Comedian Amy Schumer is set to play the main role in the upcoming ‘Barbie’ movie. She is currently in negotiations with the filmmaking company Sony Pictures Entertainment.
This film is based on the story of the famous Mattel doll, Barbie, with a script written by Hilary Winston and Kim Caramele. Schumer is set to play a character that lives in “Barbieland”, where all the toys from the Barbie storyline also live.
In the story, Schumer’s character gets kicked out of Barbieland because she is too eccentric and doesn’t quite fit all the Barbie-like characteristics. This lack of perfection forces Schumer to enter an adventure set to be developed in the real world, where she will face several challenges. When she returns to Barbieland, she already discovered that perfection comes with the human soul and is not superficial.
Just hours after the rumors of Schumer playing Barbie came out, the internet was full of polemic in social networks. In Youtube, Twitter and Facebook there have been mixed opinions about the Sony decision of making Schumer play this female model role. A part of the opinions says that it’s funny and ironic and that it could be a great conscientization method about female body image.
However, a more negative body of opinions was registered when users from several social networks started to mock Schumer because of her body figure. In any way, it seems like this decision is going to be polemic until the premiere of the movie, and even afterward too.
A girl movie all along
This storyline settles perfectly with Schumer´s image of female empowerment. According to Deadline, the producers of the film wanted female scriptwriters to develop the story and they wanted a script that exploited the Barbie´s evolution through time.
Sony Chief Tom Rothman sent the script to Schumer personally, in order to convince her to play this role and not be affected by Schumer’s busy movie schedule, Deadline reported.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is looking forward to getting a female director that can lead the film to the direction they want. There is already a list of possible candidates, like the director of “Me Before You”, Thea Sharrock, among others. However, the studio recognizes that this represents an important job and that sooner than later is going to be filled.
The production of the movie is set to star in next year´s spring and the objective is to launch it globally in 2018.
Source: Deadline Hollywood