Jennifer Lopez has almost done it all during her four decades in show business, making a name for herself as a singer, dancer, actor and businesswoman. However, the pop culture icon's latest career move is raising eyebrows online.
Lopez is taking children's TV character Bob the Builder to Puerto Rico, with the 54-year-old planning to co-produce the movie.
The cartoon contractor will be voiced by actor and singer Anthony Ramos. The 32-year-old is best known for starring as Usnavi de la Vega in In the Heights (2021) and as Noah Diaz in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023).
Mattel announced the collaboration on Thursday, with many film fans perplexed by the news.
"What am I reading," asked @bammi067 on X, formerly Twitter.
"This is so random," commented Mel.
"This definitely feels like an onion headline," wrote Anthony Russo, referencing the famous satirical news site.
"What?! Why?" asked Empress.
"Ah, so the trend is now - 'make films about kids toys,'" said Sean Paul.
"No one wants this," wrote @FemaleRapBible, while Lara Gibson said: "The world is getting weirder and weirder."
Newsweek has reached out to Jennifer Lopez for comment via email.
Following the record-breaking success of Barbie, Mattel announced plans to make more films using its other intellectual property. The Greta Gerwig-directed fantasy film made box office history last summer, grossing $155 million during its opening weekend—the highest figure by any female-directed movie ever.
Barbie earned $1 billion at the global box office, and was nominated in eight categories for the 2024 Academy Awards.
Dubbed the "Mattel Cinematic Universe," the toy company has already announced plans for a Polly Pocket movie starring Emily in Paris actress Lily Collins and a Barney film produced by Get Out actor Daniel Kaluuya.
According to Mattel, Bob's next adventure will see him traveling to Puerto Rico for a huge construction project, where he'll tackle "issues affecting the island" while digging "deeper into what it means to build."
This isn't the first time Lopez has turned her hand to producing. The VMA winner was an executive producer on the ABC family show The Fosters. The comedy-drama show ran for five seasons from 2013 to 2018 and focused on a family with two moms.
She was also an executive producer on NBC's dance reality competition World of Dance (2017 to 2020), The Fosters' spin-off Good Trouble (2019), and the comedy-crime movie Hustlers (2019), in which she also starred.
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Sophie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in Lincoln, UK. Her focus is reporting on film and ... Read more
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