Barbarella is one of those projects like Ghostbusters 3 and the remake of Logan’s Run. You keep hearing about it all the time, but it never comes to pass. Talk of a Barbarella remake first surfaced at the beginning of the millennium, with Drew Barrymoore slated to play the title role. (In addition, Rose McGowan almost played Barbarella with her then boyfriend Robert Rodriguez slated to direct.)
Now that Amazon is getting into the original series business in a big way, Vulture and Deadline tell us they may be reviving Barbarella as a TV show. It doesn’t have a showrunner yet, but there is a pilot script that was written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who also penned the 007 flick Skyfall.
Gaumont International Television, the same company that put together Hannibal and Hemlock Grove, are producing the show, and Nicolas Refn (Drive) is also onboard to direct. Ironically enough, Refn was going to helm the remake of Logan’s Run that still can’t get off the ground at Warner Brothers.
While the original Barbarella movie is very dated and silly today, back in its time it was a pretty far out trip, as they used to say. It wouldn’t be a smart idea to try and recreate it verbatim today, but if they go back to the original source and try to create something modern day with it, we’d definitely be interested in tuning in.
