Barbie was recently designated as an adapted screenplay by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a move that director Judd Apatow calls insulting to the film.
In a tweet this week, Apatow slammed the decision to push Greta Gerwig’s film out of the “Original Screenplay” category for the upcoming 96th Academy Awards. He called the move “insulting” to those who wrote the film and said there “was no existing material or story” to base the film on.
“It’s insulting to the writers to say they were working off of existing material,” wrote Apatow. “There was no existing material or story. There was a clear box.”
The debate of whether or not Barbie should be an original or adapted screenplay has been raging for months now following news that the film would be campaigning as an original work.
Barbie remains a polarizing topic when it comes to its screenplay designation
Last week, Variety reported that when official Oscar nominations open up on January 11, 2024, members will only be able to vote for the film’s script as an adapted work. The Writers Guild of America had originally designated the film as an original work, which it will continue to be seen as for the upcoming WGA Awards.
However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has its own classification rules and determined the film didn’t mean the criteria to be considered wholly original.
Barbie was directed by Gerwig from a screenplay she co-wrote with husband Noah Baumbach. It was produced by Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerly for LuckyChap and Mattel Films’ Robbie Brenner along with Josey McNamara and Ynon Kreiz. During its theatrical run, it earned a worldwide gross of over $1.4 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie of 2023.
