Barney the Dinosaur must be “super dee-duper” into The Bear.
According to Deadline, Ayo Edebiri has been tapped to write and possibly star in the screenplay for A24 and Mattel‘s feature-length take on the beloved PBS series Barney & Friends. Best known for her starring role on FX’s The Bear, Edebiri is also an accomplished writer, having written for What We Do in the Shadows and Dickinson.
A24’s Barney movie has been in development since 2019. Daniel Kaluuya is attached as a producer through his company 59% Productions. Plot details remain under wraps, although Mattel exec Kevin McKeon revealed in a July 2023 interview with The New Yorker that the live-action movie would be adult-oriented and “surrealistic,” in the vein of films by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze. You know, everything you would expect from a movie about Barney the Dinosaur.
“We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” McKeon stated at the time. “It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney—just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”
We’ll keep you posted as more information about Barney is shared.
Are you down for a Barney movie made for the original generation that watched it?
