Sindy, the Singing Movie Star? A2R2 Productions Acquires Film Rights to Beloved British Doll

Sindy, the popular British doll that emerged from Pedigree Dolls & Toys in the 1960s as a rival to America’s iconic Barbie, may soon be singing her way onto the big-screen.

A2R2 Productions — the production company launched last fall by actor Archie Renaux and manager-producer Arjun Rose — has acquired rights to adapt Sindy and they’ve set plans for a “bold, feel-good live-action musical that mixes heart, humor and high fashion,” the team confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rose, who dabbled in music with a live performance series called Laughing Boy that featured the likes of Ed Sheeran and Jessie J, will produce along with Renaux. The British talent was last seen on the big screen in Alien: Romulus. Daniel Hulme, a leader in the tech and artificial intelligence space who currently serves as chief AI officer at WPP, joins the team as executive producer.

It’s early days on the project as A2R2 is currently on the hunt for a “visionary female director” to breathe life into Sindy’s story, which the company is eyeing as “a funny, fierce and emotionally honest fairy tale for our filtered age” that would explore friendship, identity and what it means to be seen. The Sindy adaptation marks is the second A2R2 project to get some traction, following a fully financed debut film titled On that is slated to head into production later this year.

Introduced to the market in 1963, the fashion doll became a best-seller in the United Kingdom. Sindy’s story only got more colorful and complicated from there as attempts were made to broaden her appeal by introducing her to the United States market in the 1970s. Hasbro eventually bought the rights to Sindy, and subsequently gave the doll a makeover though that didn’t help to spur sales. According to online reports, Mattel, home to Barbie, filed a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement.

Another makeover happened though Sindy never managed to leap past Barbie’s popularity. Pedigree regained ownership of Sindy, and the doll got a relaunch in January 1999. She got anniversary relaunches for her 40th and 60th birthdays. Per various reports, Sindy has sold north of 150 million dolls over the doll’s lifespan.

Hollywood has a long track record of adaptations featuring dolls and other children’s toys that includes such lines as American Girls, Bratz, Transformers and The Lego Movie franchises, to name just a few. Of course, no history is complete without placing Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film at the top as the actress-turned-filmmaker captured the zeitgeist and delivered a culture-shifting effort courtesy of 2023’s Barbie starring and produced by Margot Robbie. Other doll-inspired projects in the works include Mattel’s Polly Pocket adaptation, which Lena Dunham had been shepherding until recently. The multi-hyphenate opened up on her decision to exit the project, a revelation that underscores the challenges in bringing such projects to the screen.

“What Greta did with Barbie, managing to take this piece of IP and make it so personal and specific, it’s really really hard, and I just didn’t think I was going to be the best person for the job,” she said on a podcast while promoting her Netflix show Too Much. “Because Greta did it so well, it’s always going to be unnecessarily compared, and she’s my friend and I love her and we’ve known each other for 20 years, like, who needs that? That movie just changed the world.”