Sharon Stone discusses her failed Barbie pitch within the ’90s, saying that executives “didn’t think Barbie should be powerful.”
Barbie was simply the largest film of the yr; not solely producing $1.4 billion worldwide however dominating popular culture discourse for months on finish. It was a becoming conclusion for a undertaking that had spent a long time in growth hell, with Sharon Stone even pitching a Barbie film approach again within the ’90s.
While talking on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly On The Wall podcast, Sharon Stone spilled just a few extra particulars on her failed Barbie pitch. “I went to the studio to try and make Barbie in the 1990s with a producer, a friend of mine, and I had the then-CEO of Mattel on my side,” Stone mentioned. “We acquired thrown out of the studio. They have been like, ‘Why would you take this American icon and try to destroy it? What is wrong with you?’ I acquired a lecture and an escort to the door.“
Stone went on to element the opening scene of her Barbie film and defined that studio executives took subject with it, believing that Barbie shouldn’t be seen as highly effective. “We had it so the opening scene would be Barbie pulling up to Mattel in her Barbie car and secret service come out and their feet are as big as the car,” Stone mentioned. “They escort her into Mattel and all people falls apart as a result of she’s crucial member of Mattel. All the large individuals are chasing her round and kissing her ass as a result of she’s the queen of Mattel and it’s in regards to the energy of being Barbie and what Barbie may do on the planet as a result of she’s so highly effective. But they didn’t suppose Barbie must be highly effective.“
Given the big success of Barbie, it’s solely pure that the studio would desire a sequel, however Margot Robbie stays skeptical. “Its funny, that knee-jerk reaction in this day and age for everyone to immediately ask about a sequel,” Robbie mentioned earlier this yr. “I don’t think it was like that 20 years ago. This wasn’t designed to be a trilogy.” Not all films want sequels, however the probability of one other billion-dollar payday will likely be laborious for the studio to withstand.
Margot Robbie really predicted that Barbie would gross $1 billion when she first pitched the undertaking, though on the time she thought she had oversold it. “I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” Robbie mentioned. “And then I gave a collection of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that – just about naming something that’s been unimaginable and made a ton of cash for the studios through the years. And I used to be like, ‘And now you’ve acquired Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I believe I advised them that it’d make a billion {dollars}, which possibly I used to be overselling, however we had a film to make, okay?!“