Key Takeaways
- Ryan Gosling and producing partner Jessie Henderson are developing a live-action Flintstones movie centered on an adult Bamm-Bamm Rubble, though the early-stage Warner Bros. project still needs a writer.
- The film would mark Warner Bros.’ third live-action trip to Bedrock after 1994’s The Flintstones and its 2000 prequel, which earned about $401 million combined worldwide.
- Gosling is also negotiating a Barbie sequel deal reportedly worth a $20 million salary plus profit participation, but Warner Bros. says it has yet to reach an agreement with the original film’s creative team.
Ryan Gosling may be stuck negotiating his return to Barbie Land, but he's already looking toward Bedrock.
According to Deadline, Gosling and his Open Invite producing partner Jessie Henderson are developing a new live-action Flintstones movie at Warner Bros., with the project reportedly centered on an adult Bamm-Bamm Rubble. The movie is still in its earliest stages, with Gosling and Henderson currently searching for a writer, but it gives the actor-producer another major Warner Bros. property to work on while his potentially much more lucrative return as Ken remains unresolved.
The Bamm-Bamm project would take The Flintstones in a direction the franchise hasn't explored in live action. Introduced as the super-strong adopted son of Barney and Betty Rubble, Bamm-Bamm was previously aged up for the 1971 animated series The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.
That series followed a teenage Bamm-Bamm who dated Pebbles Flintstone, attended Bedrock High, and even played alongside her in a band called the Bedrock Rockers. Gosling's project would go further by centering the character as an adult in a feature film.
It would also mark Warner Bros.' third attempt to bring Bedrock to live action. John Goodman and Rick Moranis starred as Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble in 1994's The Flintstones, which was followed by the recast prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas in 2000. The two films combined for approximately $401 million at the worldwide box office.
Gosling and Henderson, meanwhile, are already producing the upcoming romantic drama Love of Your Life, starring Margaret Qualley and Aaron Pierre.
Gosling's latest Warner Bros. project arrives as his negotiations over a Barbie sequel remain unfinished. The actor, Margot Robbie, director Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach are still trying to hammer out new deals after the original movie's unusual one-picture contracts left its principal talent without pre-negotiated sequel terms.
Gosling, who received an Oscar nomination for playing Ken, is reportedly seeking a $20 million salary along with profit participation for another installment.
Warner Bros. Pictures co-chairs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca recently acknowledged that negotiations have stalled. "We have a rights deal with Mattel in place and have made a series of big offers to try and finalize deals to make the next Barbie film," they said. "Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach an agreement thus far."
The studio has reportedly made roughly half a dozen offers to the creative team, with its latest proposal rejected. Robbie previously cautioned against assuming another movie was inevitable, saying, "This wasn't designed to be a trilogy."
There's plenty of money explaining why Warner Bros. wants the gang back. Barbie grossed $1.448 billion worldwide in 2023, becoming the year's biggest movie and the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. history.
