Barbie Is Coming To The Big Screen, Brought To You By Greta Gerwig

Margot Robbie will star in the upcoming live-action Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig. Yes, you read that sentence right. The Greta Gerwig who gave us Lady Bird and Little Women is taking on Barbie, the iconic doll that’s likely lying mangled and defaced at the bottom of your child’s toy box.

No one knows what to think, but everyone wants to see it.

This is a thing that is actually happening, and Warner Brothers has just released the first image of Robbie as the world’s most famous doll, rolling up in her pink convertible and her polka-dotted headband.

Are you ready for more? Co-stars include Ryan Gosling as Ken, plus Michael Cera, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Hari Nef, Issa Rae, and Alexandra Shipp.

This unlikeliest of films will hit theaters on July 21, 2023, and is currently filming in the U.K. (Nope, not Malibu.)

Gerwig, who co-wrote the script with husband Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid And The Whale), made the work-in-progress sound even more intriguing in an interview she gave Entertainment Tonight at the 2020 Oscar nominees luncheon.

“I have a feeling that whatever we turn in as a script, people are going to be like, ‘Are you insane? You can’t make this!’ Which is always, I think, a good sign.”

In that same interview, Gerwig explained that she, like every other child on earth, grew up with Barbies, and cut the hair of each one in futile attempts to get it to look as perfect as it did right out of the box. Research for the film, including an “immersion day” with a factory tour, has turned Gerwig into “a pretty hardcore Barbie fanatic.”

Robbie, in an interview with British Vogue for their August cover story, also alluded to the long history of Barbie and the memories she evokes for so many people.

“It comes with a lot of baggage!” she said. “And a lot of nostalgic connections. But with that come a lot of exciting ways to attack it.”

The film’s IMDb entry describes its plot: “A doll living in ‘Barbieland’ is expelled for not being perfect enough and sets off on an adventure in the real world.”

“People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’” Robbie told Vogue. “Then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t...’”

Robbie also serves as one of the film’s producers. She and husband Tom Ackerley run the production company LuckyChap. Their first film, I, Tonya, brought Robbie her first Academy Award nomination. Robbie told Vogue that LuckyChap is drawn to “things that are a little left of center. A little bit sticky.”

An iconic plastic doll. One of our most celebrated woman filmmakers. Count us among the curious.