Diablo Cody is addressing her botched “Barbie” script for Sony 5 years after the actual fact.
The Oscar-winning “Juno” screenwriter was hooked up to pen the screenplay for a meta “Barbie” film earlier than exiting in 2018. Cody was enlisted to re-write former “Intercourse and the Metropolis” author Jenny Bicks’ 2014 Sony script. Amy Schumer was initially forged within the lead position previous to additionally parting methods with the undertaking. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach took over the film in 2019 after it moved to Warner Bros.
Cody infamously by no means turned in a script attributable to inventive variations with the studio, because the “Jennifer’s Physique” scribe advised GQ.
“I feel I do know why I shit the mattress: After I was first employed for this, I don’t suppose the tradition had not embraced the femme or the bimbo as legitimate feminist archetypes but,” Cody mentioned. “For those who lookup ‘Barbie’ on TikTok you’ll discover this glorious subculture that celebrates the female, however in 2014, taking this skinny blonde white doll and making her right into a heroine was a tall order.”
She added, “There was a whole lot of strain to not write the dramatic equal of ‘math is difficult.’”
Cody famous that casting Schumer as Barbie was in step with the themes of the last decade, however the storytelling arc was not what she had envisioned for the live-action adaptation.
“That concept of an anti-Barbie made a whole lot of sense given the feminist rhetoric of 10 years in the past,” Cody mentioned. “I didn’t really have the freedom then to jot down one thing that was trustworthy to the iconography; they needed a girl-boss feminist twist on Barbie, and I couldn’t determine it out as a result of that’s not what Barbie is.”
Schumer left in 2017, with future Oscar winner Anne Hathaway in talks for the position. Cody left in 2018 after further studio strain.
“I heard countless references to ‘The Lego Film’ in growth, and it created an issue for me as a result of that they had executed it so nicely,” Cody mentioned. “Any time I got here up with one thing meta, it was an excessive amount of like what that they had executed. It was a roadblock for me, however now sufficient time has handed that they’ll simply forged [‘The Lego Movie’ actor] Will Ferrell because the antagonist in a real-life ‘Barbie’ film and no person cares.”
Cody summed up, “I’ve made a number of swings at IP with ‘Barbie’ and ‘Powerpuff Women,’ and I take full duty for the failures of these makes an attempt, as a result of I do have a selected voice and POV and I haven’t discovered how one can modulate it. Finally, you’re promoting toys. I imply, no person actually needs to delve deeper into the lore and mythos of Hungry Hungry Hippos. That’s probably not an inventive train.”
Nonetheless, Cody is happy for Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which she referred to as “my ‘Joker’” when it comes to anticipation.
Former “Barbie” actress Schumer equally praised Gerwig’s upcoming movie, which stars Margot Robbie who additionally produces.
“I can’t wait to see the film, it seems to be superior,” Schumer mentioned on “Watch What Occurs Dwell with Andy Cohen,” including, “There’s a brand new workforce behind it, and it looks like it’s very feminist and funky so I can be seeing the film.”
Schumer added of her personal shelved “Barbie” undertaking, “I feel we mentioned it was scheduling conflicts, that’s what we mentioned. However yeah, it actually was simply creative differences. They positively didn’t wish to do it the best way I needed to do it, the one approach I used to be keen on doing it.”
For all the small print on the historical past of the “Barbie” film, click on here.
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