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Edgar Wright in talks to direct ‘Barbarella’ starring Sydney Sweeney

kalindana

kalindana

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Oct 28, 2018
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variety.com

Edgar Wright in Talks to Direct ‘Barbarella’ Starring Sydney Sweeney

The Sydney Sweeney-led "Barbarella" film is taking shape, with Edgar Wright in talks to direct for Sony. Jane and Honey Goldman are in talks to write.
variety.com variety.com
The Sydney Sweeney-led "Barbarella" film is taking shape, with Edgar Wright in talks to direct the picture for Sony. Jane Goldman and Honey Ross are in talks to pen the script.

Wright, best known for directing the satiric zombie film "Shaun of the Dead," is next set to direct Glen Powell in an adaptation of Stephen King's "The Running Man." Wright's other directorial credits include "Last Night in Soho," Hot Fuzz," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and "Baby Driver."
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The project also marks another step in Sweeney's continued relationship with Sony Pictures — she's most recently starred in "Anyone But You" and "Madame Web" for the studio. While "Madame Web" was largely panned by critics, Sweeney says her involvement in the film was a "strategic business decision" that's since paid off.

"To me, that film was a building block, it's what allowed me to build a relationship with Sony," Sweeney said. "Without doing 'Madame Web' I wouldn't have a relationship with the decision-makers over there. Everything in my career I do not just for that story, but strategic business decisions. Because I did that, I was able to sell 'Anyone but You.' I was able to get 'Barbarella.'"
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Adapted from French writer and illustrator Jean-Claude Forest's comic series, the original 1968 "Barbarella" starred Jane Fonda as the titular space-traveling heroine. Although the film wasn't a box office smash at the time, it has garnered a cult film status in the decades since, with Barbarella widely seen as one of Fonda's most iconic on-screen roles.
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xendless

xendless

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How many times have they tried to get this off the ground
Wasn't Nicolas Winding Refn attached at one point
 
Scullibundo

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Oct 25, 2017
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They've been talking about this for years with Wright directing Sweeney. How the fuck have they still not started writing a script yet?
 
DOBERMAN INC

DOBERMAN INC

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I don't see how they could even pull this off without tainting the core of it, the main selling point of the original wouldn't even fly today.(Unfortunately)
 
PS_Snake

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Might be a hot take but I don't think Edgar has done anything great since Scott Pilgrim. Hope to be proven wrong but I think he seems to learn the wrong lessons from his failures at the box office. His choices especially when it came to casting Baby Driver were very off to me.
 
Scullibundo

Scullibundo

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PS_Snake said:
Might be a hot take but I don't think Edgar has done anything great since Scott Pilgrim. Hope to be proven wrong but I think he seems to learn the wrong lessons from his failures at the box office. His choices especially when it came to casting Baby Driver were very off to me.
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Baby Driver was a lot of fun despite almost the entire cast getting cancelled.
 
Mister Ursine

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The director who has never handled a female character well even once in his 20 year career doing a Barbarella reboot is a CHOICE. I know Sweeney really wants this. She's trying to make this a franchise film with her hands on the wheel. Hope it works out for everyone; would be nice to have a fun, space adventure for adults.
 
alternate

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She is pretty enough and ... well the obvious, but she is an average one note actress at best.
 
7aged

7aged

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PS_Snake said:
Might be a hot take but I don't think Edgar has done anything great since Scott Pilgrim. Hope to be proven wrong but I think he seems to learn the wrong lessons from his failures at the box office. His choices especially when it came to casting Baby Driver were very off to me.
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I really enjoyed last night in Soho. And since we're talking about 70s homages, why not Barbarella?
 
DiceAndMonsters

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Oh the memories of discovering this film in my teenage years in the 80s….

They'd better no butcher it. I'm not sure how exactly you'd do it straight with modern sensibilities though.
 
Messofanego

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Mister Ursine said:
The director who has never handled a female character well even once in his 20 year career doing a Barbarella reboot is a CHOICE. I know Sweeney really wants this. She's trying to make this a franchise film with her hands on the wheel. Hope it works out for everyone; would be nice to have a fun, space adventure for adults.
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Why would she not push for a female director then? Like Margot Robbie pushed for Greta Gerwig to direct Barbie.
 
Aiqops

Aiqops

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I have seen the original last year and was bored out of my mind. Hope they can come up with something more interesting for this reboot.
 
Kinthey

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Curious how they'll handle this. Seems like a real tightrope between modernizing it and keeping Barbarella Babarella

Mister Ursine said:
The director who has never handled a female character well even once in his 20 year career doing a Barbarella reboot is a CHOICE. I know Sweeney really wants this. She's trying to make this a franchise film with her hands on the wheel. Hope it works out for everyone; would be nice to have a fun, space adventure for adults.
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What was wrong with Last night in soho?
 
GoodGrief

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It's weird to me that one of the best working directors seems to be doing remakes of cult movies featuring the stars of Anyone but You for the foreseeable future. I guess Last Night underperforming put him in light director jail.

Will still see anything he makes. This one is bound to be way better than it has any right to be because of him.
 
fzburner

fzburner

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Jul 3, 2023
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Terrible pairing, Wright can't direct women and Sydney doesn't have the range at all to do the role properly
 
BRsomebody

BRsomebody

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I love most of Edgar Wright's films (plus Spaced is like top 5 favorite shows for me), and Barbarella is a wild ride, but I don't know if I can see those two flavors mixing particularly well.

Barbarella is an important film because it has genuinely great set design and special effects for something from the 60s, the soundtrack is incredible, and it has some interesting ideas when it's not showing Jane Fonda in various states of undress/post-coitus, but it's genuinely awful. I love it, of course, from an iconic-in-the-gay-world way - but it's not a good movie. The writing would absolutely make or break a re imagining of it, and I really don't know if Wright could manage to replicate the overwhelming horniness of the original.
 
Version 3.0

Version 3.0

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The only thing I know about Barbarella is that it is the origin of Duran Duran's name. Should I watch it?
 
Chippewa Barr

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Messofanego said:
Why is a big studio like Sony going hard for a cult reboot?
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Because Sony's film division is an absolute shit show lol they pick the most random projects.

I still say it's a money laundering studio lol.
SolidSnakex said:
They're betting more on Sydney than the IP.
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This is absolutely true as well - though I feel this with a female director could be something pretty cool.
julia crawford said:
i keep mixing this movie and Barb Wire
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I feel like that is occurring a lot in this thread lol people mixing it up with the Pam Anderson movie from the 90s.

alternate said:
She is pretty enough and ... well the obvious, but she is an average one note actress at best.
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Are you confusing this with Barb Wire?

This is a sci-fi film from the 60s with Jane Fonda lol...who while still wearing little clothes in the movie, isn't as egregious (or outright bad) as Barb Wire haha.
 
NativeTongue

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Mister Ursine said:
The director who has never handled a female character well even once in his 20 year career doing a Barbarella reboot is a CHOICE. I know Sweeney really wants this. She's trying to make this a franchise film with her hands on the wheel. Hope it works out for everyone; would be nice to have a fun, space adventure for adults.
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Just quoting this for agreement and emphasis. Genuinely terrible with women characters. Last Night in Soho had me furious.
 

kowhite

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May 14, 2019
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So will Barbarella still travel the galaxy saving it by…having sex with everyone? I recall that was basically the plot. The shag carpeting was memorable. The opening credit was very memorable for a PG movie. Will they do that again? Heh
 
Galaxea

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Version 3.0 said:
The only thing I know about Barbarella is that it is the origin of Duran Duran's name. Should I watch it?
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It's beyond campy but the visuals and inventiveness of set design make it worth watching. My wife and I enjoyed it. Warning: There are a lot of sleazy scenes if that bothers you.

I can see why Edgar wants to do this. Would it turn out enjoyable? Hard to say but I'm always there for anything he does. SoHo was flawed but stylish, just like the original Giallo films that came before it.
 
Version 3.0

Version 3.0

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Galaxea said:
It's beyond campy but the visuals and inventiveness of set design make it worth watching. My wife and I enjoyed it. Warning: There are a lot of sleazy scenes if that bothers you.

I can see why Edgar wants to do this. Would it turn out enjoyable? Hard to say but I'm always there for anything he does. SoHo was flawed but stylish, just like the original Giallo films that came before it.
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Thanks. Maybe I'll check it out. I definitely will if this remake goes anywhere, before I watch that.
 
Sheldon Kornpett

Sheldon Kornpett

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Pendas said:
I saw the trailer for "Anyone but You" and was horrified. You're telling me those were the BEST takes?
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It cuts horribly into a trailer. I thought she looked horrible, and before watching it I had only seen clips of Euphoria and SNL where she seemed completely unworkable.

Buuuut she's actually fairly good in Anyone But You, and the performance works well in context. She's also made interesting choices, like Reality, where she plays Reality Winner and the script is the straight-up transcript of her FBI interrogation.

Idk about her making Barbarella with Edgar Wright (who stumbled with Baby Driver and then absolutely faceplanted with Last Night in Soho, terrible movie), but her comments on it and her ongoing work as a producer-actress show she's smart and canny about how she's shaping her image, putting together projects, and trying to deliver the best performances she can.
 
KDC720

KDC720

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Last Night in Soho wasn't great imo. I don't think Wright is the best choice for this one.
 
Aadiboy

Aadiboy

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Reading the plot summary of Barbarella and watching some of the scenes...yeah, with Sydney Sweeney this movie will make $2 billion easy.
 
Rellodex

Rellodex

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Oct 29, 2017
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I'm hyped for this, the original has some really really cool visual and musical elements, but suffers from not actually being that funny or exciting. It's like all vibes.

It's really a 60s sexy comedy that could benefit from pushing both elements a lot further.

Scott Pilgrim did such a good job in representing the way that it felt to be part of a late 2000s local music scene that I'm still confident Edgar Wright can lay down a tone. And Sydney Sweeney seems generally down for whatever, I was surprised how physical and goofy her comedy was in Anyone But You.

If they go big enough and wild enough with this I could totally see it being a hit.
 
breakdancing duck

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Mister Ursine said:
The director who has never handled a female character well even once in his 20 year career doing a Barbarella reboot is a CHOICE. I know Sweeney really wants this. She's trying to make this a franchise film with her hands on the wheel. Hope it works out for everyone; would be nice to have a fun, space adventure for adults.
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What's the criticism on his female characters?
 
Jason Frost

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Autumn said:
Era has a bunch of Sydney Sweeney haters.
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boontobias

boontobias

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Apr 14, 2018
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I just assume the Rob Liefeld movie with Margot Robbie getting greenlit made someone greenlight this. I still need to watch Last Night In Soho
 
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