56 Years Later, Sydney Sweeney Remaking Wildest Sci-Fi Movie of the 60s

Summary

• Actress Sydney Sweeney has been working for years to reboot a cult hit from the 60s.
• This campy and weird sci-fi has since been labeled a 'sexploitation' movie.
• Its legacy has survived for more than half a century.
• A major Hollywood director is rumored to be on board for the new version.

How do you remake a cult classic? How do you remake a movie that's gone down in history mostly because it's completely insane?

Well, up and coming star Sydney Sweeney (The White Lotus) is going to give it a try.

What's the Original Movie?

The year was 1968, and the world wasn't ready for Barbarella, a film that starts with Jane Fonda being blasted into space on a spy mission. Playing an astronaut / government agent / woman who can heal you with the power of sex, Fonda tripped around in big boots and tiny dresses for a 'sexsploitation' movie that has gone down in history as one of the most famous cult sci-fis of all time.

Title character Barbarella is a space adventurer sent by the President of Earth to retrieve Professor Durand Durand, an inventor who is living in a far-flung corner of the galaxy. On her way, she is attacked by children with weaponized dolls, saved by a handsome stranger, repays the handsome stranger by having sex with him, meets an angel who has lost the ability to fly, cures him by having sex with him, and get captured by the maniacal Durand Durand.

The mad scientist tries to kill Barbarella by placing her in his 'Exsexsive Machine', which kills people by causing extreme levels of sexual pleasure. But Barbarella is so inherently sexual that instead she maxes out the machine and destroys it.

If it's not clear by now, Barbarella is the greatest movie ever made.

Rebooting

American actress Sydney Sweeney has been hoping for a Barbarella reboot for years. She's been working on it since 2022, and is on board to both produce and star in the movie. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Sweeney hinted that Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz) might end up sitting in the director's chair.

So, why Barbarella? Sweeney told the podcast:

'I've always wanted to do sci-fi. Barbarella is just such a fun character to explore. She really just embraces her femininity and her sexuality, and I love that. She uses sex as a weapon and I think it's such an interesting way into a sci-fi world.'

How To Do It

The question remains: how to remake Barbarella? You can't deliberately set out to make a campy B-movie. Those 'so-bad-it's-good' classics only work because the directors were actually trying to make something groundbreaking and awesome. There's a sincerity there that can't be faked.

Still, if anyone can pull off a new Barbarella it's Edgar Wright. The director is famous for sharp, funny movies with their own sense of style. Take his 2010 action/comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which used video-game imagery and silly visual gags to create a perfectly unique, surprisingly sincere, and thoroughly enjoyable film.

Jane Fonda's 1968 Barbarella is kitschy and cheesy, two qualities that Wright enjoys using in his movies – and to great effect. Should the director really take this project on, it's likely that he might end up making a movie that's actually better than its source material.

Source: Happy Sad Confused Podcast.