A few days ago, Canal+ recently announced their association with Gaumont for Barbarella, a new science-fiction series adapted from Jean-Claude Forest's comic-book series (that spawned into a film adaptation in 1968 starring Jane Fonda). Forest published four installments of the Barbarella series :
1964 : Barbarella.
1974 : Les Colères du Mange-Minutes (The Wrath of the Minute Eater).
1977 : Le Semble-Lune (The False Moon).
1982 : Le Miroir aux Tempêtes (The Storm Mirror).
Synopsis : In the year 4000, Barbarella is a young astronaut woman sent on a special mission by the President of Earth : she must travel around the universe, from planet to planet, to find Durand-Durand, a missing scientist inventor of the "absolute weapon", which, in the wrong hands, could destroy an entire planet.
Nicolas Winding Refn, winner of the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2011 Festival de Cannes for the excellent film Drive, will create/produce the series and direct the pilot. Like Borgia and XIII (both returning for 12-13 episode sophomore seasons in early 2013), Barbarella will be shot in English.
Barbarella will be produced and distributed by Gaumont International Télévision, the TV branch (created in September 2011) of the film production/distribution company Gaumont (created in 1895). Gaumont is also producing Hemlock Grove, the Netflix horror series from Eli Roth starring Famke Janssen, Madame Tussaud (no series order yet) and finally Hannibal, the upcoming series from Bryan Fuller (Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies) starring Hugh Dancy (The Big C) as Special Agent Will Graham and Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky) as Dr Hannibal Lecter.
As a matter of fact, Mikkelsen happens to be the first flagship actor of Barbarella creator Refn, having starred in Pusher, Pusher II, Bleeder and Valhalla Rising. Small world. Refn's new flagship actor seems to be Ryan Gosling, who starred in Drive and will star in Refn's next two films, Only God Forgives (with Kristin Scott Thomas ; release in Spring 2013) and Logan's Run (with Rose Byrne), both films will also be produced by Gaumont.
Sources : Deadline and Le Nouvel Observateur, among others.
I'm only interested in this series because of Refn's involvement, to me Drive was one of the best films of 2011. The fact that he directs the pilot and will produce the show can only mean that his visual style will be present throughout the show (like Michael Mann's style which was present on all 9 episodes of Luck, not just the pilot that he directed himself).
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's always good to have more science-fiction on TV. But quite frankly, the plot of Barbarella seems ludicrous. I've never read the bande-dessinées and I haven't seen the whole film but what I've seen was incredibly cheesy, even for 1968. I'm highly intrigued to see what a respectable filmmaker like Refn will do with it.