The original Barbarella was ‘scandalous’, for its day, although by modern standards it’s pretty tame. Still, a comic book where a sexually liberated woman ran around humping aliens turned some heads, and got made into a movie a lot of people love because they saw it when they were thirteen and it roiled up some emotions. And now Nicolas Winding Refn is making it into a TV series!
Refn, better known as “the director of Drive and Bronson“, is executive producing and may direct the pilot, which was commissioned by Amazon. And they’re throwing a lot of talent at a cheesy movie with an orgasmotron in it, according to Deadline:
I have learned that Gaumont International Television’s Barbarella has been set up at Amazon Studios, which has taken in the pilot script penned by feature writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (Skyfall). I hear search is underway for a showrunner in anticipation of a pilot pickup.The project, which has been in the works at GIT for a year and a half, is executive produced by Nicolas Refn (Valhalla Rising), who had been attached to direct, and Martha De Laurentiis, whose late husband Dino produced the 1968 movie.
If this actually happens, it mean Refn would finally get to remake an SF movie from the late ’60s/early ’70s, something he’s spent a lot of time trying to do a lot what with his remakes of Logan’s Run and Westworld. It’d also be a bit of a change of pace for him as a director, since he’s mostly made movies dedicated to beating the crap out of people in various ways, shapes, and forms. He’s not really one for sexuality.
Nonetheless, that’s a lot of talent thrown at the idea, and if anybody can update a somewhat goofy French comic book to something relevant, it’s Refn. We just hope there’s some Ryan Gosling getting into fistfights if it gets boring.
Via Deadline