Come on, Barbie, let’s go party! The live-action approach to the story of iconic doll line has been a long time in the making.
The Barbie movie was originally set to be rewritten by Diablo Cody with Amy Schumer in the lead role. After the writer departed from the project, Cody opened up about the complications that came with trying to bring the iteration to life.
“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,” the Jennifer’s Body screenwriter told Screen Crush in 2018. “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 f–king cool and I hope something goes in there and kills it.”
Months after Schumer’s casting was announced, the comedian also dropped out, citing scheduling conflicts. The New York native later clarified that there were creative differences that halted her participation.
“They definitely didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it, the only way I was interested in doing it,” Schumer told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2022, noting that she wanted the character to be an “ambitious inventor” but it was turned down.
The Last Comic Standing alum alleged that the plan was for Barbie to invent high heels made of Jell-O. “I felt like I was disappointing my team by not being Barbie,” Schumer admitted at the time. “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal.’”
Following Schumer’s exit, Margot Robbie took over the role of Barbie. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach later joined to pen the script and work behind the camera to bring the story to life.
Ahead of production, Robbie teased during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2020 that Barbie will be “the thing you didn’t know you wanted.”
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