LOS ANGELES — The “Barbie” movie doesn’t come out until next summer, but people are already freaking out while the Warner Bros. feature — starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken — is filming at Venice Beach.
The fantastic plastic couple were spotted out for a skate in coordinating Day-Glo outfits Monday as film cameras rolled. The Venice Beach bike path has never looked so good.
“Barbie” isn’t expected to hit theaters until July 2023, but the buzz is already building.
Here’s what we know so far about the live-action film adaptation of the iconic doll that Mattel debuted in 1959.
Barbie and Ken wear eye-blasting colors
This one is a “no duh”: The first look at Barbie came at CinemaCon 2022 in April — yep, the conference where Olivia Wilde was served with custody papers in front of a live audience.
That sneak preview showed Robbie in a coordinated blue spring outfit complete with matching headband, peering out of a familiar pink convertible in front of a hotter-pink background.
Pink, purple, red, green beach-skating outfits shine — and where does one get that nifty fanny pack that Gosling’s sporting? Might be everywhere, come next summer.
Director co-wrote script
Director Greta Gerwig teamed up on the screenplay with filmmaker and life partner Noah Baumbach, and the strength of the script is apparently what lured Simu Liu to audition.
“(A junior agent) was like, ‘If I could stake my career on any one script, it’s the ‘Barbie’ script. I really think you should do it,’” the “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” star told GQ UK in May.
Gerwig and Baumbach have been a couple since 2011 and welcomed a son, Harold, in 2019. The movie’s plot remains under wraps.
They weren’t the first to take a shot. Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody was brought on in 2015, during the Sony phase of “Barbie,” but that didn’t work out.
“Dude, I never even produced an initial draft. I failed so hard at that project,” Cody told ScreenCrush years later. “I was literally incapable of writing a Barbie script. God knows I tried.”
Costume designer is an Oscar winner
Gerwig has reunited with her “Little Women” costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, for the guaranteed-viral outfits that populate “Barbie,” Variety reported Tuesday.
Durran is a two-time Academy Award winner for the period costumes of “Little Women” and 2005’s “Pride & Prejudice.” She was also nominated for her costume design in “Cyrano,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Darkest Hour,” “Mr. Turner,” “Anna Karenina” and “Atonement.” More recently, she costumed the likes of Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz in 2022’s “The Batman.”
In preproduction forever
Sony Pictures wasn’t the first company to option the film when it took the property into preproduction in 2014. Producers flipped through a number of options for director and lead actor, none of which stuck.
For a while, Sony wanted Amy Schumer as Barbie, but she dropped out in 2017, citing “scheduling conflicts.” There was a rumor that Anne Hathaway was interested in the role. Eventually, Sony’s option ran out; Mattel then partnered with Warner Bros. in 2019, deciding that Robbie would play the live-action version of the legendary doll.
Rest of the cast is a lot
Along with Robbie, Gosling and Liu, the cast includes Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Emma Mackey (“Sex Education”), Will Ferrell (“Anchorman”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton”), America Ferrera (“Superstore”), Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”), Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), Alexandra Shipp (“X-Men: Apocalypse”) and Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), according to IMDb.
Issa Rae (“Insecure”) and Hari Nef (“Transparent”) are also in the cast, with New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan hearing gossip at the Cannes film festival in May that the two are playing different versions of Barbie, while Liu and Ncuti Gatwa (also of “Sex Education”) play alternate Kens.
