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Hot off the success of the Barbie movie, Mattel and Warner Bros. are releasing the official Barbie movie screenplay, as written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Published by Faber & Faber, the Barbie screenplay is now available as a paperback book that features an exclusive introduction from Gerwig and Baumbach, and eight pages of full-color photos from the film, in addition to the full movie script.

The 138-page book is out now, and you can order a copy of it on Amazon now for $17 — a 10% discount off the listed price of $19.95.

Gerwig and Baumbach were first announced as co-writers for the Barbie film in 2020, with Gerwig also taking on a directorial role. In this excerpt from the screenplay release, shared exclusively with THR, the two talk about the “journey” of bringing Barbie to life and how the cast and studio came together to make movie magic.

The journey of “Barbie” has been unlikely from the beginning and, in the end, all the more joyful for it.

In 2019 Margot Robbie approached us about writing the script, and one of us (Noah) was deeply unsure about the whole endeavor. BARBIE?! REALLY?! But another one of us (Greta) had a feeling that the whole concept was so strange and so complex that it could potentially be interesting. This combination of curiosity and doubt turned out to be excellent ingredients for what became the most fun writing experience of our careers.

When we first started tinkering, building a few moments here, a few characters there, it was slow going. It was the pandemic. It was difficult to imagine making movies again and the beautiful communal experience of moviegoing felt like a thing of the past. We wanted to write something that would conjure up the lost world we loved. But also something that reflected the madness of the reality we all found ourselves in. Ultimately, after many digressions, we thought: If no one is ever going to see this movie, let’s go for broke.

We really starting making each other laugh. We talked about it all the time. “How does Barbie get into her car?” “What would Ken make of our world?” On walks, at dinner, making coffee. It became a way to entertain each other, to organize our minds, to give each other hope. Suddenly it was the thing that gave our lives shape. The script became our grown up way of playing with dolls and was also a portal into a future world where we were all once again part of the community of moviegoing, laughing and crying and dancing together.

When it was finished, we were both in love with it. It made us happy just that a piece of writing like this existed. We were proud of it, but doubtful that anyone would be mad enough to make it.

And then, miracle of miracles, we gave it to our collaborators (Tom, Margot, David) and after that our decision makers (Mattel and Warner Brothers) and although there were plenty of questions, (“Does a Mattel executive have to get shot on page 102?”), there was a real enthusiasm to make the movie.

We took every yes we got and ran. We drove it like we stole it. We are so grateful that it is in the world.

– Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach

You can order the official Barbie screenplay on paperback here. You can buy or rent the movie, meantime, on Amazon.com.

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