NEWS

Barbie has appeared in plenty of straight-to-DVD CGI animated movies in the past few years, however now she’s stepping up into the live-action arena, with Sony Pictures and Mattel teaming up to make it happen, according to Variety.

Jenny Bicks has been hired to write the script, with Walter F. Parkes and Laurie McDonald producing.

The movie is on a major fast track, with the hope being to get production started by the end of this year, kicking off a potential franchise. It’s thought Mattel insisted on a quick turnaround after several previous attempts to get their properties onto the big screen got trapped in development hell.

Walter F. Parkes, Laurie McDonald and Jenny Bicks won over Mattel to secure the rights, using a pitch that finds Barbie using her personal and professional skills to improve the lives of others, somewhat like a modern-day Mary Poppins.

The story apparently allows the studio to find a young cast to play Barbie, Ken and her best friend, while putting major stars around them to play supporting characters. The hope is to create some new stars while allowing the studio to keep costs down, locking in a cast to appear in multiple features, in a similar way to what Marvel does with their superheroes.

For years there’s been talk of a new Flash Gordon movie, but it’s been trapped in development, partly because they couldn’t figure out how to make it work, and partly due to rights issues. However now THR reports that 20th Century Fox has picked up the screen rights to Flash Gordon, with Star Trek 3 writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay attached.

The studio spent more than a year trying to agree a deal to get the rights from the Hearst Corporation, which owns Flash Gordon. But now they’re ready to move forward.

George Nolfi wrote the initial draft of the screenplay, which will now be reworked by Payne and McKay. The Flash Gordon comic strip was created by Alex Raymond in 1934, becoming a classic cinema serial starring Buster Crabbe in the 30s and 40s. It was turned into a movie Flash Gordon, which quickly became a camp cult classic.

In the original comics, Yale graduate and polo player Flash Gordon was kidnapped and taken to the planet Mongo, where he does battle with Ming the Merciless alongside friends Dale Arden and Hans Zarkov. The tone of this new version is said to be similar to J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, full of “adventure and razor’s edge escapades, balanced by plenty of character work.”