Barbies are like a long-standing American treasure akin to cherry pie and baseball. Despite the controversy surrounding Barbies and their unrealistic depiction of positive female body images, they’ve been around for almost 50 years with no sign of losing steam. While the Mattel toy line has dominated the toy scene since its inception, they haven’t really found too much success in other ventures, namely direct-to-video film series that aren’t necessarily the greatest works.
However, Lady Luck may soon strike the embattled franchise as Mattel has teamed up with Sony Pictures to fast track a live-action film franchise centered on Barbie, Ken, and their friends. As Deadline expertly puts it, producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (Men in Black) tailored their pitch to Mattel by talking up Barbie’s image of female empowerment and ability to essentially become a career chameleon, as well as planting the seeds for a long-lasting franchise full of sequels:
It allows the character Barbie to use her personal and professional skills to step into the lives of others and improve them, almost like a modern-day Mary Poppins. That storyline allows for the discovery of a young actress to play the title character, and young cast to play Ken and Barbie’s best friend, putting stars around them that can change in subsequent movies.
Jenny Bicks, writer and producer of Rio 2 and Sex in the City (amongst other shows and films), is set to write the initial script for the proposed project. Obviously, it’s too early to name potential Barbie actors, but with the vision of creating an entire franchise, Sony will be targeting younger actors to fill in the roles of Barbie, Ken, and others.
[via Deadline]