Lena Dunham drops out of directing Mattel film

Lena Dunham has dropped out of directing a movie in regards to the Polly Pocket dolls, saying she did not assume she might replicate what Greta Gerwig achieved with Barbie.

The actor and director informed The New Yorker: “I am not going to make the Polly Pocket film. I wrote a script, and I used to be engaged on it for 3 years.”

Dunham, who created and starred in US TV comedy Ladies, was enlisted to direct the Polly Pocket movie in 2021.

It was additionally introduced that Emily In Paris star Lily Collins would play the lead doll.

Robbie Brenner, the producer who runs toy firm Mattel’s movie division, informed Selection final yr that the script was “nice” and Dunham “is so collaborative and rolls up her sleeves and actually likes to roll round in notes and hear”.

Nevertheless, Dunham has now mentioned she would battle to place her personal private stamp on it in the best way Gerwig did with Barbie.

Barbie took $1.44bn (£1.2bn) on the field workplace, making Gerwig essentially the most profitable solo feminine director ever.

“I feel Greta did this unimaginable feat, which was to make this factor that was actually sweet to so many alternative sorts of individuals and was completely and divinely Greta,” Dunham added.

“And I simply – I felt like, except I can do it that method, I’m not going to do it.

“I don’t assume I’ve that in me.

“I really feel like the subsequent film I make must really feel like a film that I completely must make. No-one however me might make it.

“And I did assume different folks might make Polly Pocket.”

Polly Pocket is simply one of many movies Mattel has within the pipeline following Barbie’s success.

Different tasks embrace Barney, produced by Get Out actor Daniel Kaluuya, and Scorching Wheels, produced by Star Wars and Star Trek director JJ Abrams.

Regardless of Dunham’s withdrawal, a Mattel spokesperson informed The Hollywood Reporter they nonetheless hope to make the Polly Pocket movie.

Dunham is at the moment engaged on Too A lot, a Netflix sequence loosely primarily based on her life, along with her husband musician Luis Felber.

The plot follows the lead character, performed by Megan Stalter, assembly a punk musician, performed by Will Sharpe, in London after a break-up in New York.

Dunham mentioned she didn’t need to star in it herself due to the physique shaming she skilled after showing as Hannah Horvath in Ladies.

“I knew from the very starting I’d not be the star of it,” she mentioned.

“First, as a result of I had seen Meg Stalter’s work, and I used to be very impressed by her. She’s unbelievable.

“I additionally assume that I used to be not keen to have one other expertise like what I’d skilled round Ladies at this level in my life.

“Bodily, I used to be simply not up for having my physique dissected once more.

“It was a tough alternative – to not solid Meg, as a result of I knew I needed Meg – however to confess that to myself.”