‘Barbie’ Cut a ‘Fart Opera’ From the Middle of the Movie, Says Greta Gerwig: ‘I Thought It Was Really Funny. That Was Not the Consensus’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig revealed in an interview with Hollywood First Look during her “Barbie” press tour that Timothée Chalamet visited the film’s set in London and lamented over not being able to star in the film. Gerwig directed Chalamet in both “Lady Bird” and “Little Women.” The filmmaker previously told CinemaBlend that Chalamet and her muse Saoirse Ronan were courted for cameo appearances in “Barbie” but scheduling conflicts got in the way. “I tried to get them both in it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Cillian Murphy’s decades-long collaboration with Christopher Nolan hit a new peak with “Oppenheimer,” his first leading role in a Nolan feature that has garnered him the best reviews of his career and Oscar buzz for best actor. “Oppenheimer” follows Murphy’s supporting turns in three Batman films, “Inception” and “Interstellar.” Recently asked by The Independent if there were any Christopher Nolan movies not featuring Cillian Murphy that he wished he could’ve starred in, Murphy selected the director’s 2014 space epic “Interstellar.” “I adore ‘Interstellar’ just because I find it so emotional,” Murphy said. “I remember seeing it in the cinema when I had little kids.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Tron 3” director Joachim Rønning took to Instagram to reveal that production on the Disney-backed sequel was supposed to start this week but has been shut down amid the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes. As a result, more than 150 crew members have been laid off from the movie, he revealed. The film, which is officially titled “Tron: Ares,” is set to star Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a recent interview with Rolling Stone to promote his directorial effort “Shortcomings,” actor and comedian Randall Park criticized Hollywood for taking the wrong lessons from a massive blockbuster like Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” The Margot Robbie-led comedy has earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, but Park said making more movies about toys should not be the industry’s takeaway. “I feel like, just in general, this industry is taking the wrong lessons,” Park said. “For example, ‘Barbie’ is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Candyman” filmmaker Nia DaCosta is making her superhero directorial debut with Marvel’s upcoming “The Marvels,” a sequel to “Captain Marvel” that teams Brie Larson’s eponymous superhero with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau from “WandaVision” and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan from “Ms. Marvel.” It’s been a shaky year for comic book tentpoles, with Marvel’s own “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and other films like “The Flash” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” flopping at the box office. Marvel is surely hoping “The Marvels” pans out more like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David Harbour is back in theaters this month opposite Orlando Bloom in Sony’s “Gran Turismo,” but he’s well aware the public will continue to recognize him for his role as Hopper on Netflix’s blockbuster series “Stranger Things.” With the fifth and final season of the show still left to film once the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved, Harbour told Insider that he’s fully planning on acting in films exclusively once “Stranger Things” wrapped. Harbour had a strong run as a character actor in films such as “Brokeback Mountain” and “Revolutionary Road” before his star profile exploded with the success of “Stranger Things.” His first attempt to parlay the success of “Stranger Things” into a movie career failed thanks to the box office bomb that was “Hellboy,” but he got things back on track with Marvel’s “Black Widow” and Universal’s “Violent Night,” a modestly-budgeted original action comedy that turned a profit.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Sex and the City” star Chris Noth spoke on the record for the first time to USA Today about the multiple sexual assault allegations made against him in 2021. The actor denied wrongdoing, but he admitted to cheating on his wife. “I strayed on my wife, and it’s devastating to her and not a very pretty picture,” he said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Now that “Barbie” has officially crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, speculation about a potential sequel has intensified tenfold. Greta Gerwig, who directed “Barbie” in addition to co-writing its script with Noah Baumbach, told The New York Times she has no ideas yet for a “Barbie 2.” However, she also told People magazine before the film joined the $1 billion club that she hoped her movie “is the launch of a world and a bunch of different Barbie movies.” “There’s a tone and a humor and a joy, and obviously the world is so beautiful,” Gerwig told the publication. “I want to go back to Barbie Land.” Margot Robbie was less assertive when asked about a “Barbie” sequel in pre-release interviews.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Adam Devine appeared on Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast during his press tour for Netflix’s “The Out-Laws” and shared his theory that Marvel movies and other superhero films killed the traditional Hollywood comedy. The “Workaholics” and “Pitch Perfect” alum noted that because Marvel movies rely so much on humor (see the “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchises, for instance), they ended up becoming Hollywood’s new de facto comedy films. “You watch comedies nowadays and you’re like, this is not a fucking comedy,” Devine said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig celebrated her 40th birthday just as “Barbie” was getting ready to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. The feat has made “Barbie” the first movie solo directed by a female filmmaker to cross the box office milestone.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Marc Maron finally saw Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” had nothing but raves to share in a recent TikTok video. He also blasted conservative figures who expressed outrage over the film due to its jokes aimed at men and the patriarchy. “I saw ‘Barbie’ and it was a fucking masterpiece, and I don’t throw that word around lightly,” Maron said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Nicolas Cage finally sounded off to USA Today on his brief return as Superman in Warner Bros.’ “The Flash.” The Oscar winner made a surprise cameo appearance as the Man of Steel he never got to play back in the late 1990s, although he did not say any lines. “Well, I was glad I didn’t blink,” Cage said about his brief return. “For me, it was the feeling of being actualized.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Seth Rogen is bringing the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise back to life in the upcoming animated movie “Mutant Mayhem,” which he has a story credit on and produced through his Point Grey Pictures company. During an interview with Polygon ahead of the film’s release, Rogen was ask what has kept him “turned off” from joining other movie franchises like the Marvel and DC superhero films. “Honestly, probably fear,” Rogen said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Before Christian Bale landed the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, the filmmaker screen-tested his “Oppenheimer” star Cillian Murphy. Both men have since admitted that Murphy was never a real threat to steal the part from Bale, and Murphy told GQ Magazine UK in a recent interview that it “was for the best” that Bale won the coveted role over him anyway. “Yes, I think it was for the best because we got Christian Bale’s performance, which is a stunning interpretation of that role,” Murphy said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig told The New York Times that watching her “Barbie” movie become a historic comedy blockbuster has been “so amazing.” The film debuted to a whopping $162 million, breaking the opening weekend record for a female director. It then scored $26 million on its first Monday after release, setting a new Warner Bros. in-house record for the studio’s top Monday grosser.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Cillian Murphy is the star of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” but is he ready to embrace the pink? Given the “Barbenheimer” craze that’s sweeping the nation, Murphy has naturally been asked a lot about Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” Cinéfilos even asked the “Oppenheimer” actor if he’d play a Ken in a potential sequel to Gerwig’s now historic comedy blockbuster. “Sure, yeah. Let’s read the script, let’s have a conversation,” Murphy responded about playing Ken.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The search for the perfect Barbie and Ken actors in Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking blockbuster “Barbie” fell to casting directors Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones, who recently revealed to Vanity Fair that “Saturday Night Live” Emmy nominee Bowen Yang, “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy winner Dan Levy and “Dear Evan Hansen” Tony winner Ben Platt were all in the running to land roles as different variations of Ken. “They were definitely really different, but they had to feel like a cohesive group,” Bevan said about the search for the perfect Ken ensemble. “You wanted to cast people who were really going to get on and be great and enjoy it.” “Barbie” was shot in London under strict COVID protocols, which meant every cast member was required to spend three months in the city close to production.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Cillian Murphy is earning some of the best reviews of his career for leading Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer, but no praise might be higher than this rave from co-star Robert Downey Jr.: “I have never witnessed a greater sacrifice by a lead actor in my career,” the “Iron Man” star told People magazine about Murphy’s performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer. “He knew it was going to be a behemoth ask when Chris called him,” Downey Jr. added. “But I think he also had the humility that is required to survive playing a role like this. We’d be like, ‘Hey, we got a three-day weekend. Maybe we’ll go antiquing in Santa Fe. What are you going to do?’ ‘Oh, I have to learn 30,000 words of Dutch. Have a nice time.’ But that’s the nature of the ask.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is now playing in theaters nationwide, but one if its most emotional scenes might not have made it to the big screen had the filmmaker not held her ground against studio executives. In several interviews before the comedy’s theatrical release, Gerwig revealed that it was suggested she cut out the scene where Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets an elderly woman on a bench and tells her she’s beautiful. “I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.'”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Although rumors had circulated online for several months, it wasn’t until a recent New Yorker profile that confirmation arrived regarding Greta Gerwig tackling “The Chronicles of Narnia” film adaptations for Netflix. Gerwig is reportedly attached to direct two “Narnia” movies. Gerwig confirmed on the Total Film podcast that she’s heading to Narnia after “Barbie.” “I haven’t even really started wrapping my arms around it, but I’m properly scared of it, which feels like a good place to start,” Gerwig told the Total Film podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) about entering Narnia. “I think when I’m scared, it’s always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it’ll be like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do that one.’ No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And it’s exciting.”