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Margot Robbie reveals live-action Barbie director

It's the first time they've been publicly acknowledged

Margot Robbie has inadvertently announced who’s directing the upcoming live-action Barbie movie. Greta Gerwig, who made Little Women and Lady Bird, is officially signed on to direct, according to comments from Robbie.

In a recent profile from Vogue, Robbie was asked about the challenges of adapting Mattel’s mainstay doll came up. Explaining that there’s some big expectations, she namedrops Gerwig as the director. “Right, it comes with a lot of baggage!” she said. “And a lot of nostalgic connections. But with that comes a lot of exciting ways to attack it. People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’ and then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t…’”

Gerwig and husband Noah Baumbach were revealed as co-writers for the romance movie back in July 2019. At that point, it was reported that Gerwig was merely in talks to direct – seems the discussions went well. She wrote and directed her last two movies, 2017’s Lady Bird and 2019’s Little Women, and both garnered multiple Academy Award nominations, including contention for Best Picture.

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The Barbie flick is being co-produced by Robbie through her LuckyChap Entertainment production company. In the more immediate future, he’s reprising her role as Harley Quinn for the DCEU movie The Suicide Squad, which is out in theatres this month. The James Gunn-directed action movie features the disorderly team sent on yet another mission with next to zero chance of survival. Her costars include Jai Courtney, Idris Elba, and John Cena.

No release window is yet available for Barbie, but The Suicide Squad is in theatres July 30. Here’s the best adventure movies to get the heartrate pounding while we wait.