Sharon Stone discusses her failed Barbie pitch within the ’90s, saying that executives “didn’t assume Barbie ought to be highly effective.”
Barbie was simply the most important 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 many years in growth hell, with Sharon Stone even pitching a Barbie film manner again within the ’90s.
Whereas talking on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly On The Wall podcast, Sharon Stone spilled a number of extra particulars on her failed Barbie pitch. “I went to the studio to try to make Barbie within the Nineties with a producer, a pal of mine, and I had the then-CEO of Mattel on my aspect,” Stone mentioned. “We acquired thrown out of the studio. They have been like, ‘Why would you are taking this American icon and attempt to destroy it? What’s incorrect 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 situation with it, believing that Barbie shouldn’t be seen as highly effective. “We had it so the opening scene can be Barbie pulling as much as Mattel in her Barbie automotive and secret service come out and their ft are as huge because the automotive,” Stone mentioned. “They escort her into Mattel and all people falls apart as a result of she’s crucial member of Mattel. All the massive 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 might do on the planet as a result of she’s so highly effective. However they didn’t assume Barbie ought to 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 humorous, that knee-jerk response nowadays for everybody to instantly ask a few sequel,” Robbie mentioned earlier this yr. “I don’t assume it was like that 20 years in the past. This wasn’t designed to be a trilogy.” Not all motion pictures want sequels, however the likelihood 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 believe my pitch within the green-light assembly was the studios have prospered a lot once they’re courageous sufficient to pair a giant concept with a visionary director,” Robbie mentioned. “After which I gave a collection of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that – just about naming something that’s been unbelievable and made a ton of cash for the studios over time. And I used to be like, ‘And now you’ve acquired Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I believe I instructed them that it’d make a billion {dollars}, which perhaps I used to be overselling, however we had a film to make, okay?!“