Barbie: Read Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach's Screenplay Intro

Awards Season is upon us, which means there are many screenplays from 2023 that film fans can soon get their hands on. One such script is Barbie, which was the highest-grossing movie of 2023 and one of the frontrunners of this awards season. The movie was directed by Greta Gerwig who co-wrote the script with her partner, Noah Baumbach. A paperback book of the Barbie screenplay is being released later this month, and its 138 pages include the full script in addition to eight pages of full-color photos from the film as well as an introduction from Gerwig and Baumbach. Today, The Hollywood Reporter released the duo's intro, which you can read below... 

"The journey of Barbie has been unlikely from the beginning and, in the end, all the more joyful for it," Gerwig and Baumbach's intro begins. "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."

They continued, "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," they added. "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," the duo continued. "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," they concluded.

Barbie Producer Attributes Film's Success to a "Hunger for Originality:" 

Producer David Heyman spoke at Deadline's Contender's London event back in October and praised Barbie's originality.

"One of the reasons the film has done so well is because it's original," Heyman explained. "There's a real hunger for originality. Greta Gerwig is a singular artist, she pushes the boundaries of what's possible in the most collaborative way. The film is fun, thematically rich, and very moving. It was challenging, of course, but when we made it, there was a spirit of fun that permeated the production." 

Previously, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav gave Gerwig a shoutout during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology conference (via Yahoo!). 

"Greta Gerwig gets the most credit. She's an extraordinary genius," Zaslav said when asked what lessons Warner Bros. was taking from the film reaching number one at the box office, adding that Gerwig "worked very effectively" and "right down to the wire" with the marketing team. "Every division of this company got behind Barbie," Zaslav explained. "Every asset that we have was turned pink." He added, "When we get something we believe in, we can really drive it."

The Barbie screenplay is being released on December 26th. You can pre-order it on Amazon now.