Barbarella has scored a director, and I think Robert Rodriguez was a great choice. We get the following news from the caves of Yahoo:
Robert Rodriguez has signed on to direct “Barbarella,” a new motion picture adaptation of the classic science-fiction comic book series, whose title character was immortalized in the 1968 movie starring Jane Fonda. Dino De Laurentiis, who produced that film, will produce the update with Martha De Laurentiis for Universal Pictures, which aims for a 2008 worldwide release
Rodriguez is working with writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who are developing an original adventure for Barbarella. Purvis and Wade co-wrote “Casino Royale” and recently finished work on the next installment in the James Bond franchise, which has a working title of “Bond 22.”
If they have to do a remake of Barbarella I think Rodriguez may be one of the best directors alive today for the job. Rodriguez is able to capture sexy on the silver screen like few people can. Selma Hayek in Desperado dripped with sexlust. Rose McGowan not only displayed red-hot sensuality, she also came across as a bad ass machine gun momma in Planet Terror. Rodriguez is a dude that knows how to sex a woman up, and still keep her bad ass – and that is what we need for Barbarella.
The fact that the writers from Casino Royale are on board gives me great hope as well. I thought Casino Royale was a fantastic Bond film and really paid tribute to the character. If they pay the same amount of respect to the character of Barbarella the screenplay should be quality indeed. I wonder if they will mine old Barbarella stories for ideas in the way in which they used the book Casino Royale as the blueprint for their work – we shall see.
Overall I think that the news about this project continues to get better by the day. In an age of much maligned remakes will this one stand out as quality? International friends what are your thoughts?
