Horror-Comedy Film About the Magic 8 Ball Could Walk ‘the Line’ Between PG-13 and R-Rating, Says Mattel

If you thought Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach co-writing a screenplay about a Barbie doll having an existential crisis in her all-too-perfect and vibrant world was a little kooky, Mattel may be pulling even bigger swings for their movie lineup. The Fisher-Price and Polly Pocket makers may be enlisting none other than Jimmy Warden, the screenwriter for Cocaine Bear, to helm an on-screen horror-comedy adaptation of their iconic Magic 8 Ball fortune-telling and advice-giving toys.

The playtime megalith told The New Yorker in an interview that it is determined to be seen as a pop culture company, and that evolution will continue to transpire far beyond the Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, which hits theaters this month. Mattel has 13 announced live-action films based on its intellectual property (and 45 others in the development pipeline).

Details for the forthcoming Barney, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Big Jim, Chatty Cathy and Betsy Wetsy, Christmas Balloon, Magic 8 Ball, Major Matt Mason, Matchbox, Polly Pocket, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Thomas & Friends, Uno, View-Master and Wishbone movies have mostly been kept tightly under wraps.

However, The New Yorker interview did reveal a couple of interesting tidbits about Mattel's entertainment slate: Barney starring Daniel Kaluuya is said to be a daring and artistic "A24-type" film; Lena Dunham is still attached to helm Polly Pocket; Mattel's American Girl movie might resemble Booksmart and Bill & Ted; Tom Hanks is in talks to lead Major Matt Mason; Margot Robbie was attracted to the titular role of Barbie because it reminded her of Tonya Harding's reputation; and a flick about Mattel's niche anthropomorphized toilet toys, Pooparoos, might be inevitable.

As far as the Magic 8 Ball movie, which was announced in 2019 and was set to be produced by Blumhouse (until Jason Blum's haunted banner was dropped by the plaything manufacturer in 2022), it may toe the line between a PG-13 and a hard R-rating. While Mattel Films boss Robbie Brenner promised The New Yorker that they wouldn't be making any movies that would bar anyone under the age of 17 from watching it in theaters, Warden's Magic 8 Ball script "walks the line a little bit."

"We're not going to make anything that feels violent, or that is alienating to families... We want to stay within the parameters of what Mattel is," she added.

It is unclear when most of Mattel's films — both publicly announced and under development — are slated to make it to theaters. Only Barbie has a firm release date (going wide in theaters on July 21), while the rest are still to be announced.