Life in plastic is certainly fantastic but creating the perfect Barbie dreamworld for the upcoming “Barbie” movie came at quite the cost to the global supply chain — that is, a global shortage of pink paint.
Director Greta Gerwig and production designer Sarah Greenwood told Architectural Digest that the Palm Springs set for the soon-to-be-released film took a lot more pink paint than people realize.
Gerwig’s set designers handpainted the background of the San Jacinto mountains instead of using CGI or other technology in an attempt to keep the set as authentic and playful as possible, which of course meant more raw materials.
While creating the set, international supplies of the iconic pink shade associated with the Barbie brand paint (from the company Rosco) hit a low, in some places nearly depleted.
“The world ran out of pink,” Greenwood told the outlet.
Rosco reps told CNN that the sets were being developed “during a time when we were still experiencing the global supply chain issues, and the paint supply was hit particularly hard.”
“We delivered everything we could, they got it all. We can’t wait to see how it looks in the film!” said VP of Marketing and Digital for Rosco, Lauren Proud, per CNN.
Gerwig was insistent that she “wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much” in the creation of the fantasyland, and from the looks of the film’s official trailer, she seems to have succeeded.
Barbie is set to hit theaters on July 21, 2023.
