Edgar Wright Remaking ‘Barbarella’ With Sydney Sweeney

Sydney Sweeney will star in a new version of the cult sci-fi film Barbarella — directed by one of the kings of modern cult movies, Edgar Wright.

The first Barbarella film was released in 1968 and starred Jane Fonda as the scantily-clad heroine traversing the spaceways, based on the character from French comics by Jean-Claude Forest. While the film was not a blockbuster in its day, its mix of trippy imagery and adult sexuality has made it a staple of midnight movies and home video viewing for decades. Sweeney has been talking about making a new Barbarella film since 2022.

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Barbarella is one of those projects that has been discussed and developed by countless directors in many contexts through the years. At one point Robert Rodriguez wanted to make a Barbarella film vaguely in the style of his Sin City movies. Universal was going to distribute the project, then balked when the budget grew too large. Then about ten years ago, Nicolas Winding Refn was looking at making a Barbarella TV series. But that show never got off the ground either.

For Wright, this will be his first film since 2021’s Last Night in Soho, which was set roughly during the time Fonda’s Barbarella was released to theaters. (Wright also directed a documentary about the band Sparks that was also released that same year.) His other films include Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and his beloved Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End.

The news of Wright directing the film was first reported by Variety.