Amazon MGM Studios is making a live-action movie based on the Bratz doll line, and Kim Kardashian is in consideration for the lead role. The news broke on Tuesday via Deadline, with insiders saying that Kardashian’s deal is not closed, but is being taken seriously. She would also produce the movie, while Charlie Polinger and Lucy McKendrick will write the script. Once the Bratz franchise was available for a movie, the bidding war was reportedly fierce, and Amazon paid heavily for the rights. Bratz are popular around the world, and as nostalgia typically runs in 20-year cycles, they’ve been seeing a surge in relevance in recent years. Still, some fans doubt that these dolls can match the blockbuster success of Barbie (2023).
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There’s no doubt that the success of the Barbie movie contributed to studios’ excitement for a Bratz adaptation. In general, movies based on popular toy brands have gotten a lot more investment since then, but it’s still unclear if this genre as a whole will pay dividends. On the surface, it seem easy to compare Bratz with Barbie, but the differences could make or break this project.
Bratz were launched in 2001, and were immediately recognizable to all as a send-up of Barbie. The dolls were more stylized, and the proportions of their bodies and features even caused some controversy, as critics worried they were too sexualized for children’s toys. They were also more fashion-forward than Barbie, depicting more pop cultural trends than she was at the time. Bratz also appealed to children at the time through collectability and sociability — there were four Bratz characters to start, along with Bratz Boyz and other characters.
Getting Kardashian is not a new idea, either. For years, commenters have compared the Kardashian sisters to the Bratz dolls, and now it sounds like Kardashian is prepared to lean into it. After years of reality TV, Kardashian has been taking on more and more scripted work in Hollywood in recent years, from the Ryan Murphy series American Horror Story and All Is Fair to the Netflix original film The Fifth Wheel.
Polinger and McKendrick have both worked in Hollywood for years, but are new to big studio features like this one. McKendrick wrote the comedy-thriller Fangs, which is now in pre-production. She will also direct it, and she produced Polinger’s first feature as a writer-director, The Plague, which was well-received when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Because the Bratz dolls had huge media library including animated series, video games, and original music, these writers may have more to work with than Greta Gerwig had for Barbie.
There’s no word yet on when a Bratz movie may premiere. In the meantime, Barbie is currently streaming on Max and Netflix.
