There’s one man standing in the way of a Margot Robbie-led Barbie sequel

Be honest, you were a little bit sceptical about whether a live-action Barbie movie would work. We all were.

But Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie proved the doubters wrong with a box office and pop cultural sensation. The stronger half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon with $US1.5 billion in takings, Barbie was the zeitgeist moment of 2023. You couldn’t look anywhere without seeing flashes of bright pink.

Hollywood being what it is, obviously there would be a sequel. Or would there?

It’s been more than three years and a deal has still not being signed between the studio, Warner Bros, and the principal creatives involved, which in addition to Gerwig and Robbie are Ryan Gosling and co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach.

There’s now a clock on it. In December, if it’s still in limbo, the screen rights revert to Mattel, and it’ll be open season.

Mattel knows the value of what a Barbie sequel could be, and it would be able to renegotiate its percentage of ticket sales with Warner Bros. But if it went to a different studio, it would have to reset the property as it wouldn’t be able to transfer certain story or character elements to a new project.

There’s one man standing in the way of getting it done: David Zaslav, the divisive boss of Warner Bros Discovery.

The New York Times first reported two weeks ago that the wheeling and dealing between Warner Bros and the creative team had been stalled for months, and according to its sources, Zaslav baulked at the potential paydays for Gerwig, Robbie, Gosling and Baumbach.

In that NYT piece, Warner Bros sources, playing damage control, denied Zaslav was the one delaying things, and pointed to the four stars, who are represented by talent agency CAA, as the hold-outs.

But today, a Variety report suggested that what the creative team is asking for is not unreasonable considering the success of the first film.

This would include a pay rise in the upfront fees as well as higher compensation in what the industry calls the back-end, which is profit participation for when movies perform well at the box office.

One source said Gosling, who was Oscar-nominated for his performance as himbo Ken, had asked for $US20 million for his upfront fee.

Gerwig and Robbie stand to make more as the two primary creative forces behind the project, the former as co-writer and director and Robbie as star and producer.

There seems to be conflicting sources in Variety’s reporting, which points to this being a war that is leveraging the PR battle as part of their deal negotiations. Once, if, the contracts are signed, everyone will be a big happy family again.

But if there’s one thing all the whispers seem to agree on, it’s that everyone, including the studio’s film chiefs, and the negotiating teams on both sides, really wants this to happen, and that the demands are worth it.

That is, except for Zaslav, who has a reputation for being a frugal spender.

It’s not a good look for the big boss, who is already on the nose with many in the industry after he engineered a takeover of Warner Bros by Discovery, the cable TV channel he was running before he emerged in the top job of the combined entity.

He had promised to create value for shareholders and immediately went on a cost-cutting spree after the merger’s completion, which included decisions that put the creative community offside. That included laying off thousands of staff and shelving finished projects such as Batgirl for a tax write-off.

Under Zaslav, Warner Bros Discovery consistently missed the revenue targets it promised during the merger transaction, and its stock price plummeted. It has only recovered after Zaslav promised to sell one of Hollywood’s last remaining major studios to tech scion David Ellison, who had recently bought Paramount.

Zaslav stands to personally make hundreds of millions from the sale to Paramount if, when it completes. That merger has been temporarily paused pending legal action from 12 state attorneys-general who have sued to block it on anti-competition grounds.

The first Barbie movie was greenlit under a former Warner Bros regime.

With only a few months left in this window, someone is going to have to blink first, or there will not be a Robbie-led Barbie 2.0.