When Shawn Levy was making Free Guy, the director had conversations with a still-unnamed studio executive in which they failed miserably at comprehending any movie that wasn’t based on something, going as far as interpreting an original idea as “based on nothing.”
These are the people we’re forced to trust to keep any sort of momentum going in the film industry; momentum that we can wholly thank people like Greta Gerwig for in the first place, given the continued domination of Barbie – Warner Bros.’ billion-dollar boon – in the cultural zeitgeist.
But, right around when it seemed apparent that Barbie would be picking up some historic steam, we all caught wind of the dizzying surplus of Mattel-based movies that are apparently in the works in some form or another; Daniel Kaluuya’s genuinely intriguing Barney project notwithstanding, it sounds like Hollywood drew the wrong conclusions from Barbie‘s success.
And according to one Randall Park, who many will recognize as Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstay Jimmy Woo, the situation is probably exactly what it sounds like. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Park opened up about his very valid concerns that Hollywood could spoil the success of movies like Barbie by indulging in its IP obsession.
“I feel like, just in general, this industry is taking the wrong lessons. For example, Barbie is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No. Make more movies by and about women!”
At some point, the suits will have to clue in to the fact that audiences don’t actually like certain products or subjects or anything of the sort; what they do like, believe it or not, is good movies. But, with Mattel Films locked and loaded nevertheless, it looks like we can only sit and wait to see if Hollywood missed the memo yet again.
Barbie is now playing in theaters.
