Euphoria and The White Lotus' Sydney Sweeney is a busy actor and producer, and Sony in particular is eager to be in business with her. She's now on board to produce and star in a remake of campy cult 1960s sci-fi Barbarella.
Roger Vadim's 1968 original (adapted from the controversial, erotic comic books of French author Jean-Claude Forest) features Jane Fonda's title character, an astronaut from the 41st century who sets out to find and stop the evil scientist Durand Durand, whose Positronic Ray threatens to bring evil back into the galaxy.
Suffice to say there is lots of camp, sex-heavy weirdness and we're already wondering how it'll translate for a modern audience and what changes will be necessary. That'll be the task of whoever signs on to write and/or direct.
Various versions have been attempted in the last couple of decades, including one that was to star Drew Barrymoreand a TV adaptation that saw the likes of Bond veteran writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and iconoclastic director Nicolas Winding Refn involved at different times.
But Sony doesn't have a lock on development with Sweeney – she has also hatched a deal to be part of an adaptation of Marcus Kliewer’s short story The Caretaker for Universal.
The King's Man's Karl Gajdusek is working on the script for the film, which will follow a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist and quickly discovers her responsibilities have stakes far greater (and more dangerous) than she could have ever imagined.
Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes team are producing this one, which sounds like it could end up on screens before Barbarella. Next up in terms of release for Sweeney are crime pic National Anthem and Spider-spin-off Madame Web, the latter holding a 16 February 2024 date.
Want to get the most from Empire? Sign up for Empire Membership!
Get exclusive content, new member-only rewards, access to the latest issue of the magazine plus our back-issue archive, and much more.