While it appeared as if Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn’s take on Barbarella would be heading to Netflix, the TV series has now been set up at Amazon Studios. The pilot script was written by Skyfall scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, while Deadline‘s report adds that a search is now underway for a showrunner in anticipation of the pilot episode being picked up.
The project has been in development at Gaumont International Television for over 18 months, and Refn is still expected to both serve as executive producer and direct the pilot. GIT currently has two other series – Hannibal and Hemlock Grove – with a third, Narco, in development. Amazon Studios meanwhile has five drama and comedy pilots in the works.
When HeyUGuys caught up with Refn late last year, he emphasised that the changing face of television is what has kept him attached to Barbarella for so long: “I wanted to do a 13-hour movie. Netflix changed everything releasing everything at once. So you could watch it as a 13-hour movie – absolutely.”
Of course, the series is no longer going to Netflix, and it’s not hard to imagine the fact that the online streaming service has since picked up a number of series from Marvel has something to do with Refn’s take on the Jean-Claude Forest graphic novel made famous in the 1968 sci-fi movie staring Jane Fonda now being destined to be distributed elsewhere.
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