Sydney Sweeney’s Anyone But You romcom with Glen Powell raked in significantly more money than Madame Web, the Sony movie starring Dakota Johnson talking about her mom researching spiders in the Amazon or something to that effect. In a smaller role, Sweeney portrayed a future Spider-Woman, and that box-office clunker will likely lead nowhere else in Sony’s Marvel plan, but the film did lay the ground for business relationships that Sweeney has parlayed into Sony’s remake of Barbarella.
The 1968 original movie, of course, starred Jane Fonda with massive hair and skimpy outfits in a campy-yet-sexy sci-fi story. Over a decade ago, Rose McGowan was once attached in a version that would have been directed by Robert Rodriguez, but those possibilities collapsed sometime shortly after Planet Terror and the rest of Grindhouse didn’t fare so well at the box office. Since we already know that Sydney can do sexy and silly at the same time, this remake is likely in the best hands possible. What else is in the works?
Plot
Word broke in October 2022 of Sweeney securing the role (via Deadline) along with an executive producer spot, and although the film hadn’t yet secured writers or a director, the Immaculate star wasted little time in Instagramming her enthusiasm with a retro throwback image from the original: “time to save the universe.”
The original Paramount Pictures film based upon the French comic book by Jean-Claude Forest’s French comic and was set (according to a synopsis from yesteryear) on “the planet Lythion in the year 40,000, when Barbarella makes a forced landing while travelling through space. She acts like a female James Bond, vanquishing evil in the forms of robots and monsters.” Then things got spicier: “She also rewards, in an uninhibited manner, the handsome men who assist her in the adventure.”
Thus far, an updated synopsis hasn’t been released, but details began swirling about Edgar Wright being in negotiations to direct with Jane Goldman and Honey Ross potentially signing on to write the script.
Sweeney, for her part, recently told Josh Horowitz (after the 42:00 mark on the Happy Sad Confused podcast) that the remake “is” still happening, and she loves how “she really just embraces her femininity and her sexuality, and I love that.” Care for more? “She uses sex as a weapon, and I think it’s just such an interesting way into a sci-fi world.” Yes, this will be a hit movie.
In summary, thank goodness that Madame Web existed because, as Sweeney told GQ UK, “Because I did that, I was able to sell Anyone But You. I was able to get Barbarella.”
Cast
Sweeney is the only cast member attached thus far, and that’s alright.
Release Date
That likely depends on when Wright and Sweeney get freed up. It surely won’t be the third Euphoria season that causes issues, yet Sweeney remains one of the most in-demand actresses in the business.
Trailer
No trailer exists yet, obviously, but it’s worth taking a look back at the promotional material for the 1968 movie. The wind machine is out of control, but to be fair, so is the lead character.
