Produced by Daniel Kaluuya and A24, the Barney movie is still happening, and will now be written by – and star – The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri.
Ayo Edebiri has signed a deal to write and star in A24 and Mattel’s Barney movie, reports suggest. As the star of TV’s The Bear and an emerging actor in the latest wave of young Hollywood talent, Edebiri’s creative input into this project adds to the strange levels of excitement that a Barney movie has been generating for some time now.
Here’s a story that stretches all the way back to 2019: the big screen revival of Barney, the big, purple dinosaur who was a kids’ favourite on TV, is set for a big screen revival. Ever since this story first emerged, though, something about it has felt just a little different. The involvement of Daniel Kaluuya, star of 2017’s Get Out and a creative force with excellent taste, was perhaps the first clue that the Barney film wouldn’t just be a run-of-the-mill nostalgia cash-in.
It’s one of the first projects that Kaluuya’s new production company 59% Films is to make, and the actor-producer has made some rather curious comments about the endeavour.
“Barney was a ubiquitous figure in many of our childhoods, then he disappeared into the shadows, left misunderstood,” he said.
Into the shadows? Misunderstood? Blimey, we never knew the purple dinosaur had such an interesting character arc. Kaluuya ended his statement with an equally compelling and rather enigmatic question: “We’re excited to explore this compelling modern-day hero and see if his message of ‘I love you, you love me’ can stand the test of time”, he added.
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Our interest was piqued then, but that was 2019. In 2023, Mattel, the company that owns Barney had a rather stunning success with another movie featuring one of its toys. The film was called Barbie, and you may have heard of it. It prompted Mattel to announce a raft of new toy tie-in movies, and Barney was front and centre.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, though, the movie now has boutique studio A24 attached to co-produce. What’s more, the initial outline for the project was just as weird as Kaluuya’s original statement: The film was said to be an A24-style, adult-focused, surrealist take on the material in the style of Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze.
Said Mattel Films executive, Kevin McKeon at the time: “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids. It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being 30-something, growing up with Barney – just the level of disenchantment within the generation”.
Forgive us for admitting that we never knew we’d be so excited for a Barney movie. It also looks like A24 and Mattel have really taken their time to make sure that this project is developed properly. The arrival of a celebrated young talent like Edebiri (next seen in A24’s upcoming horror, Opus) being given not only a starring role – but a key creative position feels suitably bold for a project that looks to be more audacious with every nugget of new news that arrives.
We’ll bring you more as we hear it.
Image credit: D@LY3D. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
