Variety has reported that Dino De Laurentiis has reacquired the film rights to Barbarella and has hired Casino Royale’s scriptwriters to work on it. De Laurentiis was, of course, the producer of the 1968 version, directed by Roger Vadim and starring Jane Fonda. Proposals for a remake have been kicking around for years, with the rights most recently in the hands of Drew Barrymore. Somewhere along the line, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics even wrote a Barbarella musical, which was staged in Vienna in 2005.
For comics fans, today’s news has an added reason for hoping that the remake doesn’t get stuck in development hell.
“De Laurentiis recently completed a film rights acquisition deal with Julien Forest, the son of Jean-Claude Forest, author of the French comicbook series on which the film was based. Deal, made with Hollywood Comics principal Jean-Marc Lofficier and French agent Laurie Roy, calls for the reissue of the first two Barbarella books in concert with the feature, along with the publication of material that previously hadn't been translated into English.” (My emphasis, Variety’s grammar.)
Panel from
Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest, 1964, English translation by Richard Seaver, Transworld Publishers Ltd, 1967
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