Greta Gerwig's upcoming Barbie, a take on the iconic Mattel doll that stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is already looking to become one of the summer's biggest blockbusters.
However, ahead of its hotly anticipated July 21 release, the film has been presented with a big stop sign in the form of a ban in Vietnam.
The director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Vi Kien Thanh, said in a statement on Monday that the ban was decided by the National Film Evaluation Council.
As per the statement, a map scene in the upcoming Warner Bros. release features the nine-dash line, a highly controversial reference to the geographical dispute over territorial claims between China and many of its neighboring countries, including Vietnam.
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The line represents the People's Republic of China's claims to parts of the South China Sea, although they infringe on Vietnam's own land reclamation efforts and, according to the Vietnamese government, threaten their sovereignty.
© Getty ImagesThe state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper carried the statement: "We do not grant license for the American movie 'Barbie' to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line."
A 2016 United Nations tribunal rejected China's historic-rights claims over the maritime property within the nine-dash line, although the regions remain hotly contested.
© Getty ImagesThere has been no word yet from the team of Barbie or Warner Bros. Entertainment on the matter.
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Promotional efforts for the upcoming movie are continuing in earnest, however, as members of the core cast and the director herself were spotted in Seoul, South Korea on Sunday.
© Getty ImagesHowever, apart from the now ban-worthy map scene, it was revealed recently that another undisclosed sequence was apparently off-brand enough for the brand to have Mattel step in.
In an interview with TIME, Mattel President and COO Richard Dickson recalled taking a flight to London to argue with Greta and Margot over one specific scene.
© Getty ImagesHowever, the Oscar-nominated director and the Australian actress, who is a co-producer on Barbie through her company LuckyChap Entertainment, convinced the Mattel exec of the scene's validity and changed his mind.
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The Suicide Squad star explained: "When you look on the page, the nuance isn't there, the delivery isn't there," saying that it all came together when put together on screen.
© InstagramShe emphasized her growing relationship with the brand as an executive producer as well, recalling of her 2018 meeting with Mattel's CEO: "In that very first meeting, we impressed upon Ynon [Kreiz] we are going to honor the legacy of your brand, but if we don't acknowledge certain things – if we don't say it, someone else is going to say it.
"So you might as well be a part of that conversation."
