Beanie Bubble: Film About Beanie Craze Starring Zach Galifianakis And Elizabeth Banks Heads To Apple
If you lived through the 1990s in the United States, chances are you remember the Beanie Baby craze. While my younger brother and I only ever had these beanbag stuffed toys for playing with, not collecting, there were some prized items that sold for thousands of dollars. As soon as the craze popped up, it died out, leaving many with more stuffed toys than they would ever know what to do with. It was recently explored in the HBO Max documentary "Beanie Mania," and now there's going to be an Apple Original movie, "The Beanie Bubble," starring Elizabeth Banks and Zach Galifianakis.
When Collectibles Become All-Consuming
The new film is being produced by Imagine Entertainment and was written by former "Saturday Night Live" and "Futurama" writer Kristin Gore, who will co-direct with her husband, OK Go frontman Damian Kulash. The movie will feature "Succession" star Sarah Snook and "Broken Hearts Gallery" star Geraldine Viswanathan in addition to Banks and Galifianakis.
"The Beanie Bubble" is inspired by the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s, in which otherwise perfectly rational people lost their minds over some stuffed critters with heart-shaped tags. The screenplay was based on the 2015 book "The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute" by Zac Bissonnette.
Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Karen Lunder are producing the movie for Imagine. "The Beanie Bubble" is the first film order to come from the first-look deal between Apple and Imagine Entertainment for scripted features. Galifianakis also serves as an executive producer.
Here's the official synopsis:
"The Beanie Bubble" is inspired by the story behind one of the biggest speculative crazes that blazed through American culture in the 90s. It pulls back the curtain on the absurdities and injustices of the American Dream — particularly the female relationship to it. It's a celebration of the women who helped power Ty Warner's success, whose strengths and good instincts shaped and amplified the phenomenon, but whose names are not on the Beanie Babies' heart-shaped tags.
There are no details as of yet on anyone's roles, and the exact plot has yet to be revealed. Bisonette's book goes deep and examines a wide variety of subjects, from Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner to a man who killed his coworker over a Beanie Baby debt. I could potentially see Galifianakis as the eccentric self-made billionaire Warner, but the rest are anyone's best guess. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go see if I can find my Iggy the Iguana.