thefirstpost.co.uk:
Toy-maker Mattel has finally okayed a Barbie film. Now Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and Hayden Panettiere are all up to play the doll.
Fifty years after she made her debut at a New York toy fair, the world’s favourite doll has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Universal Pictures. After keeping her away from the big screen – a bubbly cameo in Toy Story 2 aside – toy manufacturer Mattel has decided to let Barbie go to Hollywood.
“The brand wasn’t ready for a movie,” Mattel told Variety. “[But] in the last 10 years, Barbie has evolved from a toy into an intellectual property… There is a flagship store in Shanghai.”
Since the 1950s, Barbie has flitted through various careers – astronaut, doctor, flight attendant, cocktail waitress – even drag car racer. She’s also managed to remain strikingly blond and forever young, both things that Universal Pictures will need to consider when they get round to casting a Hollywood starlet to step into her stilettos.
It seems likely that Katherine Heigl, Heather Graham and Anna Faris are all a little too old for the role. Likewise Alicia Silverstone and Reese Witherspoon, whose previous roles as spoofing ditzy blondes – in Clueless and Legally Blonde – may also rule them out of playing Barbie with the necessary seriousness.
So, the names being bandied around include Hilary Duff, who has already had a Barbie figure made in her likeness, Lindsay Lohan, if she’s not considered too much of a hellraiser, and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere. Then there’s Blake Lively (above right) from Gossip Girl, and Dakota Fanning, the 15-year-old who already has almost a decade’s worth of experience in Hollywood.
Universal have appointed Laurence Marks, who worked on the current Meryl Streep film Julie & Julia, as producer. Enthusing about his new project, Marks said: “Barbie may be the most popular girl in the world, and has always been a wonderfully aspirational figure, so we must do her proud.”
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