"Drive" Director Gets Into "Barbarella"

According to new reports, the 1968 De Laurentis feature "Barbarella", based on the sci fi comic strip, will be developed by executive producer Martha De Laurentiis and Gaumont International Television into a "Barbarella" TV series, with "Drive" director Nicolas Refn directing the pilot episode.

Episodes will be scripted by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade ("Skyfall"), with the series adhering closely to the style of illustrator Jean-Claude Forest, creator of the French-language "Barbarella" comics.

Paramount Pictures "Barbarella" was directed by Roger Vadim, starring Vadim's wife at the time, actress Jane Fonda :

"...in the year 40,000, 'Barbarella' (Fonda) is assigned by the 'President of Earth' (Claude Dauphin) to retrieve 'Doctor Durand Durand' (Milo O'Shea) from the planet 'Tau Ceti'. Durand Durand is the inventor of the weaponized 'Positronic Ray'.

"Earth is now a peaceful planet, and weapons are unheard of. Because Tau Ceti is an unknown region of space there is the potential for the weapon to fall into the wrong hands..."

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