With all the remakes flooding theaters anymore it is a bit shocking when one comes off the table. Especially one where sci-fi and sexy collide.
MTV News caught up with producer/director Robert Rodriguez while promoting Sin City on Blu-ray ane managed to extract the fatal scoop: His adaptation of Barbarella is officially dead.
The new version of Barbarella was originally at Universal where its budget stretched into territory the studio was uncomfortable with. When Universal back out, Rodriguez was forced to seek his own financing upwards of $80 million. A German company offered $70 million but everything from shooting to post-production would have had to occur within Germany’s borders. That wasn’t going to happen.
“It came to the point where [a company from] Germany offered us a $70 million budget, which would have been by far the biggest budget I ever would have had for a movie. But I had to shoot it in Germany and post it in Germany. Nothing against Germany, but I have five kids and I was like, ‘God, I don’t know if we can do that. I don’t know if I can be away that long.'”
Can’t say I blame the guy. Being away from home for a few days can be taxing, much less a half a year or more regardless of how thrilling the premise is.
“We had all this artwork and screen tests of what it would look like. It was a really cool, R-rated, sexy—almost like that [1981 animated] movie, Heavy Metal—version of a Star Wars movie. Something that no one ever could get to see. It was gonna be really great.”
That doesn’t mean Robert won’t get to salivate over hot lingerie-clad bodies doing battle. His partner in crime, Rose McGowan, is still on tap to portray Red Sonja in a remake tentatively scheduled for a 2010 release. Rodriguez is listed as a co-producer and “presenter” on that one.
