Barbie (film)

***Barbie*** is an upcoming American fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig, who wrote the screenplay with Noah Baumbach. Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel and inspired by the 1994 non-fiction book *Reviving Ophelia* by Mary Pipher, the film is the first live-action Barbie film after several computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. The film stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, respectively, alongside a large ensemble supporting cast.

The film was announced in September 2009 by Universal Pictures with Laurence Mark producing, but development began in April 2014, when Sony Pictures acquired its rights. Following multiple writer and director changes and the casting of two different actresses to play the titular role, Sony lost the rights and these were subsequently transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2018, with Robbie in talks to star. Robbie was cast in 2019 and serves as a producer (through the LuckyChap Entertainment banner) with production credited alongside Heyday Films and Mattel Films. Gerwig was confirmed as director and co-writer with Baumbach in 2021. Gosling and the rest of the cast were announced in early 2022. Filming took place primarily at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England from March to July 2022.

*Barbie* is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 21, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

## Premise

After being expelled from Barbieland for being a less-than-perfect doll, Barbie sets off to the real world to find true happiness.

## Cast

* Margot Robbie as Barbie
* Ryan Gosling as Ken
* Different variations of Barbie played by:
	+ Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie
	+ Issa Rae as President Barbie
	+ Hari Nef as Doctor Barbie
	+ Alexandra Shipp as Writer Barbie
	+ Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie
	+ Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie
	+ Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie
	+ Nicola Coughlan as Diplomat Barbie
	+ Ana Cruz Kayne as Judge Barbie
	+ Ritu Arya as Journalist Barbie
* Different variations of Ken played by:
	+ Kingsley Ben-Adir
	+ Simu Liu
	+ Scott Evans
	+ Ncuti Gatwa
	+ John Cena as Merman Ken
* America Ferrera as Gloria, a Mattel employee who finds Barbie in the real world
* Will Ferrell as the Mattel CEO
* Connor Swindells as a Mattel intern
* Michael Cera as Allan
* Helen Mirren as the narrator
* Jamie Demetriou as a Mattel employee
* Emerald Fennell as Midge

Additionally, Rhea Perlman, Ariana Greenblatt, and Marisa Abela have been cast in undisclosed roles.

## Production

### Development

Development on a film based on the Barbie toy line began in September 2009, when it was announced that Mattel had signed a partnership to develop the project with Universal Pictures and with Laurence Mark as producer, but nothing came to fruition. In April 2014, Mattel teamed with Sony Pictures to produce the film, which would have Jenny Bicks writing the screenplay and Laurie Macdonald and Walter F. Parkes producing through the Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation banner they created. Filming at the time was anticipated to begin by the end of the year. In March 2015, Diablo Cody was brought onto the project to rewrite the screenplay, and Amy Pascal joined the producing team. Sony would again have rewrites done to the screenplay later that year, hiring Lindsey Beer, Bert V. Royal and Hillary Winston to write drafts.

In December 2016, Amy Schumer entered negotiations to star in the title role, with the Winston screenplay being used that would be rewritten by Schumer and by Schumer's sister, Kim Caramele. In March 2017, due to scheduling conflicts with the planned June 2017 filming start, Schumer exited negotiations. That July, Anne Hathaway was under consideration for the title role, with Sony hiring Olivia Milch to rewrite the screenplay and approaching Alethea Jones to direct as a means to interest Hathaway into signing on. Jones was attached to direct by March 2018. However, the expiration of Sony's option on the project in October 2018 and its transfer to Warner Bros. Pictures would see the departures of Hathaway, Jones, Macdonald, Parkes and Pascal. Margot Robbie would enter early talks for the role, with Patty Jenkins briefly considered for the director position. Robbie's casting was confirmed in July 2019, with Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach now penning the screenplay. Gerwig would sign on to also direct the film in July 2021. Robbie stated that the film's aim is to subvert expectations and give audiences "the thing you didn't know you wanted." Helen Mirren narrated the film's trailer and also filmed a brief cameo for the film.

### Writing

Gerwig and Baumbach were given full creative freedom in writing the film. They collaborated on the screenplay during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020–2021 and described the writing process as "open" and "free". For the film treatment, Gerwig had originally written an abstract poem on Barbie, in the vein of the Apostles' Creed. For the narrative arc, she was partially inspired by the 1994 non-fiction book *Reviving Ophelia* by Mary Pipher, which accounts the effects of societal pressures on American adolescent girls. She also found inspiration in classic Technicolor musicals such as *The Red Shoes* and *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg*, which is she quoted saying of: "They have such a high level of what we came to call authentic artificiality. You have a painted sky in a soundstage. Which is an illusion, but it's also really there. The painted backdrop is really there. The tangibility of the artifice is something that we kept going back to".

### Casting

In October 2021, Ryan Gosling entered final negotiations to play Ken in the film. America Ferrera, Simu Liu and Kate McKinnon were cast in February 2022. Liu auditioned for the film after his agent raved the script as one of the best they had ever read. In March 2022, Ariana Greenblatt, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Mackey were revealed to be in the cast. Will Ferrell joined to the cast in April, along with Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Hari Nef, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Ncuti Gatwa, Emerald Fennell, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Connor Swindells, Ritu Arya and Jamie Demetriou. During the casting process, Gerwig and Robbie looked for actresses with "Barbie energy" (which is described as "a certain ineffable combination of beauty and exuberance"). Mackey revealed in a 2022 interview with *Empire* that much of the supporting cast will be playing various iterations of Barbie and Ken. During an interview with *Vogue* in May 2023, Robbie revealed she wanted actress Gal Gadot as a Barbie for the film, but was unavailable due to scheduling.

### Filming

Principal photography began in March 2022 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England and wrapped on July 21, 2022. Among the notable filming locations was the Venice Beach Skatepark in Los Angeles, California. Rodrigo Prieto serves as cinematographer, while Jacqueline Durran, who previously collaborated with Gerwig on *Little Women* (2019), serves as costume designer for the film. Reshoots took place in Los Angeles in April 2023.

### Set design

Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer serves as set designer and decorator, respectively, on the film. For the Barbie Dreamhouse, the pair drew inspiration from the mid-century modernist architecture found in Palm Springs, including the Kaufmann Desert House by Richard Neutra, as well as the photography of Slim Aarons. Gerwig wanted to capture "what was so ridiculously fun about the Dreamhouses", alluding to its past models, and referenced *Pee-wee's Big Adventure*, the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud, and Gene Kelly's character in the 1951 Technicolor musical *An American in Paris*. "Everything needed to be tactile, because toys are, above all, things you touch" Gerwig was quoted saying of the use of practical effects instead of CGI to capture the sky and the San Jacinto Mountains. The set design is also noted for its extensive use of pink paint, which reported resulted in an international shortage.

## Music

 Released
 Genre
 Label
2. "Watati" Released: June 2, 2023

Alexandre Desplat, who had collaborated with Gerwig on *Little Women* (2019), was set to score *Barbie* in early September 2022. However, by May 2023, Desplat had left the project due to scheduling conflicts, with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt taking over scoring duties. The film's soundtrack, *Barbie: The Album*, will be released on July 21, 2023 and will include songs by Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kali, Karol G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, the Kid Laroi, cast members Ryan Gosling and Dua Lipa, and more artists to be announced. "Dance the Night" by Lipa was released as the album's lead single on May 26, 2023.

Despite fan expectations for the 1997 song "Barbie Girl" by the pop band Aqua to feature in the film, Ulrich Møller-Jørgensen, manager for Aqua lead singer Lene Nystrøm, said that it was not used. *Variety* speculated that this was due to bad relations between Mattel and MCA Records, the song's American publisher, who engaged in a series of lawsuits over the song from 1997 to 2002. A new version of the song by Aqua, Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj will instead be featured in the film.

### Track listing

Notes
* "Watati" is stylized in all caps.
* "Butterflies" is stylized in all lowercase.

## Release

*Barbie* is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on July 21, 2023, taking over the original release date of *Coyote vs. Acme*. Previous iterations of the project were originally set for: June 2, 2017; May 12, 2017; June 29, 2018; August 8, 2018; and May 8, 2020.

## Marketing

The marketing campaign for *Barbie* began on April 26, 2022, when a first-look photo of the film was revealed at a Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon. Released to the public the following day, the image saw Robbie as Barbie, sitting behind the wheel of her iconic pink 1965 Chevrolet Corvette. Shane Romanchick of *Collider* complimented Robbie's casting, stating: "This photo is just further proof that Robbie was made to play this role. She just looks like a Barbie doll come to life—it's almost uncanny". On June 15, 2022, a second still featuring Gosling in costume as Ken was released. Despite noting similarities between his look in the image and his previous roles, *The Guardian* asserted that "there is a very strong chance that this will be [Gosling's] defining role".

The first teaser trailer for *Barbie* debuted during Thursday night screenings of *Avatar: The Way of Water* (2022). It featured a parody of the opening "Dawn of Man" sequence in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film *2001: A Space Odyssey*, in which Robbie (clad in Barbie's original 1959 outfit) imitates an alien monolith whose influence on the history of dolls is narrated by English actress Helen Mirren. Along with a theatrical poster, the teaser trailer was released to the public on December 16, 2022. *Rolling Stone* praised the *2001* homage and vibrant colors of trailer, and remarked on its vague outlining of the plot: "One has to wonder when, or better yet how, it will all get shaken up".

On April 4, 2023, twenty-four character posters of the several Barbies and Kens featured in the film—each tagged with brief descriptions—were shared on the *Barbie*'s social media accounts. *Empire* remarked: "You might have thought that Multiverse fever would be constrained generally to comic book films and never-would-have-called-it Oscar winners [Everything Everywhere All at Once]. But […] it seems Greta Gerwig's *Barbie* movie will also be flooding the screen with variants, this time of plastic dolls Barbie and Ken". A second teaser trailer was unveiled shortly after the release of the posters. It featured a rendition of the Beach Boys' 1964 surf rock song "Fun, Fun, Fun". *The Washington Post* noted that the "visually striking" and "polysemic" teaser captivated multiple demographics because of its humor, color palette, and the Barbie doll's cross-generational appeal. An official trailer for the film was released on May 25, 2023. Critics noted for its existential tone set against upbeat music. Ben Travis of *Empire* said: "There's much to discuss here—not least, that it looks visually impeccable" and speculated Academy Awards attention for its production and costume design.

American clothing retailer Gap collaborated with Mattel on a *Barbie* apparel collection, launched on May 23, 2023 to coincide with the release of the film. *Ad Age* noted: "Gap's timing couldn't be better". On June 1, 2023, Mattel released a Barbie doll-and-accessories collection inspired by the film. *Billboard* commented that they’re "fashion-forward, and, most importantly, pink", alluding to the recent "Barbiecore" fashion trend.

## Reception

### "Barbiecore" trend

More than a year before its scheduled release, *Barbie*'s aesthetics made a cultural impact in mid-2022 as a result of the release of early stills of Robbie as Barbie as well as bystander photos from the film's location shooting that highlighted the use of bright pastel colors in two options: first, pink had previously been projected by many publications as a fashion trend for the coming year; and second, its popularity was seen as having been boosted by discussion of the film, leading to its being dubbed "Barbiecore".

Though primarily discussed as a clothing trend, it also encompassed interior design and makeup. *Vogue* remarked that "the filming of Greta Gerwig's forthcoming film has made Barbiecore—which mostly translates into skimpy looks in bright pink—the trend of this summer." *The New York Times* also predicted a 2023 fashion trend composed of "neon pink and yellow, with the related postmodern revisionism of the classic fashion palette."