Canal+ boards Gaumont’s Barbarella

French pay TV broadcaster Canal+ has come on board Gaumont International Television’s reboot of Barbarella, directed by Drive’s Nicolas Refn.

Canal+ has been ramping up its investment in original drama programming and  has commissioned high profile series including Versailles, produced by Zodiak Media Group’s Marathon Images, to follow up on the success of Borgia and XIII.

The pay net is the first broadcaster to come on board Barbarella, which is the latest high profile US television series announced by Gaumont International Television, the recently launched US arm of the French studio, following NBC’s Hannibal and Netflix’s Hemlock Grove.

Barbarella was originally a science fiction film, starring Jane Fonda, based on Jean-Claude Forest’s French comic book series.

The television remake, which is also currently being shopped to US broadcast networks and cable channels, will be directed and executive produced by Refn and Martha De Laurentiis, who is also working with Gaumont on Hannibal.