Barbarella Puts One In The Head Of Sin City 2

I've been telling you for months that Sin City 2 was going to get 'pushed back' - or maybe not even happen at all. And now, there's a pretty clear indication that, indeed, the film is on the backburner.

Very possibly the backburner at the crematorium.

Variety have announced that Robert Rodriguez has signed to direct Universal's Barbarella remake. I don't know if Universal will humour him the way the Weinsteins used to, so I don't necessarily expect Rose McGowan in the lead - but I bet she turns up in there someplace. A villainess? According to producer, Dino De Laurentiis "the future is female", afterall.

This is a much better prospect than any of the other potential projects Rodriguez was juggling. In fact, I have very high hopes for this indeed - even in view of Bond boys Neal Purvis and Robert Wade being the scriptwriters.

So - who will be the lead? Cameron Diaz? Angelina Jolie? Halle Berry? Er... Cobie Smulders? I dare say the interweb will be alight with frenzied anticipation, deliberation and sticky imagination.

I nominate Brad Pitt for Pygar.

The Hildebrand Rarity

Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, erstwhile James Bond warhorses, appear to have let slip that, in fact, Fleming's short story The Hildebrand Rarity has been the key source for 'story elements' in the next film.

On the matter of Bond, the Carice van Houten story started here at film ick. Since it went wide, sneaking into just about every last corner of the international rumourweb, I had one more e-mail from my source. Simply, it said "Notice that there have been no denials from her people - or from Eon", or words to that effect (I've deleted it, unfortunately).

And indeed, I haven't seen a single denial from anyone.