The New York Observer is reporting that Universal has decided not to go ahead with Robert Rodriguez's remake of Barbarella. The article reports that the decision was made due to Rodriguez's insistence that his girlfriend Rose McGowan (Planet Terror) play the lead role in the remake of Roger Vadim's 1968 cult favourite about a woman who travels through space wearing scant and impractical get ups. With the film set to cost close to $100 million, Universal were reportedly not happy to bank that much money on a relatively small name.
"Universal had initially signed on for $60 million,” Rodriguez told the site “but then when we were done with the script it wound up at closer to $82 million, and they had just financed a Will Ferrell movie (Land of the Lost) that was a $130 million and they even cut that down to $100million.”
Rodriguez is apparently now shopping the project around other studios, to see if anyone might bite at the higher price. Given studios' desperation to get as many projects underway before the strike, he may have a chance.
There is of course the question of 'why the hell re-make Barbarella?'. And not in a 'don't touch a classic' way. The original film, for all its iconic kitsch, was essentially garbage. It made no sense and did it very slowly. It's hard to blame Universal for being apprehensive about throwing the best part of $100million at a B-movie curio. Rodriguez is a man bursting with ideas, but this would need a major overhaul to be a blockbuster.
Do you disagree? Does Barbarella deserve another shot into space?