Reese Witherspoon teaming up with Build-A-Bear for a Goldilocks And The Three Bears movie

In Hollywood’s latest fascinating “chicken or the egg” scenario, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company has announced that it’s working with Build-A-Bear Entertainment to develop a “reimagination” of Goldilocks And The Three Bears. That raises a key question: Do you decide to make a Goldilocks movie and then team up with Build-A-Bear, a famously bear-related brand, to make it? Or do you team up with Build-A-Bear and then look for a bear-related project you can work on together?

The world will never know, because even after reading this Hollywood Reporter story about the news, it’s still not totally clear. Claire Curley, Hello Sunshine’s head of kids and animation, noted that Build-A-Bear “has created a trusted fanbase rooted in family, personal connection, and storytelling with teddy bears, making them the perfect partner for this project.” Build-A-Bear’s president-CEO Sharon Price John, meanwhile, said that they’re “thrilled to partner with Hello Sunshine and Reese Witherspoon” because she “has consistently proven her ability to bring talented people together and bring out the best in them.”

However it came about, this isn’t going to be some tired, old Goldilocks story like every other Goldilocks story. That’s because this will be a “modern take on the classic tale that leans into the title character as a powerful female protagonist.” Sorry, isn’t Goldilocks the bad guy in the story? She breaks into the bears’ house, eats their porridge, and sleeps in their beds, and then the bears come back and chase her off. It’s fun for kids because Goldilocks is doing bad things and then she gets in trouble. Hell, shouldn’t Build-A-Bear be invested in making the bears the heroes anyway? So kids will want to go build a bear at the local Build-A-Bear?

That seems like evidence in favor of somebody having the idea first and then seeking out the various partners, which is the more fanciful way of imagining this anyway. Either way, now it’s just a matter of picking out the right skin for the movie, hooking it up to a machine to fill it up with fluff, and then sticking a little heart inside. And that’s how a movie is born!