2018 and the project was then transferred to Warner Bros.
Margot Robbie Had a Big Role in the Making of the Life-Action Barbie Movie
Once Sony lost the rights to make a Barbie movie, Margot Robbie sensed an opening. She met with the CEO of Mattel, Ynon Kreiz, to pitch LuckyChap, the production company she co-runs with her friend Josey McNamara and her husband Tom Ackerley, for the project. The meeting was successful and LuckyChap, along with Warner Bros. began working on the film.
Additionally, it was Robbie’s idea to get Greta Gerwig to direct the film. “At the time this was such a terrifying thing to take on. People were like, You’re going to do what?,” Robbie told Vogue, explaining that Gerwig only said yes to the project on the condition that she could write the script along with her partner, Noah Baumbach. “It felt sparky to me in some way that felt kind of promising.”
Turns out that no one at LuckyChap, Mattel, or Warner Bros. read the script until it was finished, but once they got their hands on it, they loved it. So, filming for Barbie began in March 2022 and wrapped in July of the same year. Now, the movie is set to premier in the United States on July 21, 2023.