Anne Hathaway has the title role in 2020’s Barbie film. Image: AFP/Leon Neal via AFP Relaxnews
Initially announced for June 2018, the plastic doll’s feature film now won’t be in cinemas until May 2020, one of several schedule readjustments from Sony that also includes the Claire Foy thriller “The Girl In The Spider’s Web”, the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy “Holmes and Watson”, and a feature-length debut for the director of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” music video.
Sony Pictures has announced that “Barbie” will arrive May 8, 2020, though no further details were supplied.
Originally set to debut May 2017, June 2018, and then August 2018, the live-action Barbie movie is now expected June 29, 2020.
The film is about an inhabitant of Barbieland who discovers that she doesn’t fit in and ends up traveling to our real world instead.
Anne Hathaway of Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Les Miserables” had been cast as the title character in August 2017, replacing earlier choice Amy Schumer (“Trainwreck”, “Inside Amy Schumer”).
Several writers have been attached to the project, including Diablo Cody of “Juno” and “One Mississippi” and Hilary Winston of “The Lego Ninjago Movie”.
Australian director Alethea Jones, who turned heads as director of short film “Lemonade Stand” and TV series “Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street”, was announced as the Barbie movie’s helmer as Hathaway joined. She most recently directed the R-rated comedy “Fun Mom Dinner”.
The new Barbie date was the biggest adjustment coming out of a Sony Pictures calendar reshuffle.
Music video man Director X., who was in the chair for Drake’s “Hotline Bling”, Rihanna’s “Work”, Bebe Rexha’s “The Way I Are” and Zayn’s “Like I Would” makes his feature film debut with 2018’s June 15 reboot of “Superfly”.
“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” starring Claire Foy and based on the fourth “Millennium” novel, goes from October to November 2018. Horror film “Slender Man” is coming August rather than May, while “Cadaver” has slipped off the calendar entirely, the August horror now TBD.
Detective comedy “Holmes and Watson” with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly teaming up again after “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers,” goes from November to a Christmas week release. Director Etan Cohen returns from Ferrell’s “Get Hard,” which was his feature-length debut.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who were on board for much of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” until Ron Howard replaced them, are producing an animated feature for February 2020. JB
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