Even though she made her career on stand-up and sketch comedy about how being plastic is in no way fantastic, Amy Schumer is now set to become a real-life Barbie girl. She’s in talks to play the lead in Sony’s upcoming live-action Barbie movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which the trade publication says “will try to take a contemporary spin on beauty, feminism and identity.” The use of “try” in that sentence is passive-aggressive as fuck, but Schumer’s casting indicates that maybe Sony is serious about this whole “subverting the Barbie paradigm” thing, given her reputation as a foul-mouthed feminist rabble rouser.
Schumer and her writing partner/sister—who are also working together on Mother/Daughter, Schumer’s upcoming comedy with Goldie Hawn—are taking a third pass at the script, which was originally written by Sex And The City writer Jenny Bicks before receiving a rewrite from Diablo Cody last year. The concept sounds reminiscent of the “be yourself” message in films like The Lego Movie, but behind the wheel of a bubblegum-pink convertible; as THR puts it, “[the story] begins in a perfect land of Barbies where one woman slowly awakens to the fact that she doesn’t fit it. She is expelled from the idealistic land and journeys to the real world, where she discovers that being unique is an asset. That’s a complete 180-degree turn from the “Barbie-as-Mary Poppins” idea that was floated last year, but Barbie’s career options have always been flexible, even if her limbs aren’t.
Sony is also reportedly looking to hire a female director for the movie, which is scheduled for summer 2018.