Barbie and Ken said “hiya” to Las Vegas.
Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the Oscar-nominated director and star of “Barbie,” were on hand at CinemaCon, the annual exhibition trade show currently underway at Caesar’s Palace, to talk up the neon-coated movie that’s ignited the internet and launched a thousand memes.
Robbie called the set of “Barbie” a “dopamine hit.” She called the chance to play the plastic doll a “huge and exciting opportunity — and a rare one. Everyone knows Barbie, and she’s never been on the big screen.”
Gosling admitted he was apprehensive to take on the gravitas of such a famous figure. “Up until this point, I only knew Ken from afar. I didn’t know Ken from within,” he said. “I doubted my Kenergy.”
Gerwig talked about writing the screenplay with her long-time partner Noah Baumbach. “We were making each other laugh and then we got to the end and we started to make each other cry. He thought it was very good and was maybe wanting to direct it,” she told the crowd at Caesars Palace. “And I said, ‘Step aside.’ There was a point I was so in love with it that I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it.”
Though “Barbie” is inescapable online, there’s plenty of mystery about the movie. Though, in a treat to cinephiles everywhere, the first teaser parodied Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey” — meaning the film may not be suited for children who actually play with the toy. The fantasy-comedy follows the world’s most famous doll, who sets off for the human world to find true happiness after being expelled from Barbieland for being less than perfect.
Just about every A-lister on the planet stars in “Barbie,” whose cast includes but is not limited to Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Helen Mirren and Will Ferrell.
“Barbie” is slated to open in theaters on July 21, the same day as director Christopher Nolan’s equally star-studded blockbuster “Oppenheimer.”
Warner Bros. brought its expansive slate to CinemaCon, including previews of “Dune II,” the Timothee Chalamet-led musical “Wonka” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
Earlier in Tuesday morning’s presentation, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav praised the collaborative relationship between studios and cinemas. “We tell the stories. You bring in the people — and it becomes magic.”