In back of “Barbie”, the highest-grossing film of 2023, there is another phenomenon that includes its protagonist, Margot Robbieand beyond the controversy over the exclusion of the actress in the Oscar shortlist for Best Actress, the incarnation of the Mattel doll is also a producer of the film, a path that began in partnership with the screenwriter of Birds of Prey, Christina Hodson.
“We didn’t create the production company to be a vehicle just for me, a platform to pursue my dreams,” Robbie warned The Hollywood Reporter last year. “We really wanted to expand what female stories and storytellers could do in this industry, and I don’t need to be on screen for that to happen,” he noted. “Is a platform to open some doors for filmmakers first-timers who would have difficulty getting their projects off the ground,” she added, showing that she enjoys her role as a mentor.
In 2019, LuckyChap Entertainment, her company, opened a screenwriting lab for women; a year later, five of the six participants had sold a feature film project; the sixth sold a television series.
And Robbie is not the only star who heads his own production company today: the multifaceted Jennifer Lopez announced last week that it will bring “Bob the Builder” to the big screen, another Mattel character (like Thomas & Friends) that debuted 25 years ago with an animated series on the BBC between 1999 and 2011. The plot of the film will have a Latin twist: it will see Roberto, the cheerful construction worker, travel to Puerto Rico for an important construction job, where he “addresses the issues affecting the island and delves into what it means to build.”
Direct or produce
An old cliché hollywood ensures that what actors really want to do is direct. But today, what several dozen actresses really want to do is produce. What began as a slow process in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the production companies of Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek and Charlize Theron, has accelerated into a torrent of famous production companies creating films and series television under its own factories.
Regina King, Scarlett Johansson, Octavia Spencer, Jennifer Garner, Amy Adams and Kerry Washington are just a few of the stars whose companies are pushing a kaleidoscopic variety of roles and roles that might not otherwise exist for women.
“I spent my career being the only girl in the all-boy cast. Until I got tired of pretending to be naive, and now I do interesting things with other women, both on and off screen,” she explained. Elizabeth Banks, leader of the production company Brownstone Productions, responsible for the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, “Charlie’s Angels2” and “Cocaine Bear”. “When we started, people in the industry gave us a condescending pat on the head,” said Michelle Purple, co-founder of Iron Ocean with Jessica Biel, the production company that has been in operation since 2006 and facilitated the arrival of “Hole in the Paper” in theaters. Sky,” “The Tall Man” and “The Book of Love.”
Leading
In the same line, Amy Adams founded Bond Group Entertainment in 019 with Stacy O’Neil, focused on elevating female creatives. Her next project certainly fits that premise: the film “Nightbitch,” starring Adams and written and directed by Marielle Heller, based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder, a magical-realist feminist allegory about a housewife who falls into transforms into a dog. And Bond also has other projects in development, including a film adapted from the memoir “Finding the Mother Tree,” a limited series inspired by a true story, about three women connected in a class-action lawsuit against Walmart.
Margot Robbie with LuckyChap is behind “Boston Strangler,” starring Keira Knightley, about a reporter tracking down a serial killer in 1960s Boston. Reese witherspoonthrough her production company Hello Sunshine, participated in two of the celebrated series of 2023: “Daisy Jones & the Six”, an Amazon Prime Video adaptation of the successful novel of the same name, and “Tiny Beautiful Things from Hulu”,And Nicole Kidmanwho produced “Big Little Lies” with Witherspoon, is the creator with his production company Blossom Films of “Love and Death”, the miniseries starring Elizabeth Olsen that shined last year on HBO Max, and “The Expatriates”, which recently premiered on Amazon.
One more? Amy Pöhler and her Paper Kite power plant They have been creating quality programming with “Broad City”, “Difficult People”, “Russian Doll” and also some successful reality shows.
streaming
The platforms played an important role in opening more decision-making places in the film and television industry, both because there was a lot of competition for content and that increased demand, and because the data showed them that there were audiences for a range much broader range of programs.
“In many cases, it is women who hold the remote control,” notes Lauren Neustadter, producing partner of Reese Witherspoon in Hello Sunshine. And she sees HBO’s success of “Big Little Lies” as a turning point: “A show that women were really excited to watch but that men also loved, so I think that opened the door in terms of show what was possible.” And #MeToo may also have accelerated actresses’ desire to have more control over their careers. “
I think when the movement started MeToomany actresses coincided and built something truly unique,” confirmed Pilar Savone of Simpson Street Productions, the Washington production company. “From there, friendships were born and there began to be a productive collaboration that allowed countless projects to emerge,” she added. Washington and Witherspoon, who worked together on the series “Little Fires Everywhere,” have combined with Octavia Spencer’s production company, Orit Entertainment, for a new, still-secret project, while Biel’s production company is working with Renée Zellweger’s company.
Programmers
Regina King She created her company Royal Ties with her sister Reina to create a workspace that “had something to say about the times we live in.” And in 2023 they gave a lot: “Shirley”, the Netflix biographical film, and “A Man in Full”, the series based on the book by Tom Wolfe that King also directed and produced for Netflix, with which he has a contract to feed frequently to the platform.
In this sense, the actresses behind this phenomenon recognize that the assumption among many Hollywood references is that they were only going to be linked to these name production companies. “After a few months, everyone realizes that I am actually a producer. But still, people direct all money questions to my partners, never to me. And a lot of times Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara have to say, ‘Actually, she’s the one you should ask,’” Margot Robbie told Vanity Fair.
“They are often happy when they realize that we are actually rolling up our sleeves and participating,” he adds. Elizabeth Banks. “And he’s like, ‘Oh my God, I guess you’re really the producer!’ It’s a bit embarrassing that he’s still surprised,” she adds.
Kaley Cuoco She also felt underappreciated when she produced the mystery series “The Flight Attendant” with Hello. “Everyone believed that I had to create a project for myself after The BigBang Theory. And they were surprised when the series was well received. And again when I add other projects,” says the actress, who is now producing a biographical series about Doris Day. And there are dozens more who join the change of era in Hollywood, with Jodie Foster, Queen Latifah and Alicia Silverstone creating successful production teams.
by RN
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