The Four Color Media Monitor

Back in 1996, veteran actress Pamela Anderson, then riding the popularity of her role in Baywatch for 5 seasons, tried unsuccessfully to channel her popularity into films with a movie based on Dark Horse's Barb Wire, originally written by Chris Warner in 1993. The movie was a flop. Now, Entertainment Weekly's announced (via the New York Post) she and her 2 sons are going to produce a TV show based on the same property, and it remains to be seen which new actress will be cast in the role:

Pamela Anderson is revisiting the cult classic Barb Wire. And she's bringing her sons along for the ride.

Anderson and her adult sons, Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee, have formed production company And-Her-Sons Productions, whose first project will be a TV version based on the story of Dark Horse Comics' 1990s character, whom the actress played in the 1996 action flick.

A representative for Anderson confirms to Entertainment Weekly that the Baywatch alum and Brandon Thomas Lee will executive produce the project that's still in development.

Deadline was the first to report the news and noted that Anderson won't be returning to her role in the series with "a different feel" than the movie. [...]

The character Barb Wire is the creation of Chris Warner and originated in the Dark Horse Comics series, first appearing in Comics’ Greatest World: Steel Harbor in 1993. The company is also putting out a comprehensive volume collecting every main line Barb Wire comic, plus bonus material, called The Barb Wire Compendium, in February 2026.

It only became a "cult classic" based on its alleged campiness years after it went to video, where it was probably best suited. As Movieweb explains:

The 1996 movie starring Anderson is one that could have easily slipped under the radar for modern audiences, as the film was a $3.8 million box office flop on its release, but found a cult following later on home video. In the years since, the film’s reputation – and a set of dismal Rotten Tomatoes scores (28% critics, 15% audience) - has helped it mostly fade into obscurity.

When it was released, Barb Wire was labeled by many as an attempt to cash in on Anderson’s sex symbol status, and one look at her busty blonde appearance in marketing for the film did not really debunk that idea. Who will take on the role of Barb in the new series is not yet known, but several comments have already made it known that Sydney Sweeney was born for the role. Can’t imagine why they would think that.

And Collider notes:

The film took a number of liberties from the comic. Instead of the present, the film was set in the dystopian future of 2017, after the Second American Civil War; Steel Harbor was the last free city that had escaped the jackboot of the country's new rulers. Barb Wire (Anderson) runs a nightclub in Steel Harbor, and secretly aids freedom fighters who help smuggle fugitives across the border to Canada; this may be a nod to Anderson, who was born in British Columbia. One day, an old lover of hers, Axel Hood (Temuera Morrison) comes into her bar with fugitive scientist Dr. Corrina Devonshire (Victoria Rowell). They want safe passage to Canada, and Barb is going to have to use all her wits and her wiles to get them past the fascist Colonel Victor Pryzer (Steve Railsback), crooked-but-friendly local cop Willis (Xander Berkeley), and fearsome gangster Big Fatso (Andre Rosey Brown). If this all sounds familiar, it's because Barb Wire is a very loose remake of Casablanca!

Yes, but that obviously didn't improve the original film's fortunes. I think the overall budget was $17 million, including marketing costs, so less than $4 million certainly wouldn't recoup the expenses on what was clearly not a film they were investing much in. What I do know is that the "don't call me babe" tagline was heavy-handed in the movie, as this article from Slash Film makes clear:

In David Hogan's 1996 sci-fi clunker "Barb Wire," Pamela Anderson (who was fresh off a star-making stint on "Baywatch" when she made the movie) plays Barb Kopetski, a stripper and bar-owner trying to survive in a then-near-future U.S. The year is 2017, and the United States is suffering through a second Civil War. Meanwhile, Barb runs the Hammerhead, a nightclub and adult performance venue in the only free city still left in the country. Barb dances on stage but tolerates no lasciviousness; she murders a patron with her spike-heeled shoe for the temerity of calling her "babe." Barb is uncaring, unconcerned with the war, and looks out only for herself. Oh, yes, and on the side, she makes money as a bounty hunter and freelance vigilante.

This has to be what destroys the movie's rendition. A guy says what's otherwise complimentary, and we're supposed to be fine with the star terminating somebody over something so petty? What may have been an exclamation directed at crooks in the comics was turned into an early insult in the film to the whole idea of being complimentary and affectionate to women back in the day, and it could be said it did far more harm than good to relations between men and women. (Interestingly, she even made a joke with the tagline in her last Baywatch appearance at least a year afterwards.) She also kept the arm tattoo she got for the movie for nearly 15 years before getting it removed, even letting it remain visible in some of her subsequent TV performances. I honestly don't know why that was such a big deal to begin with that she risk ruining her skin over tattoos. Though it's certainly amazing she made a comeback lately, starring in movies like the Last Showgirl.

On the subject of Anderson's sex symbol status, that itself wasn't the problem. No, it was that, at least at that time, she wasn't considered a talented actress beyond what charm she could bring to the small screen as opposed to the big one. So while she may have done well enough as a co-star on Baywatch and then star of her own series, VIP, she never cemented a serious film career and ended up as one of a number of TV performers whose aspirations for film stardom never went anywhere. And the Barb Wire film surely had the unfortunate effect of dooming the comic to obscurity for years, until at least one more miniseries was produced a decade ago, and it may have been less sexy like various other stories at the time, if memory serves. And if so, they sure didn't do any favors for what new stories they'd like to do for Warner's creation. Maybe that's why you could reasonably wonder, what do they mean by a "different feel" to a TV show? Because there's no telling if this'll have any sex appeal to it, even though Anderson's outfit in the movie differed from that of the comics counterpart, which was more jeans-style.

If this new project based on the Barb Wire comic is really going ahead, we'll only be able to determine clearly if it's worth anything when it's broadcast on the airwaves. And we can only hope this time, they'll avoid mistakes like exclaiming "don't call me babe" in ways as forced as the 1996 movie did, or depicting a woman we thought we're supposed to be rooting for casually slaying a guy solely for complimenting her. And, we should hope they don't make it sexless.

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