Like it or not, Barbie is one of Hollywood’s success stories, having an impact on the entire film industry for years, and perhaps the most important figure behind it is Margot Robbie, its star, who also produced the film through her company LuckyChap Entertainment. Her next mission? EA Maxis recreates this magic with The Sims series.
Even before it grossed $1.44 billion worldwide (becoming Warner Bros.’s highest-grossing film of all time), won over critics and audiences, and won an Oscar, the film had already set off a revolution at Mattel, from IP to Movie craze. It also has co-writer-director Greta Gerwig embarking on another huge project: a new Chronicles of Narnia movie for Netflix.
Manage cookie settings
Now, Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider has dropped this fascinating news about The Sims, claiming that (busy) Rocky season 1 director Kate Herron Kate Herron will serve as writer and director of the film. Variety later confirmed Snyder’s scoop, adding that Herron will co-write the bold adaptation with Briony Redman (“The Insider”). The writing duo recently collaborated on a new episode of Doctor Who, with Herron next set to direct an episode of The Last of Us Season 2.
It’s no surprise that the idea of a live-action movie based on The Sims has been around for as long as we can remember. The long-running video game series is one of the most profitable of all time, and its mainstream appeal is unprecedented. Of course, The Sims isn’t exactly known for complex plots, as these games are basically a “create your own life and story” kind of game.
Looking at what the creative team behind Robbie and Barbie does with the Mattel IP, there could be a “meta” angle there that could work with the right scribe, so we could be exploring what it means to be an NPC character. Someone else’s game or something like that, although companies like The Lego Movie and Free Guy have already explored this with considerable success.
What we knew for sure was that we didn’t want to be behind a keyboard writing this, especially considering how passionate the series’ fanbase is.