Late last year, we learned that 2x Primetime Emmy-nominee Sydney Sweeney (Madame Web; Euphoria; The White Lotus) was set to star in and executive produce a new Barbarella movie for Sony Pictures.
The project, which will be based on both Jean Claude Forest's French comic book series and the cult 1968 adaptation starring Jane Fonda, still doesn't have a writer or director attached, but we expect an official announcement relatively soon.
Sweeney has previously expressed her excitement to pay homage to the style of the original space-opera - including the titular heroine's risqué outfits - but is she at all concerned about the sexually-charged/erotic aspects of the story?
“I find power in my femininity,” she tells Vanity Fair. “I use my brain, and I use everything that I’m learning every single day in this industry as my power. Knowledge is everything.”
During a recent interview, Fonda made it clear that she's so sure a modern-day take on Barbarella is a good idea, but Sweeney says she would “absolutely love” to speak with her about it, adding that, to her, the original is all about seeing “women own their power.”
The movie has been accused of being little more than "sexploitation," but something tells us Sweeney and the studio plan on adding a few more layers to the story... if not to Barb's outfits.
In Barbarella, "an astronaut from the future, is sent on a mission to find and stop an evil scientist whose invention could spell the destruction of the galaxy."