Robert Rodriguez Turned Down $70 Million Budget For Barbarella Because Of His Kids
Some will be sad, some will rejoice, others still will shrug butRobert RodriguezandRose McGowan’s proposedBarbarellais, according to the man himself, dead. Talking toMTV, the director has revealed that he turned down $70 million in finance because of a tricky little clause in the small print.
The money would have come from a German company and they were requesting he shoot and carry out post in Germany too. He says:
Nothing against Germany, but I have five kids and I was like, ‘God, I don’t know if we can do that. I don’t know if I can be away that long.’
I can understand this, completely. There was an option to take his kids to Germany too, I suppose, but that wouldn’t necessarily be fair on them either. Or… the other version of events might be true – those oldrumorsabout Rodriguez and McGowan splitting up and that scuppering the movie. Though I don’t know why he’d not just make the film with another star….?
Of course, now the project is stone cold he’s still talking it up and, perversely, making it sound more appealing than ever. What does he want? Universal to come running back – they were on board before the Germans – checkbook in hand?
People said, ‘Why are you doingBarbarella? And I showed them the artwork and explained it. They would go, ‘Ooooh, okay!’
Rodriguez completed a great deal of concept art and screen tests that showed his approach to the film, and some of which he hopes to someday share. It was, apparently, inspired by the look ofMetal Hurlant, orHeavy Metal– previously cited as inspiration by Ridley Scott on bothAlienandBlade Runner, so it has a fine pedigree in sci-fi it inspired.
Indeed, it seems likeBarbarellawas devised to be an ersatzHeavy Metaladaptation and onlyBarbarellaas a means to that end:
AfterSin City, I was looking through all my comic collection to see, ‘Well, what else might I make?’ The only other thing that I had tons of wereHeavy Metalmagazines. I said, ‘I wanna make aHeavy Metalmovie!’ AndBarbarellafit the bill because you could have everything in that movie.
There’songoing talkof a newHeavy Metalpicture, with Zack Snyder and David Fincher amongst the attached directors. Will they let Rodriguez on their merry go round too? Or will he just have to find another kitchen sink project he can “have everything” in?
