Ever since the 2008 San Diego Comic Con panel, mum has been the word on the upcoming remake of Red Sonja, which is being produced by Robert Rodriguez and is starring Rodriguez’s main squeeze, Rose McGowan.
Well now executive producer Joe Gatta (who is also handling the Conan remake) is speaking up about what is going on with Red Sonja and when we can expect the film to hit theaters (apparently the recession has been hitting Hollywood hard as Main Street).
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Gatta’s explanation of the non-movement on Red Sonja is that the downturn in the economy has delayed the film from going into production until 2010. As he told Empire Magazine:
“Because of certain issues and the economy, we had to change our plan a bit. It’s frustrating because we thought we’d make the movie last year, before Conan.”
Gatta also confirmed that Red Sonja will be an origin story – one that totally ignores the 1985 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen. Instead, the character will be inspired by the original Red Sonja from the Marvel comic book created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in 1973. Says Gatta:
“She’s beautiful and sexy, and she kicks ass!…Although you have to be really careful so it’s not campy. You want to make it real. Make her convincingly tough. And I think we have a script that’s cracked it.”
Of course, for all his praise of Red Sonja, Gatta affirms that his main focus is squarely set on getting Conan The Barbarian up on the big screen. While he claims that Red Sonja WILL start filming in 2010, I for one wouldn’t hold him to it until everything with Conan is smoothed and at the ready.
Red Sonja is set to be directed by longtime Robert Rodriguez-associate, Douglas Aarniokoski, whose credits include Highlander: Endgame 
, and some assistant director work on Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Resident Evil: Extinction.
According to Gatta, he hopes to shoot Red Sonja in 2010 and have the movie out in theaters late that same year. We’ll see how it goes.
Source: Empire via Coventry Telegraph
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16 Comments
I would be honestly stunned if this movie turned out to be anything decent at all.
Vic
Ignoring the previous incarnation is admirable but like Vic said, I can’t believe this will be that good.
I want it to be good .
I hope it is .
She is sooo petite for that role. Is she even going to be able to lift a real sword???
Rose… McGowan… Seriously??? ugh…
Frankly, the change in the timetable doesn’t seem like much of a coincidence. I’m inclined to believe that for “Red Sonja” to even get into production, “Conan” will have to prove itself successful at the box office. Otherwise, I suspect we won’t see anything happen with “Red Sonja.”
The original is a bit on the daft side, but enjoyable nonetheless. A brand new concept would be interesting, however I’m not too hopeful.
They should rename this:
“How some studio let me waste 50 million dollars to make a peice of tripe and then gave me another 40 million to market the failure”
I know it’s too long but I think it’s a better title..
Well, the guy’s CV says it all: He directed something AD on a ton of stuff, some good, some god-awful, directed the terrible “Endgame” and then slipped back to AD or Second Unit. But being an AD, Second Unit AD or even Second Unit Director ain’t the same as being a director, no matter how close you are to being top dog. You still answer to someone in charge.
One of the worst abominations to be vomited to the screen, “Battlefield Earth” was directed by Roger Christian, Second Unit Director of “Star Wars: Episode One”. I rest my case.
Terrible grammar, hamlet3k. That’s what you get for trying to edit while you’re still forming your thoughts. What I meant to say was, “Well, the guy’s CV says it all: He AD’ed on a ton of stuff, some good, some god-awful, directed the… ” Don’t know where that extra “directed something” came from.
Heh.
I am a RR fan and Rose fan. She was awesome in Charmed. But I’m a little leary about her being Red. She is very tiny and she’d probably fall over trying to swing a sword that’s most likely bigger and heavier then she is, lol. You never know though. Now if China wasn’t a nutcase like she is now, there’s the perfect reincarnation of Red but now she would just be really bad.
Hey..Did you see Planet Terror? Then you know it’s gonna be good…
Geez…”the original comic…”?
Ever hear of Robert E. Howard ye festering boil?!?
Of course ye’d have to READ…though even if y’d looked at the drawings of Frank Frazetta ye’d know those both predated Stan Lee’s Marvel by about 40 years.
And how about a Valkyrie for Sonja – a woman of stature who could have actually survived in that time and place?
http://tinyurl.com/nmsqyl
Capt Swallow:
You would be incorrect. Red Sonja is NOT an original RE Howard creation, but was introduced for Marvel’s Conan comics in the 1970s and created by Roy Thomas. They are exactly correct.
RE Howard had a character named Red Sonya (note the difference in spelling) who was a Russian woman and not set in the Hyborian setting at all.
While we’re on the topic of reading, I suggest you read those 70s comics, especially the magazine-format Savage Sword of Conan that lasted through the mid-late 80s. Violent is hardly strong enough a word for them, intelligently written and perfectly evocative of the harsh yet starkly beautiful world of REH’s Conan stories. If the Conan and Red Sonja films can achieve on the screen what those books did on the printed page, then the result would be worthy to show Crom himself.
I would hardly cite “inspired by and changed the spelling” as an “original creation”
“Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a fictional character, a high fantasy sword and sorcery heroine created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith who adapted the character from Red Sonya of Rogatino (”Shadow Of The Vulture” 1934) created by Robert E. Howard . She first appeared in Conan the Barbarian #23 (Marvel Comics).”
There seems to be some question about REH’s character Red Sonya as I’m certain I remember her in a Conan novel (’course I’ve not read it in 30 years)…perhaps I’ve confused her with Valerian (though they look nothing alike).
It seems, in fact, that Howard’s Red Sonya actually qualified as “historical fiction” – using actual persons and events in the story.
“The Shadow of the Vulture” is historical fiction, set in the 16th century. It uses the career of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (also known as Sultan Suleiman I), the aftermath of the Battle of Mohács and the later Siege of Vienna of 1529 as a backdrop for imaginary characters and events.
In the story, Red Sonya is a gun-slinging warrior woman of Polish-Ukrainan origin with a grudge against the Ottoman sultan, the eponymous red hair and a fiery temper to match.
It was revealed in the narrative that she was sibling to the favourite of Sulemain himself, the ruthenian harem-girl Roxelana, who ended up marrying him as sole legal wife.
Howard’s Red Sonya had no connection to his Conan the Barbarian character. It was Roy Thomas and Barry Smith in Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian title who transposed Red Sonya into the Hyborian Age, changing the spelling of her name in the process.
There were a few “strong warrior women” in Howard’s works – and in Frazetta’s art (and Boris Vallejo following).
…and the novels are as graphic -if not more – than the comics. Robert E. Howard was one of the kings of American Pulp Fiction…the bastard child of England’s Penny Dreadfuls…
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