While the doll herself (itself?) is already the subject of a film in development via Mattel and Sony, Reese Witherspoon is producing and may star in an origin story for Barbie called Barbie And Ruth.
Don’t go expecting some weirdly retconned story of Barbie’s secret alien origins; this is aiming to be more along the lines of a biopic about Ruth Handler, the woman who came up with the idea for the toy in the first place. Bold Films has bought up the rights to Robin Gerber’s book Barbie And Ruth: The Story Of The World’s Most Famous Doll And The Woman Who Created Her, and the team has joined forces with Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea’s Pacific Standard company to develop the film for the actress to star in.
“Ruth Handler’s inspiring true story reveals the triumphs and struggles of the genius businesswoman behind the creation of Barbie, the most iconic doll in the world,” says Bold chairman Michel Litvak in a statement. It’s just the latest addition to Witherspoon’s growing list of producing projects, which currently includes live-action Tinkerbell story Tink and supernatural thriller Cold.
As for the Barbie movie, that’s still chugging away at Sony with Diablo Cody the most recent name attached to work on the script.