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Move over, “Barbie” — Mattel announces plans for American Girl doll movie
Another movie based on a doll could be hitting the big screen: Toy company Mattel is developing a live-action film based on its American Girl doll line.
The announcement comes in the wake of the “Barbie” movie, which brought in more than a billion dollars worldwide and was the highest-grossing movie of the year. Lindsey Anderson Beer, who wrote and executive produced “Sierra Burgess is a Loser” and directed “Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,” is set to produce and write the screenplay for the American Girl doll movie.
“Growing up, my sister and I were American Girl girls. I had Kirsten, and she had Molly,” Anderson Beer said in the Wednesday announcement. “They didn’t feel like dolls to play with, rather real people whose worlds we got to imagine ourselves in. They are historically accurate toys and accessories that feature elaborate and immersive backstories uniquely suited to bring to screen.”
The beloved 18-inch dolls, first launched in 1986, have names and backstories that were simultaneously released as novels.
Kirsten, who comes in an outfit from 1854, is a Swedish immigrant living in Minnesota, according to The Changnon Family Museum of Toys & Collectibles. Molly lived with her family in Jefferson, Illinois during World War II. Her father took care of wounded soldiers and her mother worked for the Red Cross.
The two were some of the first dolls released in the line, which has since expanded to include contemporary dolls and characters as well as dolls that represent diverse backgrounds and who hail from different points in U.S. history. More than 36 million American Girl dolls have been sold in the years since, according to the company.
The American Girl doll movie will be produced by Mattel Films, Paramount Pictures — which, like CBS and CBS News and Stations is part of Paramount Global — and Temple Hill Entertainment. Mattel Films is also working on developing live-action films featuring a number of its other brands, including Barney, Hot Wheels, Polly Pocket, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Thomas & Friends and Wishbone, among others, the company announced in September.
A new movie wouldn’t be the brand’s first foray onto the screen. Previous made-for-TV and streaming offerings have focused on both the historical characters and the contemporary “Girl of the Year” dolls, while the 2008 G-rated theatrical release “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,” was based on the Great Depression-era doll.
Some have wondered about the possibility of a Ken movie. “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig recently told “60 Minutes” that she wasn’t ruling it out completely.
“I mean, the truth is, you know — I guess we’ll see,” she said.
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Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
A firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis’ most ardent critics has been excommunicated by the Vatican.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who once served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S., was found guilty of schism. The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday, a press statement said Friday.
The office cited Viganò’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council,” as its reasoning for the ruling.
Viganò, who retired in 2016 at age 75 and was the papal envoy in Washington from 2011-2026, convulsed the Holy See with accusations of sex abuse in 2018, calling on Francis to resign.
Patrick Semansky/AP
In an 11-page letter, Viganò claimed that in 2013 he told Francis of the allegations of sex abuse against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. But, he wrote, the pontiff ignored that, and allowed McCarrick to continue to serve the church for another five years publicly. He said the pope should resign and subsequently branded him a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan.”
In the letter, Viganò also made a number of ideological claims and was critical of homosexuals within Church ranks. He did not offer any proof for his statements.
The Vatican rejected the accusation of a cover-up of sexual misconduct and last month summoned Viganò to answer charges of schism and denying the pope’s legitimacy.
Viganò, who regarded the accusations “as an honor,” said he refused to take part in the disciplinary proceedings because he did not accept the legitimacy of the institutions behind it.
“I do not recognize the authority of the tribunal that claims to judge me, nor of its Prefect, nor of the one who appointed him,” he said in a statement issued last week, referring to the head of the doctrinal office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, and to Francis.
Viganò restated his rejection of Vatican Council II, calling it “the ideological, theological, moral and liturgical cancer of which the (Francis’) ‘synod church’ is the necessary metastasis.”
He had not yet commented on the Vatican’s ruling on Friday.
McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, D.C., was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after an internal Vatican investigation found he sexually molested adults as well as children.
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Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
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