Margot Robbie is doing yet another product movie
The Barbie actress' obsession with merchandise-themed films should frankly send her straight to jail without passing go
Aux News Margot Robbie
All those people who accused Greta Gerwig of selling out when she announced her Narnia films likely didn’t know that there was an even bigger Rich Uncle Pennybags lurking in the shadows of Barbie Land. Even though her character left the world of toys to become a real girl at the end of Barbie, Margot Robbie is hopping right back in with a live-action film based on Hasbro’s Monopoly—the completely fictional board game where you can land in jail for tax evasion—produced by her company, LuckyChap, in collaboration with Lionsgate.
The news was announced by Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson at Las Vegas’ CinemaCon today, during which he said that Robbie and her team “join Monopoly with a clear point of view” (via Variety). It’s not yet clear what that point of view actually is (hopefully, something other than selling Monopoly boards themed as every other dark and artsy toy movie coming out in the next few years), or whether Robbie will personally be in the film or not.
To that point, here’s a little advice from this writer: the “capitalism is awesome” movie was old and tired the minute it was invented. What the people really want is to know how a thimble came to be the size of a battleship. Or how a Scottish Terrier figured out how to pay a mortgage and build multiple hotels in Atlantic City. Also, if the movie doesn’t include at least one infuriated board flip or under-the-table “I’ll do your laundry for a month if you give me Boardwalk” deal, then it’s not a real Monopoly movie and Robbie hasn’t done her job.
But Robbie probably already knows this, because producing toy and other IP films is genuinely becoming a huge part of her career. After the runaway success of Barbie, the actor announced late last month that she was also working on a Sims movie, in addition to a film based on Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster that was announced back in 2022. At least she’ll definitely collect her 200 (million?) dollars from one of these projects.
53 Comments
“To that point, here’s a little advice from this writer: the “capitalism
is awesome” movie was old and tired the minute it was invented.”So you’ve got solid knowledge that this movie will be all about how capitalism is awesome? Just like how the Barbie movie was all about Barbie, Skipper and Ken having a great time in Barbieland, eh?
Very mean-spirited article from the same people that can’t get enough redundant superhero content.
I’ve noticed this author seems to like slinging mediocre snark.
The A.V. ClubSlinging mediocre snark (since, what, 2017?)
Barsanti got the arse, but unfortunately we’re still stuck with Mary Kate.
Not to mention the fact that Monopoly was invented to warn people about the evils of Capitalism.https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170728-monopoly-was-invented-to-demonstrate-the-evils-of-capitalismAnd:https://www.pbs.org/video/ruthless-monopolys-secret-history-wnxglj/
Yeah I was thinking of bringing that up but I thought that might be getting too far into the weeds…
So was “Wall Street,” the film. It ended with people walking out idolizing “Gordon Gecko,” the villain.
“The Godfather” was also meant to be a critique on capitalism; it inspired people to glamorize “the mob” more than ever.
I mean, it’s always been that way right? Those 1930’s Warner gangster films would have the endings warning how this lifestyle was bad but everyone still wanted to be the crook. Basically, we’re screwed.
Well if capitalism continues unfettered after this movie comes out, we’ll know who to blame.
People are confusing landlords with capitalists. They are both into money, but they are different. Monopoly (or rather “The Landlords Game”) was criticizing landlords who charge people rent on property, not capitalists who make money by owning the means of production and employing workers to run it, and who make a profit by earning more in sales than they pay out in salary and expenses.
The distinction is certainly blurred these days, since both groups are leeching the lifeblood out of society, but it’s amusing that even Adam Smith thought landlords were shit.
I mean, to an extent, any “product” movies are inherently about capitalism being awesome. I mean sure, Barbie has some kinda deep moments and ends with Barbie being a real girl, but it’s still also very much about how Barbie and her associated products are funny/fun and you should maybe buy some…
Remember when the trailer for Brexit starring Benedict Cumberbatch came out, and *everyone* on social media was baselessly confident that it was going to be Brexit propaganda
Are we crediting Barbie’s subversion of expectations with Margot Robbie’s production or with Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s writing? Because I, for one, go with the latter and that’s what’s missing from these new toy movies.
Given her run of movies in the past few years as a producer and/or actor, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Then perhaps you’d like to read Margot’s Parcheesi: The Movie treatment.
I thought they canned Barsanti?
No, they accidentally canned Sarbanti.
The plot should be that Monopoly has Jumanji’d us all without knowing and it’s why we’re in a capitalist dystopia where the New York Times is publishing op-eds about how it should be legal to sell your kidney.
As much as I have issues with capitalism, I don’t entirely have a problem with a well-regulated organ market.
Pipe down, Igor.
I have a problem where rather than fixing the economy, we just doom a class of people to selling their body parts and further sacrificing their health to grease the wheels of the nightmare machine we have running.
That’s why I said a “well-regulated” market.
First, given how the government regulates all the other markets, there’s a slim chance this one would be well-regulated.Second, even if well-regulated, the people selling organs are going to be people who need money. The people who need money most often, with few avenues to get it, are the working class and the poor. Then we’ve got a working class and poor population that’s under-paid, under-insured, under-housed AND now going around with one kidney, one lung or just part of a liver. Yet no one every suggests “hey, if the middle class was expanding and thriving, with ample, affordable healthcare, and the ability to take paid time off whenever they wanted, maybe more people would voluntarily donate organs?”
I believe lots of people suggest that and do spend time trying to concince everyone to be a donor. Just because people should do something, doesn’t mean they do. If people were getting paid for their organs, (say, for example, $10,000 or more for a kidney) you would see a shorter wait lists for people who need them. Would it be disproportionately poorer people? Probably, but the only people managing the process should be government doctors making decisions after a examining and consulting process with the donor. There would be no bargaining. The prices would be set by the government. Further, there’s no reason the estate of a person who donates should not be able to benefit financially from a donor’s election. So even if someone elects to donate at death, the estate can be compensated.
As with any government program, the possibility for exploitation exists but here there’s a lot more on the line than just some pandemic loan money. Paying people for organs is the sort of thing that only works on paper because otherwise it can’t work in an economy that more or less requires exploitation to function.
Except I don’t need to buy a movie ticket to get that kind of content. It gets provided to me every single day whether I like it or not.
Wait a minute… THIS is the Bad Place!
dirtside figured it out? dirtside?! Oh, yeah. This is a new low. This one hurts.
Well, I wouldn’t mind living somewhere with two dollar rent.
So, like, Detroit? Or backwater Mississippi?
Or like, Mississippi?
paying for the ‘from the people who brought you barbie’ tagline in the trailer. worth it!
It could actually make a pretty good movie to go the Tetris route and make it about the creation of Monopoly, especially after how much American Fiction caught on. This poor woman tries to do some viral messaging by creating a deliberately terrible, broken game to show the flaws of the capitalist system, but instead everyone somehow loves it.
Is, “NPC”, going to be a viable typecasting for actors moving forward?
Given that Monopoly evolved from a game created by a Quaker to illustrate the evils of capitalism, I would love to see an anti-capitalist monopoly game.
A version of that exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Monopoly
It’s not truly anti-capitalist, but pits monopolists against free-trade players. We got it for Christmas. I took the role-playing aspect a little too seriously and crushed my wife as a monopolist. She won’t play it with me anymore.
Cool. I actually miswrote what I meant. I meant to see a Monopoly game adaptation that was anti-capitalist.
13 comments and no one’s even trying to cast Mr. Monopoly. For shame.Give it to Paul F. Tompkins and let him cook
I just figured Margot was playing Mr. Monopoly.
Margot is playing the winner of the beauty contest in which you come second and win £50.
He’ll just try to use food metaphors in his attempts at therapy…
He’s basically been a top hat, monocle and white dye job away for years now so yeah, he’s definitely the ideal guy.
… with John Hodgman as the man-behind-the-man, feeding Paul F. Tompkins lines to make him look smarter.
I nominate Danny McBride
God, the writing on this site has gotten so fucking awful
Can’t wait to hear Ryan Gosling belting out “I’m Just Thimble”.
Seemed ridiculous until I remembered they made a movie out of Battleship with a super-hott chick in the lead, so, ok, whatever.
As long as there’s a scene where she parks in a lot with “Free Parking” and becomes obscenely rich somehow, I’m in.
Stop getting Monopoly wrong!
I get why she made alot of money off Barbie which was a huge hit after alot of flops she starred in.
Margot Robbie is funny, smart, seems like a relatable kind of a dork-nerd, and comes across as just a real caring human. Until it comes out that she sacrifices children to old Egyptian gods, I’m going to be okay with a nice person getting success.