VARIETY – Warner Bros. and Mattel have partnered to bring Barbie to the big screen. Margot Robbie is set to portray the live-action version of the iconic doll.

“This project is a great start to our partnership with Ynon and Mattel Films,” said Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group. “And Margot is the ideal producer and actress to bring Barbie to life on screen in a fresh and relevant way for today’s audiences.”

Robbie will also co-produce the film under her LuckyChap Entertainment banner, alongside Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara from LuckyChap Entertainment.

“Playing with Barbie promotes confidence, curiosity and communication throughout a child’s journey to self-discovery. Over the brand’s almost 60 years, Barbie has empowered kids to imagine themselves in aspirational roles from a princess to president,” Robbie said. “I’m so honored to take on this role and produce a film that I believe will have a tremendously positive impact on children and audiences worldwide. I can’t imagine better partners than Warner Bros and Mattel to bring this film to the big screen.”

The Barbie adaptation marks the first announced deal to come out of Mattel’s newly-established Mattel Films, led by producer Robbie Brenner, as well as the first collaboration between Mattel Films and Warner Bros. Pictures.

“Barbie is one of the most iconic franchises in the world and we are excited to partner with Warner Bros. Pictures and Margot Robbie to bring her to life on the big screen,” said Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO of Mattel. “We look forward to building on this collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures as we tell the stories of our beloved brands. Mattel Films is on a path to demonstrate the enormous potential of our brand portfolio, as we continue to execute on our strategy of transforming Mattel into an IP-driven, high performing toy company.” (source)

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Annapurna has tapped another A-list actress for its untitled movie about the women of Fox News.

Margot Robbie is in talks to join Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman in the project that centers on the women who took on the toxic male culture of the news network and its late chief Roger Ailes.

Theron will take on the role of former host Megyn Kelly, while Kidman will portray Gretchen Carlson. Robbie will play an associate producer at the news network.

The studio, which is already making a Dick Cheney biopic with helmer Adam McKay, is financing and producing the project that was written by The Big Short scribe Charles Randolph and will be directed by Jay Roach.

Theron will produce the feature along with Beth Kono and AJ Dix via their Denver & Delilah banner. Roach, Randolph and Margaret Riley are also producing.

Ailes ran Fox News and helped launch the careers of Kelly, Carlson and Sean Hannity with his powerful channel. He also was a prominent figure in Republican circles that helped elect presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Ailes was forced to resign in 2016 when a host of accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced, with Carlson’s and Kelly’s the most high-profile, and which contributed to his exit from the network.

The untitled project is described as an ensemble pic, with Ailes and others who were involved at Fox News during his reign said to be major players in the piece. Characters included are likely to be Carlson, former anchor Greta Van Susteren, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and fired host Bill O’Reilly.

Robbie is coming off an Oscar nomination for her performance as Tonya Harding in I,Tonya, and will next be seen in another awards-season contender, Mary Queen of Scots. (source)

STUFF – I, Tonya star Margot Robbie has confirmed she will play late actor Sharon Tate in the upcoming film by Quentin Tarantino.

Speaking to Stuff in Sydney ahead of the Peter Rabbit premiere on Saturday, Robbie confirmed she would play the actress who was brutally killed by Charles Manson’s associates on August 9, 1969.

Robbie said she was very excited to star in Tarantino’s ninth film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

“So yes, I will need to start researching,” she said.

Tarantino’s film has so far been shrouded in secrecy but Variety has confirmed that Leonardo DiCaprio will also star in the film.

[…]

Tate and four friends were found dead August 9, 1969. Manson ordered his followers to visit the house where the pregnant Tate was staying in Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles with Steve Parent, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger.

Tate was eight and a half months pregnant with director Roman Polanski’s baby. (source)

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – As if Oscar day wasn’t big enough for Aussie actress Margot Robbie, who was attending the show as a nominee for Best Actress for her starring role in I, Toyna, on top of that immense honor, Chanel announced on the same day she has become an ambassador for the iconic French fashion house.

To begin their partnership, the first-time nominee is expected to wear (she wore) a custom Chanel Haute Couture dress made by Karl Lagerfeld himself. The actress’ stylist Kate Young said on Saturday that she wanted Robbie’s look for the Oscars to highlight her youth and be “very cool and representative of her as a person.”

The intricate gown took more than 550 hours of work, according to Chanel, and is worn with Chanel Fine Jewelry as well as Chanel makeup. Said Young, “Sometimes evening gowns for the Oscars can be aging, in a way, with heavy embroidery or heavy jewelry. The embroidery on this dress is really modern and interesting.”

She also hinted that Robbie’s wearing diamonds for the occasion, “because I love the energy into big stones.” Wearing large stones, she added, can make one “look like the Queen of England in a hot second, so part of it was finding diamonds that felt cool and authentic.” (source)

DEADLINE – Bold Films will finance the Margot Robbie project Dangerous Odds in which the I, Tonya Best Actress Oscar nominee will play cleaning lady-turned-illegal sports betting empire boss Marisa Lankester. The project was picked up in turnaround from Warner Bros., where Robbie’s production company LuckyChap Entertainment has a first-look deal.

The project is based on Lankester’s memoir Dangerous Odds: My Secret Life Inside an Illegal Billion-Dollar Sports Betting Operation, which originally was won by Warner Bros. in a January 2015 auction as exclusively reported by Deadline. LuckyChap and Entertainment 360, the production arm of Management 360, will produce with Bold, and the feature is based on a script by Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton).

Lankester’s rags-to-riches tale is set during the 1980s as she rises through the ranks and takes on a pivotal role establishing the first offshore gambling operation, growing it into a billion-dollar-a-year criminal empire.

Said Bold Films Chairman Michel Litvak: “We are incredibly excited to work with Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie at this momentous time in her career. She will do an amazing job bring this thrilling true story and fascinating character to life.”

Added Bold Films CEO Gary Michael Walters, who is serving as EP with Svetlana Metkina: “It’s a great character; it’s a female Scarface in the rise of this great criminal operation under the leadership of a very savvy woman. Margot Robbie is an extraordinary actress and couldn’t be hotter right now. She is so versatile and strong with comedy, drama and action — she really is the full package, and that’s rare. She’s built up a great production company with LuckyChap.”

These type of independent films in the budget range of $25M-$35M are Bold’s sweet spot, and there’s a strong appetite for such fare in the current indie marketplace. Robbie’s film canon has reaped close to $1.9 billion at the global box office.

“We are building LuckyChap off of a passion to tell female-driven stories that feel original, unique and rebellious in nature,” LuckyChap Entertainment said. “We found all of this in Marisa’s story and couldn’t be more excited to partner with Bold Films and 360 to bring Dangerous Odds to the screen.” (source)

I, Tonya, Margot and Allison Janney are nominated at the Film Independent Spirit Award. Congratulation to the cast and crew! Wishing you all good luck!

BEST EDITING

Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie
Good Time

Walter Fasano
Call Me by Your Name

Alex O’Flinn
The Rider

Gregory Plotkin
Get Out

Tatiana S. Riegel
I, Tonya

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Salma Hayek
Beatriz at Dinner

Frances McDormand
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Margot Robbie
I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan
Lady Bird

Shinobu Terajima
Oh Lucy!

Regina Williams
Life and nothing more

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Holly Hunter
The Big Sick

Allison Janney
I, Tonya

Laurie Metcalf
Lady Bird

Lois Smith
Marjorie Prime

Taliah Lennice Webster
Good Time

VARIETY – Universal Pictures has optioned the rights “The Paper Bag Princess” and sees the bestselling children’s book as a possible directing vehicle for Elizabeth Banks, Variety has learned. Margot Robbie (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), who is producing the project with Banks, may appear in the film. Katie Silberman (“Set It Up”) is attached to write the screenplay.

Bidding on the project was heated, with Warner Bros. also circling the film, according to sources. The book is written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko.

It centers on a princess whose castle and the royal wardrobe it houses are destroyed by a dragon on the eve of her wedding. Her fiancee is also captured. Wearing nothing more than a paper bag, the princess gives chase. The book has a strong feminist strain, upending the old damsel in distress cliches. Since its publication in 1980, “The Paper Bag Princess” has been reprinted 90 times and sold more than 10 million copies.

It makes sense that Banks would opt for Universal. The studio is home to her Brownstone Productions and has backed the “Pitch Perfect” series, which the actress helped launch. Banks will produce the new film for Brownstone with Max Handelman. Other producers on the family-friendly picture include Robbie and Tom Ackerley, who will back the project through their label LuckyChap Entertainment. Bryan Unkeless from Clubhouse Pictures and Dan Krech are also listed as producers.

Brownstone is backing the third installment in the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, which hits theaters on Dec. 22. LuckyChap releases “I, Tonya,” starring Robbie, on Dec. 8. “The Paper Bag Princess” with its strong heroine also sounds like a match for Brownstone and Banks, both of whom are backing female driven films and shows, such as the upcoming “Charlie’s Angels” reboot with Kristen Stewart attached as one of the crime fighters.

Universal Vice President of Production Sara Scott will oversee the project for the studio. (source)

ELLE – Before being honored at the ELLE Women in Hollywood celebration, Margot Robbie watched a Hollywood classic, The Breakfast Club, and found herself inspired by the on-screen high schoolers’ assignment to write a 1000-word essay on “who you think you are.” So in lieu of a traditional speech, she wrote that essay—to Hollywood.

Read her letter below:

Dear Hollywood,

We accept that we had to sacrifice a whole week standing our ground and defending our rights as women. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are when you still see as you want to see us: in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions.

Being a woman in Hollywood means you will probably have to fight through degrading situations and will be offered chauvinistic roles by men who think that that’s all anybody wants to see us play. But even those of us lucky enough to have established a career in the hallowed grounds of show business are still in the shadows of the big trees, constantly reminded that we only grow in the sunshine they allow us. These difficulties we face are to share the same spirit of those faced by countless women all over the world who struggle for the right to earn a living, the right to be heard, and even the right to be safe from harm.

In recent years, superhero films have been all the rage, and I should know as I have benefitted from the trend. I only wish we could transfer a little bit of that heroism into reality. That those heroes we admire in movies would defend us against the villains in government, in the workplace, in the entertainment industry, and even in the most basic human interactions. There are women in and out of Hollywood that have proven this week that they are those real heroes. Their bravery and courage to speak truth to power has made a powerful impact that can be the start of real change. It is our decision, and those of us that have a platform can choose to use it for those in the world who do not. Which means that, we can not only highlight the painful inequities, but we can continue to speak out as long as they exist. And we can keep drawing attention to injustice wherever we find it and to use our talents and intellects and privilege to help a new chapter of women, a chapter for all of us.

So thinking about being a woman in Hollywood reminded me that when you take away Hollywood, we are all just women, all facing the inequalities that being a women brings with it. And, what I’ve come to understand is that, though we are unique and powerful as individuals, we are invincible when we come together. So, some may have seen us as objects and other individuals, but never as equals. But, in the words of The Breakfast Club, each one of us is a brain and an athlete and a basket case and a princess and a criminal. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours, The Girls Club.

(source)

Today is the beautiful and talented Margot Robbie’s 27th birthday! On behalf of Marvelous Margot, we wanted to wish you a very happy birthday Margot! We are all wishing you another year of happiness, success, joy, health, and love. We hope you get to spend it with all your family and friends! Have a wonderful day!

Tweet all your birthday wishes to @MargotRobbie!

VARIETY – Josie Rourke is directing the film. Working Title’s Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Deborah Hayward are producing.

“House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon is writing an original script based on a book by John Guy titled “The True Life of Mary Stuart.” “Mary” has yet to be greenlit, but sources say things are headed in the right direction. If greenlit, the film would likely go sometime later this year. Ronan will play the title role of Mary.

Following the success of big hits like “Suicide Squad” and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” this latest role gives the Australian-born Robbie a prestige part to add to her portfolio. It could also have awards season potential given Focus’ track record of pushing Oscar campaigns for its releases.

Robbie, 26, is currently starring in Fox Searchlight’s “Goodbye Christopher Robin,” where she plays the wife of “Winnie the Pooh” author A.A. Milne. She recently wrapped production on “I, Tonya” starring as the title character Tonya Harding in a film she also produced under her Lucky Chap Entertainment banner. (source)