$1.45 billion dollars isn’t cool; you know what’s cool? $2 billion or higher. Maybe that’s the thinking from Warner Bros. and Mattel about a sequel to their pop-culture phenomenon and hit “Barbie” (read our review). And well, after months of hemming and hawing and suggesting that maybe they didn’t even need a sequel, co-writers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach are putting a “Barbie 2” into early development.
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What does that mean exactly? Well, following that aforementioned will-we or won’t-we back and forth, Gerwig, who directed the film, and Baumbach, who co-wrote it alongside her, finally landed on an idea.
Apparently Warner Bros. and the agents of both creatives denied it, but two sources told THR that they indeed have an idea and are beginning to explore it.
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Not much else is known at this, but the idea is in the “early stages,” and finding the story has apparently opened the door for a new deal since they never signed on to sequels originally.
“Barbie” earned six Oscar nominations in 2024, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling and more.
Studios are in heavy denial at the moment for some reason. “There is no legitimacy to this reporting,” a rep from Gerwig and Baumbach’s said, while a Warner Bros. went with the carefully-worded non-denial of “THR’s reporting is inaccurate” (code for one element of the story is off; therefore, we can deny and act like none of it is true).
The two will need a deal before they move forward with turning the idea into a screenplay, and surely, both will be paid a premium penny for it.
It may not arrive anytime soon, either. Gerwig has a diptych of “Chronicles Of Narnia” to still make at Netflix—she’s in pre-production now, and Baumbach is in a post on his untitled Netflix dramedy that stars George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Emily Mortimer (who co-wrote the script) and many more.
“Barbie” made the aforementioned $1.45 billion in 2023 and was the highest-grossing film of that year. The film is the fifteenth highest-grossing film of all time.
