Lena Dunham Is No Longer Writing and Directing the Polly Pocket Movie
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Regardless of whether or not Barbie gets a sequel, the Mattel Cinematic Universe will continue to expand. The next doll-to-screen adaptation? Polly Pocket.
Under the bright pink haze of Barbiemania, you might not have realized that a film on the tiny toy has already been in the works since 2021, with Lily Collins (Emily in Paris) attached to star. And with 45 Mattel movies reportedly planned, this likely won’t be the last time we see one of our childhood playthings on the big screen.
Here’s what we know about the Polly Pocket movie so far.
What will it be about?
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie tackled the impossible expectations placed upon women, the relationship between mothers and daughters, patriarchy, and the complexity of the human experience (yes, really!). Daniel Kaluuya’s Barney film, also based on Mattel IP, will be a “surrealistic” take on the purple dinosaur. What kind of spin can we expect with these dolls? Now that the film doesn’t have a writer or director, we’ll have to keep waiting to find out.
Why did Lena Dunham step away from the project?
Initially, Girls creator Lena Dunham was set to write and direct the Polly Pocket movie. When it was announced in 2021, Variety reported the basics, saying that the film “will center on a young girl and a pocket-sized woman who form a friendship.” Dunham also hinted that she was aiming for a “smart playful” film that speaks to young women “without condescension.” She told the outlet in a statement:
“Polly Pocket was responsible for countless hours of childhood escapism for me–Polly gave me a tiny world of magic and autonomy to narrate, so it’s pretty poetic to be tackling these same ideas now as a director collaborating with the brilliant Lily Collins, Robbie Brenner, Mattel and MGM. I’m so thrilled to bring to bear both my love of this historic property and also my deep-seated belief that young women need smart playful films that speak to them without condescension.”
In October 2022, when Dunham was finishing up the second draft of the script, she shared some more hints with The Hollywood Reporter: “We have a lot of fun with the idea of what happens when a small person encounters a big world.”
She added that Collins’ Polly would be really small in the film, as in “the original teensy tiny ’90s size...they made her a little bigger now, which I support, because of choking hazards. But I’m writing ’90s tiny.”
However, in July 2024, Dunham revealed to The New Yorker that she is no longer working on Mattel’s Polly Pocket film.
“I’m going to tell you something here that I haven’t told anyone: I’m not going to make the Polly Pocket movie,” she admitted, adding, “I wrote a script, and I was working on it for three years.”
She shared how she finds it important to create meaningful art that is authentic and true to herself.
“I remember someone once said to me about Nancy Meyers: the thing that’s the most amazing about her is that the movie she makes or the movie she would be making with or without a studio, with or without notes—that somehow her taste manages to intersect perfectly with what the world wants,” she explained. “What a fucking gift that is. Nora Ephron, too, who was such a mentor to me, but always said, ‘Go be weird. Don’t kowtow to anyone.’”
Dunham added that what Gerwig was able to do with Barbie felt uniquely her. Dunham would have to feel the same way about the Polly Pocket film if she were to make it.
“And I think Greta [Gerwig] managed this incredible feat [with Barbie], which was to make this thing that was literally candy to so many different kinds of people and was perfectly and divinely Greta. And I just—I felt like, unless I can do it that way, I’m not going to do it,” she told the publication. “I don’t think I have that in me. I feel like the next movie I make needs to feel like a movie that I absolutely have to make. No one but me could make it. And I did think other people could make Polly Pocket.”
With Dunham’s departure from the project, it’s unknown if the movie will take a different direction than what she initially created.
Who’s in the cast?
Collins is the only actor attached to the film so far, and she will also produce.
“As a child who was obsessed with Polly Pocket, this is a real dream come true and I can’t wait to bring these tiny toys to the big screen,” she told Variety in 2021.
Other producers include: Robbie Brenner and Kevin McKeon of Mattel Films, Sandino Moya-Smith and Winnie Carrillo of MGM, and Liz Watson and Michael P. Cohen of Dunham’s company Good Thing Going, who are executive producers.
When will it be released?
That’s still unclear. There’s no word yet on when filming will commence. As of July 2023, the film had a script, Mattel Films producer Robbie Brenner told Variety. But with Dunham stepping away from the project, it’s likely back to the writing board.
This story will be updated.
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