It was announced in May 2008 by The Hollywood Reporter that director Robert Rodriguez is shopping around Women in Chains!. The spec script, penned by Josh Miller and Mark Fortin, has been sent to a number of networks, including NBC and FX.

McGowan is set play one of five chained women at the center of the show, which Rodriguez is expected to direct. The two first worked together on last year's Planet Terror, Rodriguez's homage to 1970s exploitation flicks. The new show also is rumored to be fashioned with a 1970s exploitation sensibility, with such staples like mud wrestling. Details about the plot were first leaked to AintItCool.com.

It was announced in May 2007 that Robert Rodriguez would direct Barbarella, a remake of the 1968 film starring Jane Fonda as a futuristic mercenary. There has ever since been rumors that Rose McGowan would take the starring role. These were fueled in July when Rose changed her hair color to a Barbarella esque strawberry blonde.

In August Joblo.com's scooper, a guy they call Zeiss, claimed that Rodriguez is nearing the start of production on Barbarella, and that they have already done some FX test footage with McGowan standing in as the space vixen.

In September MTV Movies Blog reported the following:

I chatted for a bit with Jessica Alba yesterday and we were talking about her action chops as an actress. Basically, she said she really wants to do another big action role, so I threw out Barbarella as a possibility. She paused and simply said, "Isn't that going to Rose? I think it is."

The latest development is that the film is slated to start shooting in Austin in November 2007 - but no leading lady has yet been announced. Stay tuned!

Update (November 2007): Robert Rodriguez has confirmed that Rose McGowan was slated to star in the title role. However, they have encountered problems with the budget and the future of Barbarella remains unknown. Please read the latest developments here.

Update (July 2008): Says Rodriguez:

This one kind of took its place because I'm committed to another project in the fall.

Says McGowan:

It's kind of sad. There's 70 million dollars of funding totally there but it would have to wait for a year and half and we'd have to go to Germany for a long time. Not that's there anything wrong with Germany, but it's so far in the future that literally he could get two more movies, I could get another movie or do a TV show. People just don't understand that usually, you've got 20 different things going on at once, hoping that one sticks. If an actor or director had only one thing they were trying to produce or get made, they would be in the poorhouse. They'd be screwed. You're always trying to hustle. I'm gonna hustle at the end of the day. Hopefully, it's something really good. It's like juggling. You don't know what's going to stick and what's going to fall. It's not like something that dramatically fell apart. You ask and director or producer here, they'll tell you the same thing.

Angelina Jolie was originally said to be Robert Rodriguez's first choice in the role of Ava, so much so that he was delaying production to correspond with her pregnancy, according to Rosario Dawson, but a subsequent article stated there are three rumored frontrunners for the role of Ava Lord: Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and Rose McGowan. Frank Miller himself confirmed that he and Rodriguez were interested in having Jolie as Ava, and that the director was discussing the possibility with her. Jolie later discussed in an article that she read the comic and plans to meet with the director when the movie is planned to be made. It has also been reported that Angelina Jolie has been replaced by Rachel Weisz as the front runner to play Ava but the rumors of Rose stepping in the shoes have also been strong and frequent.

During the Grindhouse press junket one of the interviewers asked Rose, "Is there any chance of seeing you in Sin City?". Rose just smiled and he said, "I'll take that as a yes then" to which Rose replied, "I dont know, I just like smiling". Later Dawson, who co-starred with Rose in Death Proof, said: "The lead actress is going to be absolutely fabulous — but I can't tell you who it is."

Rose McGowan is a long time fan of Clara Bow and it has been a dream of hers to portray the silent film actress in a movie. Back in 1999, at Hugh Hefner's bash for Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl, Rose admitted she'd "do anything" to play Bow in writer David Stanton's screenplay on the actress. Anything? "I'll even cut my hair off."

Apparently Rose did indeed win the role of Clara Bow. Telegraph Magazine back in 2001 reported that Rose was to star in a film based on the life of Bow. It is a source of tremendous pride for Rose that Bow's son had approved her to play his mother, since he has spent the past few decades turning down offers left, right and center. The second he laid eyes on McGowan, he chose her to portray the tragic actress.

"She was sent to a mental institute, which she loved, strangely enough, because life had been so awful: her dad molested her, her mother tried to stab her to death. As sexualized as she was, she was also very innocent", said Rose of Clara Bow.

The status of the Clara Bow biopic is unknown now, six years later. But Rose did recently mention that it is still her biggest dream to portray Bow in the future. Here's to hoping it will happen one day!

To learn more about Clara Bow, check out the following resources: IMDb & The Clara Bow Page

Update (November 2007): Rose McGowan comments on the fate of the picture:

I would love for it to be in the works. Unfortunately, when the script came in, it was just not there. There are rights issues to the story that would prohibit it being rewritten by someone else. That one was a heartbreaker. However, this question has reminded me to look into it again!