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No Ken-do: Barbie sequel is stuck in Hollywood purgatory · The Front

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  Speaker 1: This is the best day ever. It is the best
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  Speaker 1: day ever. So is yesterday, and so is tomorrow and
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  Speaker 1: every day from now till forever. You heard everything about
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  Speaker 1: Naymes from The Australian. This is the weekend edition of
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  Speaker 1: The Front. I'm Claire Harvey. Does the world need another
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  Speaker 1: Barbie movie? And even if we did, would we get it?
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  Speaker 1: The follow up to the twenty twenty three blockbuster starring Margo,
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  Speaker 1: Robbie and Ryan Gosling is caught up in big business
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  Speaker 1: negotiations that may mean it never gets made. The Australian's
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  Speaker 1: Richard Ferguson is here to break it all down. When
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  Speaker 1: is Barbi two coming out?
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  Speaker 2: Richard, Well, apparently Barbi two me never commote. We well
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  Speaker 2: know in the next four months whether a Barbie two
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  Speaker 2: will commote with Morgle, Robbie and Ryan Gosling directed by
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  Speaker 2: Greta Go because that's how long Warner brother has to
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  Speaker 2: sign them up. So it's been reported over the past
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  Speaker 2: couple of weeks that Robbie, Gosling and Gerwig have been
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  Speaker 2: offered life changing money by Warner Brothers at least six
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  Speaker 2: times in the past three years, and every time they
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  Speaker 2: have driven the price up now. The reason Warner Brothers
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  Speaker 2: has four months is because that's when the rights to
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  Speaker 2: Barbie will revert back to Mattel, the toy makers behind Barbie,
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  Speaker 2: who could then just take the property off to another
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  Speaker 2: filmmaker with Margot, Robbie or not, you know, do something
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  Speaker 2: completely different. So if Warner Brothers want to cash in
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  Speaker 2: on Barbie two, which was one of the biggest blockbusters
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  Speaker 2: of the century so far, then they have not got
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  Speaker 2: a lot of time to sign up their golden trail.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, Barby, can I come to your house tonight?
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  Speaker 3: Sure?
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  Speaker 1: I don't have anything big planned, just a giant blowout
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  Speaker 1: party with all the barbiees and plant choreography and a
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  Speaker 1: bespokes on the show stop by so cool. This happens
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  Speaker 1: all the time. Rites are solved for a limited period
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  Speaker 1: of time and then they expire and the production houses
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  Speaker 1: have to buy them again. Warner Brothers could probably afford
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  Speaker 1: to go into another negotiation with Mattel. Wouldn't that be
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  Speaker 1: better than rushing it?
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  Speaker 3: Well?
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  Speaker 2: I think the problem is is that they know that
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  Speaker 2: Mattel will have a lot of buyers. Mattel will be
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  Speaker 2: in the stronger possession. Although I think Mattel want this
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  Speaker 2: film made too, because they've been trying to get it
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  Speaker 2: back into the film business. Barbie was their big entry
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  Speaker 2: back into it. They were even welling for their company
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  Speaker 2: to be pretty snarkily treated in Greta Girwgg's Barbie. You
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  Speaker 2: know the Mattel Board. They're all men, they don't have
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  Speaker 2: a clue what they're talking about. They're all evil.
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  Speaker 1: Will Ferrell is the ultimate, Yeah, evil Barby idiot executive exactly.
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  Speaker 4: If you're agreeable to it, we would love it if
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  Speaker 4: you could just get into that giant box, the box,
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  Speaker 4: and we'll go back to Barbieland and everything will be
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  Speaker 4: as it was.
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  Speaker 2: And they were kind of willing to do that in
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  Speaker 2: order to get the one point four billion that the
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  Speaker 2: movie ended up making. And their most recent attempt to
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  Speaker 2: get back into the cinemas, which was a he Man
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  Speaker 2: Masters of the Universe reboot, was widely panned. Nobody watched it.
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  Speaker 2: You tell everyone that you're from another plane is It
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  Speaker 2: just makes you sound a little very crazy. And I
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  Speaker 2: think they really need Barbi two to work out. Their
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  Speaker 2: only other option is they're trying an adult reboot of
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  Speaker 2: Barney the Imaginary Dinosaur, and I think that's a bigger
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  Speaker 2: risk than Margot, Robbie and Ryan Gosling going for a
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  Speaker 2: second time around.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it would be unimaginable to make Barbi
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  Speaker 1: two without Margot, Robbie and Ryan Gosling, wouldn't it They
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  Speaker 1: regardless of which production house Mattil sells the riots to,
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  Speaker 1: they have got all the.
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  Speaker 2: Power here one hundred percent, and also without Greta Gerwig
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  Speaker 2: and without the tone of Barbie two. So for people
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  Speaker 2: who don't remember the phenomenal three years ago Barbie was made,
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  Speaker 2: but it was a very metaphysical, very feminist interpretation of Barbie.
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  Speaker 2: It had lots of quite surrealist and meta physical humor
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  Speaker 2: in it.
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  Speaker 1: So what can I do to repair the rift in
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  Speaker 1: the space time continuum and get my feet back in
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  Speaker 1: that one?
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  Speaker 2: Silly like God and just generally not turn into weird Barbie.
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  Speaker 2: It was a film for women in their twenties, fordries,
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  Speaker 2: gaming in their twenties, and ferries and forties. It wasn't
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  Speaker 2: really aimed at children, but it just absolutely blasted this market,
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  Speaker 2: which you know, it's probably the same market that made
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  Speaker 2: The Devil Wears praud is such as success made Mama
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  Speaker 2: Me as such a success, to which every time Hollywood goes, oh,
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  Speaker 2: women like films, we didn't really know this. So it
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  Speaker 2: needs the stars, it needs the director, It needs the
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  Speaker 2: tone for Barbie two or another Barbie movie of any
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  Speaker 2: description to work out. But it seems pretty clear that
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  Speaker 2: Robbie Gosling and Girlwig do not want to help them out.
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  Speaker 2: They have been offered again and again and again. It
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  Speaker 2: goes up and.
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  Speaker 1: Up and up.
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  Speaker 2: And while we cannot prove this, one does wonder whether
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  Speaker 2: this trao are trying to preserve the integrity and the
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  Speaker 2: legacy of the film that they made, which is a
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  Speaker 2: film with an ending. It is not like the Marvel universe,
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  Speaker 2: where the films are designed for open endings, where there
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  Speaker 2: are cliffhangers or suggestions at the very least that could
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  Speaker 2: lead into another movie. It ends.
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  Speaker 1: Humans only have one ending ideas of forever.
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  Speaker 2: I've written in the Culture section of The Australian this
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  Speaker 2: week that at its heart, Barbie was a feminist interpretation
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  Speaker 2: of Pinocchio, and nobody cares what happens to Pinocchio after
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  Speaker 2: he became a real boy. And I don't think anybody
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  Speaker 2: really cares what happened to Barbie after she became a
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  Speaker 2: real woman. This journey was complete. There is no room
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  Speaker 2: where to go back. And it also destroys really the
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  Speaker 2: message of their film, which is is that you want
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  Speaker 2: to become human, you want to experience the imperfect And
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  Speaker 2: I think if all of a sudden Barbie goes oh,
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  Speaker 2: I didn't really enjoy my time at the gynecologist's office
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  Speaker 2: where she ND's up spoiler alert in the last film,
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to go back to Barbieland and become a
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  Speaker 2: plastic doll. It just feels like, no matter what, a
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  Speaker 2: Barbie two would just unwind everything the movie stood for.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Margo Robbie as the real life Barbara Handler would
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  Speaker 1: have to live a normal life in all its kind
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  Speaker 1: of imperfection, but also to make the movie sustainable for
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  Speaker 1: Mattel to sell dolls, which is actually what the core
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  Speaker 1: business is, it would have to go back to Barbie's
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  Speaker 1: imaginary world one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 2: And I think part of the problems with a Barbie
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  Speaker 2: two is that when you have a Barbie one that
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  Speaker 2: is made, of course to make money, but that has
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  Speaker 2: quite a times sneering attitude towards money to then go
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  Speaker 2: and create a film which sole purpose on Earth is
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  Speaker 2: to make money. There is no narrative need for it.
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  Speaker 2: There is nor society will need for it. The only
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  Speaker 2: reason it exists is to meet Mattel and Warner Brothers
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  Speaker 2: and Michael Robbie, Rayan Gosling and Greta garrowgg more money.
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  Speaker 2: Once again, it seems to completely destroy whatever the first
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  Speaker 2: movies did for coming up.
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  Speaker 1: What's the US Congress got to do with this? Sequels
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  Speaker 1: can be just absolutely disastrous. I mean, there's The Godfather too.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose as the most wonderful example of a sequel
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  Speaker 1: that was better than the original that was also a prequel.
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  Speaker 1: That's one option for Barbie. It could go back in
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  Speaker 1: time to Barbie's sort of you know, origin story. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose to justify that return to Toyland. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: the risk is you end up like Jaws too. You
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  Speaker 1: know the catchphrase for that was just when you thought
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  Speaker 1: it was safe to go back in the water, and
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  Speaker 1: it was a catastrophe.
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  Speaker 2: And what we've seen with these big movie franchises that
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  Speaker 2: rely on sequel after sequel after sequel is that most
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  Speaker 2: of them have ended up in kind of creative cul
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  Speaker 2: de sacs and are losing bums on seats in the cinemas.
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  Speaker 2: So we've seen that with Star Wars. I mean, they
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  Speaker 2: released a spin off of their TV show The Mandalorian,
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  Speaker 2: which is most famous for having the baby Yoda puppet.
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  Speaker 2: They released a film, and this film kind of passed
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  Speaker 2: the international culture without much notice at all. The idea
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  Speaker 2: of a Star Wars film opening and nobody really bothered
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  Speaker 2: to see it or think about it or talk about
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  Speaker 2: it is extraordinary would have been unthinkable twenty thirty forty
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  Speaker 2: years ago. The Marvel superhero films have definitely struggled until
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  Speaker 2: the latest Spider Man, which of course has broken box
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  Speaker 2: office records, was bigger than the last Avengers movie, which
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  Speaker 2: was the biggest movie of all time. There is something
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  Speaker 2: about Spider Man in particular that people seem to really
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  Speaker 2: caire neck towards, and that is those films with Tom
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  Speaker 2: Holland and Zenda are really set up as episodic. They're
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  Speaker 2: almost like television, the Marvel films.
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  Speaker 1: She's a Spider Man, I can't tell anybody about this
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  Speaker 1: vacular secret. Okay, thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Open ended endings. People followed the narrative. I think there's
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  Speaker 2: also people follow Tom Holland and Zenda's real relationship. Really
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  Speaker 2: dark too.
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  Speaker 1: I mean they're aimed at teenage boys. There's a whole
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  Speaker 1: world now are very dark movies about sort of children's themes.
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  Speaker 1: The Superman movie that came out I think a year ago.
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  Speaker 2: Which was also an attempt at kind of a metaphysical
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  Speaker 2: and joke take, was kind of it was a Barbie
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  Speaker 2: take on Superman.
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  Speaker 1: Really it was actually inappropriate for children. Involved someone being
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  Speaker 1: shot in the head dead in a game of Russian roulette.
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  Speaker 2: It was really very dark, like a Bond film. Really yeah,
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  Speaker 2: kind of, I.
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  Speaker 1: Mean, except ridiculous because it was about a man in
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  Speaker 1: wearing his underpants outside of his actual pants.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, there's Superman. They've also obviously they made
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  Speaker 2: a sequel to that, Supergirl, which has not been a success.
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  Speaker 2: It is a very tough time to put up a sequel.
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  Speaker 2: People are getting sick of it. And this is where
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  Speaker 2: a lot of this kind of premiere horror that we're
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  Speaker 2: seeing at the moment, These A twenty four films, you know,
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  Speaker 2: things like Obsession, back Rooms, they've done incredibly well, and
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  Speaker 2: I think it's because people are begging for something new,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, Greta Gerwig is of course currently working
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  Speaker 2: on another famous franchise reboot, which is the C. S.
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  Speaker 2: Lewis novels. So she's going to start with the Magician's
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  Speaker 2: nephew and then do the Lion, the Witch and the
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  Speaker 2: Wardrobe and continue on. So she's about to do a
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  Speaker 2: bunch of sequels. So we know that Greta Gerwig isn't
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  Speaker 2: against sequels per se. But once again C. S. Lewis
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  Speaker 2: set up a series of novels that were episodic, and
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  Speaker 2: it made logical sense for that to be that way.
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  Speaker 2: That is not the case of Barbie.
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  Speaker 1: How does the feel into the biggest businesses.
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  Speaker 2: Film, Well, Warner Brothers. Of course, we are saying they
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  Speaker 2: are about to merge with Paramount in what is the
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  Speaker 2: biggest Hollywood deal probably in fifty years now. The Democrats
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  Speaker 2: are doing everything they can to stop Warner Brothers merging
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  Speaker 2: with Paramount because Paramount is owned by the billionaire Ellison
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  Speaker 2: family who own things like CBS CBS News. They're very
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  Speaker 2: controversial because of their links with Donald Trump, and of
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  Speaker 2: course the Democrats do not want anything to do with that.
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  Speaker 3: Today. The next step in the case between Paramount and
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  Speaker 3: twelve state attorneys general so going to block the company's
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  Speaker 3: merger with Warner Brothers Discovery is set to begin. The
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  Speaker 3: two sides here are expected of again exchanging documents and
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  Speaker 3: gathering evidence, and the pressure is on.
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  Speaker 2: It has made a huge ripple in the film world
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  Speaker 2: where we are seeing less and less filmmakers. We're seeing
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  Speaker 2: big studios, merge, monopolies, geopolese etc. Formed in Hollywood. So
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  Speaker 2: Warner Brothers really, I think with Lake, if they get
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  Speaker 2: the marriager that they want with paramount to deliver to
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  Speaker 2: the Ellisons. This huge success of signing up Barbie two
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  Speaker 2: and getting up sure Fire hat underway, but it looks
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  Speaker 2: as if Robbie, Gosling and Gerwig want to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that they go to the Ellisons empty handed.
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  Speaker 1: Richard, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Richard Ferguson is the Australian's canber Bureau chief and one
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  Speaker 1: of our many culture experts. You can read all the
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  Speaker 1: latest at the Australian dot com au slash culture. This
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  Speaker 1: episode of the Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey,
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  Speaker 1: produced by Kristin Amiot and edited by Tiffany Demack. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: for joining us on the Front this week. Our team
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  Speaker 1: also includes Leat Sammagloo, Joshua Burton and Jasper Leek, who
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  Speaker 1: also wrote our theme