Even though she didn’t name names, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Barbie director Greta Gerwig was referring to when pressed for a status update on her next project.
As if following up a critical, commercial, cultural, and most likely awards season phenomenon that brought in more than $1.4 billion at the box office wasn’t enough, the filmmaker also faces even more pressure by heading to Netflix to reinvent The Chronicles of Narnia, with the streaming service finally pulling the finger out and starting development on the reboot half a decade after landing the rights.
During her Screen Talk at the BFI London Film Festival, Gerwig avoided specifics, but did make a point of noting that “I’m working on something right now, it’s hard and I’m having recurring nightmares.” Several months ago when offering whatever details she could on the Narnia do-over, the Academy Award nominee noted that “I’m properly scared of it” and “I’m terrified of it” in the same interview, so you can put two and two together and infer that she’s talking about the exact same thing on both occasions.
It’s interesting that Narnia could be her next move, though, considering that Barbie has no doubt given Gerwig a blank check to make whatever she wants however she wants to make it, and breathing new life into a fantasy franchise that petered out after three movies in the face of disappointing critical and box office returns is an interesting step.
Of course, she was only contracted for one Barbie, so Warner Bros. will need to come armed with a stack full of cash if it wants to push a sequel in front of Netflix’s Narnia on her to-do list.