Rose McGowan Is RED SONJA
Director Robert Rodriguez is helping to bring the comic book warrior woman Red Sonja back to the big screen, and--surprise--his girlfriend has snagged the title role.
After spending a year trying to get a new Barbarella flick in motion, Grindhouse: Planet Terror director Robert Rodriguez apparently has found another female-centric reboot for paramour Rose McGowan: Robert E. Howard's Red Sonja.
USA Today has reported that Rodriguez will co-produce a film revival of the flame-haired "She-Devil" with a sword, who was made famous through Roy Thomas's Marvel Comics adaptation of Conan the Barbarian creator Howard's work. Longtime Rodriguez associate Douglas Aarniokoski will direct for Nu Image and Millennium Films, who also have fast-tracked a Conan remake.
Sonja made her first trip to the big screen in Director Richard Fleischer's 1985 bomb, which starred the Amazonian Brigitte Nielsen as the title character and top-billed Arnold Schwarzenegger as a barbarian other than Conan.
"Red Sonja is a unique character with a rich history and bright destiny," said Luke Lieberman, Exec Producer and VP of Red Sonja, LLC. "Her struggles and triumphs have endured in the hearts of fans for decades, and now her legend can reach a truly global audience."
The filmic origin story, scripted by David White, likely will be as/more closely linked to the comic version of Red Sonja published for the past several years by Dynamite Entertainment, who have "reinvent[ed] the character for a modern audience," in the words of President/Publisher (and film exec prod) Nick Barrucci, who also said:
"...we're exceptionally pleased that the right combination of talent has been found to bring [Sonja] to life on the big screen. It was a long search--three years--but Rose is ideal for the part, and Robert as producer will ensure that a pure creative vision remains in place, and captures elements of the stories that Dynamite has been telling."
In her cinematic return, Sonja blindly seeks vengeance on those who destroyed her family, but along her destructive way discovers a larger purpose for her unearthly powers: to save all Hyrkania from the villainous Kulan Gath.
Locations are being scouted in Michigan and throughout the United States. Production begins this October toward a 2010 theatrical release.
You can learn more about Sonja at her official website, www.redsonja.net.
[Thanks to Sci Fi Wire and to Mania's JARROD SARAFIN.]