Over the last couple years, Sydney Sweeney has emerged as both a sex symbol and a serious actress. In that sense, she’s not unlike Jane Fonda, except that Fonda had to pivot away from lighthearted roles to get her Oscars, whereas Sweeney has been able to be both a modern equivalent of a pinup and a two-time Emmy nominee at the same time. Now she’s effectively going to become Fonda, or at least take on one of her most iconic roles.
As per Deadline, Sweeney is set to star in and executive produce a remake of Barbarella, the 1968 sci-fi camp classic in which Fonda played a scantily-clad interstellar adventurer in the far-flung future. It’s not clear what direction this version will take. Will it be a more progressive rehash of a prurient original, which seems to be what’s happening to the Emmanuelle redux with Léa Seydoux and Audrey Diwan, the latter of the French abortion drama Happening? Whatever happens, it currently has no director or writer(s) yet attached.
Barbarella was directed by Fonda’s then-husband, French director Roger Vadim, and while it wasn’t a smash hit at the time, its combination of kooky Space Age visuals and Eurotrash seediness helped turn it into a cult item. It was the last movie of Fonda’s sex kitten era. Her next film, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? — in which she played a desperate, Depression-era loner who looks ready to give up on life even before she gets involved in one of those demonic dance marathons — rightly earned her her first Oscar nomination.
Perhaps Sweeney can follow in Fonda’s path and do a remake of Horses next — or Klute, or A Doll’s House, or The China Syndrome. As for New Barbarella, it will be Sweeney’s first producing credit. Considering she’s revealed that she doesn’t get paid enough to take time off, maybe moving up in the industry will earn her a well-deserved vacation.
(Via Deadline)