Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright is seemingly in talks to direct a remake of ’60s cult classic Barbarella, with Sydney Sweeney already attached to star.
It’s been a while since Wright has sat in the director’s chair, with his last film being 2021’s Last Night in Soho. To be fair, he was likely busy overseeing last year’s very good Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and he is currently working on a remake of The Running Man with Glen Powell in the lead role. Funnily enough, it seems like Wright might also be gearing up to work on another remake with Powell’s Anyone But You co-star Sweeney. The Euphoria actor has been attached to a remake of Barbarella for a little while now, and according to a report from Deadline, Wright is currently in talks to helm the film.
With Wright currently working on The Running Man remake, this remake of Barbarella will likely be a ways off yet, and Sweeney herself is busy too. However, Deadline also reported that Jane Goldman and Honey Ross are also in negotiations to pen the screenplay for the project. Goldman has written a number of big-name projects like X-Men: First Class, Kick Ass, and Kingsman: The Secret Service, so she seems like a suitable addition for a film like Barbarella.
The original Barbarella released way back in 1968, based on a French comic series of the same name. Grace and Frankie’s Jane Fonda played the titular character, a space adventurer that is tasked by the Earth’s president to retrieve Durand Durand from a far off planetary system (yes, I appreciate this is word soup). While it’s something of a cult classic film now, the film did not do particularly well at the time, aside from in the UK oddly enough. It’s been somewhat reappraised now, but a remake could give it the opportunity to see a new lease on life.