Update: Variety has confirmed the news, reporting that Margot Robbie is in early talks to join Tim Burton’s Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman remake. If the deal closes, she will produce the film with LuckyChap partners Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, but it’s still up in the air if she will star in the movie. The producers are searching for a new writer to tackle the script (the first draft was penned by Gillian Flynn), and Variety states that Robbie’s involvement would depend on how the final version turns out.
— Original article follows —
Last year, it was reported that Tim Burton was developing a remake of the sci-fi horror classic Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman with Warner Bros. Burton had taken on a similarly retro-matinee-type monster film with his tongue-in-cheek adaptation of Topps’ Mars Attacks! property. It was previously reported that novelist Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Widows) was to be penning the script, with Tim Burton lined up to direct. Since the announcement, there hasn’t been much forward movement reported about the project…until now?
According to Jeff Sneider of The Insneider, the rumor is that the once-stalled Burton project may now have some new life with Margot Robbie possibly signing on as a producer and star as the titular fifty-foot woman. Burton was originally expected to produce the remake alongside Andrew Mittman (Wednesday) of 1.21 Pictures and Tommy Harper (Flowervale Street), with Kai Dolbashian on board as an executive producer. Months after the news of this project, Burton gave the impression that it may have fallen apart, saying to a crowd at the Marrakech Film Festival, “I have no real projects at the moment.”
Robbie and her company, LuckyChap, signed a multi-year first-look deal with Warner Bros. around the same time Burton announced his plans for Fifty-Foot Woman. Although Robbie wasn’t initially involved, her partnership with the studio could give her an opening to hop onto the project. The talk is that the movie is now looking for a new writer, as Flynn had started off strong on the first draft of the script, but her current schedule will now prevent her from making more passes at multiple drafts.
Robbie’s LuckyChap has also been developing an Ocean’s Eleven prequel with Ryan Gosling attached. She is also attempting to adapt The Sims and Monopoly to the big screen in the way that her hit, Barbie, had a large meta element to it. Robbie would comment, “We want to make more films that have the effect that Barbie has. Why can’t it be another big, original, bold idea where we get an amazing filmmaker, a big budget to play with, and the trust of a huge conglomerate behind them to go and really play? I want to do that.” She is also set to star opposite Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which comes from her Warners partnership, and they will release it in theaters on Valentine’s Day.