So a long while back we told you via reader Ashs Missing Hand that Robert Rodriquez’s Barbarella had been dropped by Universal. The source was the New York Observer that said the movie was dropped because of the female lead, namely Rose McGowan;

 ”It’s sort of embarrassing for everyone involved. … No one thinks Rose can carry the movie, but Robert won’t listen.” The paper adds that producer Dino De Laurentiis “wants to back Robert and his vision. But Robert’s vision is blurred by Rose.”

Ash also included an un-sourced quote where Robert Rodriquez reportedly said the following backing up the fact the studio dropped the film;

Rodriguez disputes this claim, saying they were “blown over” by McGowan’s audition and citing the project’s ballooning budget as the reason for Universal’s pullout. “Universal had initially signed on for $60 million,” Rodriguez explained, “but then when we were done with the script it wound up at closer to $82 million, and they had just financed a Will Ferrell movie [Land of the Lost] that was a $130 million and they even cut that down to $100.”

Now from MTV comes word that Rose McGowan is indeed still cast as Barbarella and much more, the movie is well into pre-production. She told them;

“Half of the sets have been built. The costumes are done,” the actress confessed, adding with a laugh that she’s “even got my spaceships. I’ve got part of a spaceship built for me!”

What do you think? I still dont give a crap for this remake regardless of if Rose stars or Jessica Alba ( as the studio apparently wanted ) The fact Robert is directing does give it some hope but we will have to wait on a trailer for this one I think.