Simu Liu, the Canadian actor and stuntman best known for the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), has been cast alongside actors Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and America Ferrera for the upcoming film Barbie directed by American actor and filmmaker Greta Gerwig, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
The upcoming live-action film is based on the popular doll, Barbie and is backed by Warner Bros.
While Robbie (The Suicide Squad) will be playing the role of Barbie in the film along with Gosling (Are You Afraid of the Dark) as her boy toy Ken, the details of the roles of Liu and Ferrera are yet to be announced.
The film has reportedly been under work since 2019 and is expected to go on floors in early 2022 at the Warner Bros. Leavesden studio in London. Barbie is slated to have a theatrical release sometime in 2023.
Gerwig, who directed the award-winning film Little Women (2019) has appeared in films like Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress (2011), Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love (2012), Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan (2015), among several others.
For Barbie, Gerwig will be directing from a script she co-wrote with her partner Noah Baumbach. The duo has previously collaborated multiple times together for films including Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), Nights and Weekends (2008), Greenberg (2010), Frances Ha (2012), and Mistress America (2015).
However, the details of the plot of the upcoming film have been kept under wraps.
Recommended
Robbie will also co-produce the film through her production house LuckyChap Entertainment along with Tom Ackerley, alongside Robbie Brenner for Mattel Films and David Heyman, with LuckyChap’s Josey McNamara and Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz executive producing.
Recently, Liu, the Harbin-born actor who immigrated to Canada when he was five, announced that he has a written a book titled We Are Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story. The book is scheduled to release in May.