Barbarella headed to the small screen courtesy of Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn

Last Updated on January 8, 2024

While the Robert Rodriguez version of BARBARELLA has been lingering close to oblivion for years, it looks like DRIVE director Nicolas Winding Refn is close to bringing an update to the science fiction classic, albeit on the small screen.

Refn is currently in production on ONLY GOD FORGIVES. It is unknown whether BARBARELLA will be his next project, but production studio Gaumont International Television did announce that Refn would direct the series pilot. Refn called Barbarella “one of the ultimate counter-cultural characters.”

BARBARELLA was originally a French comic book before being adapted into the 1968 cult classic film starring Jane Fonda. The story follows Barbarella, a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex (the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a “machine excessive” or “orgasmotron”).

Dino De Laurentiis produced the original film and his wife Martha will coproduce the series along with Gaumont and Refn.

Gaumont CEO Katie O’Connell said, “We are thrilled to have secured the rights from the Forest estate and are thrilled to be pairing the bold visceral style of Nicolas Refn with the pop culture icon Barbarella.”

Gaumont is also behind the NBC series HANNIBAL and Eli Roth’s Netflix series HEMLOCK GROVE. Could the studio be on a roll with bringing big screen projects to the small screen? Hopefully we get a super hot actress to play BARBARELLA. Any suggestions?