Edgar Wright and Sydney Sweeney’s “Barbarella” remake was officially announced in October 2023 at Sony Pictures and TriStar. Since then, there have been no concrete updates on whether the project was actually moving forward, especially with Wright coming off the box-office disappointment of “The Running Man.”
Yesterday brought news that Sweeney has formed a new production company, Honey Trap, which has secured a first-look deal with Sony. According to Deadline, the new “Barbarella” is “still moving forward,” and Sweeney is “already working” on it under the new deal.
Sweeney, who is set to play the titular character, is also executive producing the film. Wright is a big fan of the 1968 original, which starred Jane Fonda, and even included it on a list of his favorite films.
The 1968 film, directed by Roger Vadim, followed a 41st-century astronaut who set out to find and stop the evil scientist Durand Durand, whose Positronic Ray threatened to bring evil back into the galaxy.
Based on both Jean-Claude Forest’s French comic and the cult 1968 film adaptation starring Fonda, the remake is being scripted by Jane Goldman (“X-Men: First Class,” “Kingsman”) and Honey Ross.
Wright’s “The Running Man,” released last November, reportedly lost Paramount a significant amount of money. The film, which earned only $69M worldwide, carried a production budget of $110M. The idea of Wright remaking another cult film may seem questionable on paper, but he has reportedly wanted to make this project for several years.
As for Sweeney, many have already forgotten about “Christy,” her boxing biopic, which failed to resonate with critics or audiences at the box office. That is largely because “The Housemaid” arrived four months later and became a major hit, earning $400M worldwide and securing a greenlit sequel that is set to begin filming this year.
But really, “Barbarella”? I get that Sweeney and Wright are genuinely passionate about the character, but who is actually asking for this? It’s not exactly a recognizable IP for younger audiences, and the original is nearly 60 years old. Even its cult following is relatively niche compared to other genre classics.
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