BookTok sensation Alex Aster stepped away from the worlds of her bestselling “Lightlark” and “Starside” novels this week to celebrate the debut of her new book, which is based on IP that predates her works by more than six decades: Barbie. Author Aster, who has now released 10 titles over the past six years, was brought on by Mattel to write “Barbie Dreamscape,” the first-ever YA series based on the beloved doll. And Aster says she was given creative freedom to do what she wanted with everyone’s favorite pick icon from the start, including deciding what other members of Barbie’s world to include.
Like, she sees a lot of people, she meets people during her quest, but ultimately it’s up to her to find her own strength and find her own destiny. So it was important to me that none of the secondary characters were stronger than her or were going through the entire journey with her.” From Mattel Press, “Barbie Dreamscape” is described as “a richly imagined coming-of-age story about teenage Barbie, whose perfectly planned future is shattered when she is declared Fateless at her enchanted school’s graduation. To earn a Fate, she must journey across treacherous, magical lands in search of the mysterious beings who control the destinies of everyone in Heartland — and the buried truths that could change her world forever.” Aster says she wanted this book to include new characters as well, “so all of the magical people she meets during the quest across the worlds, I wanted to create them to be inspired not only by Barbie products, but by the animated movies and just how Barbie made me feel.” “When I went to Mattel, they let me play with the toys and see everything,” Aster says.
I love Barbie animated movies. I think Mattel could make an amazing adaptation, and that would be great to get to see it,” Aster says, adding: “If it wasn’t animated, if it was live-action, I would love to know what readers would want as a fan cast for a YA Barbie.” “I honestly don’t know,” the author says. But sometimes I’ll go online, I’ll be tagged [in a fan-cast post] and it’s like, ‘Fantastic!
You guys should work for Hollywood. You guys are amazing.’ They’re great readers. And readers have a lot of power, too.
For my other adaptations, I send a lot of that to the producers. I’m like, ‘This is what they’re saying. Listen to them; they’re really smart.’ But I don’t have [a fan cast for Barbie], but I’m sure someone will come up with the perfect one.” Aster says she takes fan-casting quite seriously, and has been keeping her eye on readers’ comments about the upcoming film adaptations of her books “Lightlark” (set up at Universal Pictures and Temple Hill) and “Summer in the City” (New Line Cinema).
But apart from flagging fans’ preferred actors and reviewing scripts, she’s taking a more relaxed approach to her executive producer roles on both projects. I’ve read the ‘Lightlark’ script; it’s really good. So they are so good at what they do, and I’m involved as an executive producer.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
