One piece of trivial information about Barbarella is now so widely known that it hardly qualifies as "trivia" at this point: The 1980s British pop band Duran Duran took its name from the oft-mentioned character in the film, Durand-Durand.

Jean-Claude Forest was already a well-known illustrator of science-fiction book covers in France when he was asked in 1962 to create an adult comic strip for V-Magazine. Forest's Barbarella strip was first collected in book form in 1964. It was a hit and was translated into a dozen languages. Forest released several other books collecting the strip, but the 1968 film was based solely on incidents in the first collection.

In an unusual move for a movie based on a comics property, the creator of the Barbarella comic strip, Jean-Claude Forest, was welcomed into the art department of the production, and served as "artistic consultant."

While the film was still in production, a nude photo of Jane Fonda from Barbarella appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine, on November 13, 1967. The cover blurb: Anything Goes: The Permissive Society.

The flying sequences in Barbarella were shot with a sophisticated front-projection process developed by the Italian effects crew at producer De Laurentiis' Rome studio. A similar process was developed in England a few years earlier for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), yet that film had not yet been released when Barbarella was in production.

The justly-famous opening title sequence for Barbarella - which contains probably the least-read titles in movie history – was designed by Maurice Binder. Binder designed the title sequences for dozens of movies during his career, including The Mouse That Roared (1959), Charade (1963), and Bedazzled (1967). He is most famous, though, for creating the title sequence of almost every James Bond film from Dr. No in 1962 through The Living Daylights in 1987.

Charles Fox, co-writer of the soundtrack songs in Barbarella performed by The Glitterhouse, later co-wrote a number of TV themes in the 1970s for such shows as Happy Days, Wonder Woman, Laverne and Shirley, and most famously, The Love Boat.

Jane Fonda turned down the lead roles in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Rosemary's Baby (1968) to stay in France with Vadim during the preparations to shoot Barbarella.

Model and actress Anita Pallenberg was recommended to Vadim for the role of the Black Queen in Barbarella by screenwriter Terry Southern. Southern had befriended Pallenberg, who was part of the London "jet-set" and had dated both Brian Jones and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Southern had been working with the rock group on a screenplay adaptation of the Anthony Burgess book A Clockwork Orange which was to star the Stones as the "droogs" of the novel.

John Phillip Law stayed with Fonda and Vadim in their rented castle outside Rome during the filming of Barbarella and also while Law was shooting Diabolik (1968) for director Mario Bava. Law's girlfriend at the time was American folk singer Joan Baez. Fonda and Baez did not discuss politics and activism during her visits, however – Fonda's political awakening was still some months away.

The American movie posters for Barbarella featured artwork of Jane Fonda in costume holding a laser rifle and the following copy: The space age adventuress whose sex-ploits are among the most bizarre ever seen, as well as the tagline SEE BARBARELLA DO HER THING!

LIFE Magazine ran a cover story on Jane Fonda and Barbarella in their March 29, 1968 issue. The cover blurb read "Fonda's Little Girl Jane" alongside a provocative still of Fonda in the black and plastic skintight "Barbarella" spacesuit. More stills from the film were featured in the interior layout with the headline "Up and Away with Jane Fonda."

Barbarella received a major theatrical reissue in 1977, in the wake of the runaway success of Star Wars (1977). For this release, cuts were made to the film to ensure a PG rating. On the posters and promotion, the title was lengthened to Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy.

In 1999, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. were set to co-produce a remake of Barbarella. Charlie's Angels (2000) co-producer and co-star Drew Barrymore was attached to the project, which never got past the planning stage.

In 2006, Dino De Laurentiis reacquired the movie rights to Barbarella from Julien Forest, son of creator Jean-Claude Forest. De Laurentiis hired writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who wrote the script for the critically acclaimed Casino Royale (2006), which relaunched the James Bond franchise. In a press release, De Laurentiis said, "Barbarella is the ultimate science fiction adventure heroine: smart, strong, funny, and sexy. The future is female, and I'm excited to reintroduce Barbarella to a new generation of moviegoers." Robert Rodriguez is attached to the project as director.

by John M. Miller

SOURCES:
My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

Memoirs of the Devil by Roger Vadim

The Fondas: A Hollywood Dynasty by Peter Collier

Bardot, Deneuve, Fonda by Roger Vadim

Psychotronic Magazine Number Twelve –Interview with John Phillip Law by Michael Murphy