Pamela Anderson Producing a BARB WIRE TV Reboot with Story Details Revealed
Pamela Anderson is bringing back one of her most infamous roles. The actress and her production company, And-Her-Sons Productions, are developing a TV reboot of Dark Horse Comics’ Barb Wire.
The project is still in early development, but new details hint that this small-screen reimagining will be very different from the notorious 1996 film.
Anderson is producing the series with her sons, Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee. While it’s still too soon to know if she’ll reprise her role as Barbara Kopetski, aka Barb Wire, the reboot promises to deliver something fresh.
Deadline reports the new show will have “a different feel” from the movie, which was intended to launch Anderson as a big-screen star but bombed at the box office with just $3.8 million on a $23 million budget.
The series will focus on Steel Harbor’s toughest bounty hunter, Barbara Kopetski. Armed with heavy firepower, a motorcycle, and an unbreakable attitude, Barb takes on dirty jobs in a corrupt world where she’ll right wrongs for the right price. That setup alone opens the door for a gritty, action-driven series that could appeal to fans of The Boys, Sin City, or Altered Carbon.
According to the report: “Through the family's new [production company], they will produce projects that reinforce and celebrate Anderson’s legacy and that of other aspirational female figures, both fictional and non-fictional.”
The Barb Wire comics first hit shelves under Dark Horse Comics’ “Comics Greatest World” imprint in 1994. The series ran for nine issues before returning in a four-issue miniseries in 1996, the same year the movie was released.
That film saw Anderson as a nightclub owner who moonlights as a mercenary in one of the last free zones of a fascist United States. The story introduced supporting characters like scientist Cora Devonshire (Victoria Rowell) and Barb’s former flame Axel Hood (Temuera Morrison), who brought plenty of melodrama and explosions to the mix.
Despite its cult following, Anderson herself admitted she barely remembers making the film. In her Netflix documentary Pamela, A Love Story, she said, “I have no idea what happened in that movie. I don’t think anyone does. Again, I like the outfit. I like the hair and makeup. A lot of times I’ll go, 'Wait, that really happened? How could that possibly happen? I’m just in shock.'”
Today, Anderson is in the midst of a career resurgence thanks to acclaimed performances in The Last Showgirl and The Naked Gun. A Barb Wire reboot could serve as a kind of superhero redemption for the star while introducing the character to a brand-new audience.
It’s still early days for the project, with no cast or creative team attached yet, but it’s interesting to see Anderson revisiting this wild piece of 90s comic book history.