Cult classic Barbarella getting the remake treatment

Joe Gazzam, who wrote a script for the pending 21 Jump Street feature film, is now set to write the screenplay for a new version of the 1968 cult classic Barbarella, according to THR.

Robert Luketic (21, The Ugly Truth) is attached to direct the updated sci-fi action-adventure, with original producer Dino De Laurentiis back in that role, along with Dino’s wife Martha.

According to reports, Robert Rodriguez was set to helm the project at Universal in 2007, with Rose McGowan in the title role. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade – who co-wrote Quantum of Solace – penned the screenplay, but the studio and director could not agree on where to shoot. I’m assuming Rodriguez wanted to shoot at his studio in Austin, Texas and Uni had other plans, but that’s just my assumption. Anyway, after that didn’t work out, the project reset.

The ‘re-imagining’, a term becoming all too familiar on this site, is not expected to be campy, but will keep the sexuality, with a focus on the action and adventure.

Barbarella, originally played by Jane Fonda and directed by Frenchman Roger Vadim, is a female mercenary who roams the universe of a distant future, undertaking missions that require fearlessness, ingenuity and sensuality. Something I didn’t know was that Barbarella first appeared in a 1962 French graphic magazine written and illustrated by Jean-Claude Forest.

Check out the trailer for the original Barbarella below.