Screen Rant » red sonja

Rose McGowan Tweets Some “Red Sonja” Updates

Niall Browne — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:18:37 +0000

It seems like anyone waiting to see Rose McGowan wield a giant sword in Red Sonja will have to wait a while longer – haven’t we said this before?

The Robert Rodriguez produced / Douglas Aarniokoski directed film has been chugging along in development for quite some time now, and it was recently put on hold due to the economic downturn. It looked like McGowan might not suit-up (or should that be suit down) to play the titular heroine, but now the actress has taken to Twitter to soothe fans fears.

Although having said that, the film is over a year away at the very least. Wwill the actress’ schedule hold out?

McGowan’s first post on Twitter said:

“Just this once i’ll address questions about Red Sonja & others; i was meant to do in ‘08. Major personal &private; reasons I pulled out. Starting 2 want to work again. Sometimes real life f***ing sucks. That’s all. God bless us survivors.”

The actress then followed the post up with:

“To clarify press reports: Red Sonja is delayed. I pulled out of doing it in ‘09. Not permanently. Hopefully will follow Conan.”

And finally this:

” I am still contracted to do it Red Sonja. Hopefully Filming in ‘10 not ‘09″.

*Please note that all punctuation and grammar is McGowan’s!

Now it obviously appears that McGowan is still attached to the project – but it would appear that she has no idea when the film will go before cameras. If she is booked up with other projects when shooting begins then she might have to hand the sword over to another (younger?) actress?

Also the word “hopefully” covers a multitude of potential problems and although she is still contracted it does not mean she will star. After-all Brandon Routh and George Clooney were both contracted to star as Superman and Batman again!

McGowan is the girlfriend of producer Robert Rodriguez, so it is likely that she won’t be dropped. Although having said that, McGowan was supposed to star in a Rodriguez directed version of Barbarella and the studio walked away from the project because the actress wasn’t a big enough box office draw to justify the $70 million budget.

But no matter what, it certainly looks like we’ll be seeing Marcus Nispel’s Conan remake first – a film that has been in development for over a decade!

More when we get it!

Source: MTV and Twitter

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Producer Speaks Up About Red Sonja Remake

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:47:50 +0000

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).

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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Conan Update: Ratner Out, McTeigue In?

Rob Keyes — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:16:26 +0000

This may make some fans happy.

Empire magazine had the opportunity to speak with Joe Gatta, producer of the upcoming Conan and Red Sonja movies and their conversation revealed some interesting information regarding Conan and the director’s position.

It was back in October of last year when the rumor surfaced of Ratner being selected to helm the remake and for a while it seemed like a sure-thing. This February, Ratner discussed the movie and casting and all throughout the process the feedback from the readers was… well, let’s just say it wasn’t very positive.

For those who didn’t like the idea of Ratner making Conan, Empire’s conversation with Gatta revealed that Ratner will not be directing the movie:

“We’re currently in the process of hiring a director… For the past six months we were discussing the movie with Brett Ratner, and for more timing issues than anything else we had to part ways with Brett. We all wanted him to do it, believe me; just the timing didn’t work. But you never know what can happen.”

That doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility however. If Ratner’s schedule clears up in the future and the movie is delayed even more, he could still direct. For now, you can feel relieved as it’s unlikely he will.

So, if Ratner’s out, who are they considering instead?

According to CHUD, James McTeigue is their number one choice. Interestingly, McTeigue has worked alongside the Wachowski brothers on all three of the Matrix films and Speed Racer as an assistant director and in return, they’ve helped him with V for Vendetta and this year’s Ninja Assassin of which he directed himself.

Why is that interesting? Well, the Wachowski brothers were previously rumored to direct the Conan reboot, so if McTeigue gets the gig, we can almost expect them to have a part in it as well.

For those out there who think they can play Conan, you better start working out. In the interview, producer Gatta also said that once they lockdown the director, they will hold an open casting call for the lead part. I’m throwing my support out there to James Preston Rogers, the 6’6” monster of a man who is also rumored to play Thor.

“We have a potential start-date on Conan of August 24. And we’ll be shooting in Bulgaria. I would say though the emphasis is on Conan [rather than Red Sonja]. It’s our crown jewel here at the company and that will be the leader. Red Sonja probably won’t happen until next year, as far as making it goes. So we want to launch Conan and reinvent the franchise.”

If the movie runs on schedule and films this summer, we can expect a release later next year.

What do you think of the director swap?

Sources: Empire, CHUD

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Robert Rodriguez’ Shorts & Sin City 2 – Updated

Niall Browne — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:03:45 +0000

Screen Rant usually likes to mull over movie news so that what we publish is accurate (or close to it).

Well we once again discovered the benefits of patience.

Yesterday IESB ran a story stating that the cash strapped Weinstein Company had let the rights to a Sin City sequel lapse and that the film would be produced by Robert Rodriguez’ Trouble Maker studios -- but financed by a private equity group. However, someone at the Weinstein Company got wind of the story and said “Hold on a minute -- that’s not true!” Weinstein Lawyer Bert Fields issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly saying:

“TWC’s rights to produce sequels to Sin City remain intact as they always have been. Any suggestion to the contrary is complete hogwash.”

So who is right? The fist-shaking laywer or the movie site’s source? Your guess is as good as ours. [UPDATE: It turns out our friends at IESB were right and the lawyer was just doing what lawyers do: lie.]

Fans of the Frank Miller comic book (and film) are clamoring for the sequel that has been mooted even before the release of the first film. Sin City which was released in 2005 grossed $158 million at the worldwide box office and helped lead to the release of Zach Snyder’s 300 as well as the Frank Miller directed The Spirit (although the less said about that the better).

However, I wouldn’t hold your breath for a sequel to Sin City just yet. Robert Rodriguez is a very busy man -- following Sin City he directed the Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse, the forthcoming Shorts as well as producing a slew of projects including Red Sonja. A source close to Rodriguez says:

“(The rumor that TWC is not involved with Sin City 2 is )not true. That’s a rumor that’s been going around for a while. It’s really just a matter of timing, and he hopes to do it with them in the near future.”

Rodriguez’s next film is reported to be the futuristic crime thriller Nerverackers.

Now fans of Rodriguez will be interested in his next release: Shorts -- a children’s film in the same vein as The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl and his Spy Kids films.

Like a mini-George Lucas, Rodriguez has been pushing the boundaries of technology in film and Shorts does not appear to be any different.

Check out the video below to see how the From Dusk Till Dawn helmer is using computers to bring visually interesting films to the big screen on a limited budget and time frame.

Now have a look at the trailer for Shorts:

[See post to watch Flash video]

While it may not be to everyone’s taste it’s looks kind of cute and is sure to keep the kids interested for 90 minutes.

More on Shorts and Sin City 2 when we get it.

Sources: IESB, EW and Joblo

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A Big Pile Of New Movie Posters

Rob Keyes — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:43:31 +0000

Today we have a pile of new posters we’ve been collecting throughout the week from a variety of sources.

These include the final poster for The Spirit, the first posters for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and new posters for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Lost: Season 5, Red Sonja, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

That’s a lot of posters!

Without going into too much detail about what I like/dislike about each one, I’ll say that they’re all pretty good, actually.

Take a look and see what you think:

For Underworld, this poster definitely serves its purpose with Bill Nighy’s character Viktor sitting on the throne – simple, but epic for fans of the first two installments. As always, the poster is dark and drenched with a blue overlay.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans poster

For Benjamin Button, the posters are a little bland but together are pretty clever with the reversed text on the one featuring Brad Pitt, referring to his reversing age in the film. I’m not too sure the movie will be a massive box office hit, but it will probably be Oscar material and I’ll definitely be seeing it.

Cate Blanchett featured in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Spirit poster references earlier posters which were not good but I actually dig this one a bit (don’t hurt me, Vic!). The prior posters weren’t cool on there own but put together with this better color-scheme and design, it’s pretty cool and aesthetically pleasing I think.

Final Poster for The Spirit

As for Lost, I love that show and this poster simply shows off what the next season will be about – the split of on-island and off-island characters.

Poster for Lost Season 5

Ice Age 3 and Red Sonja serve their purpose (and respective target audiences) fine I suppose.

Red Sonja poster

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs poster

So, any thoughts or favorites?

Sources: The Movie Blog (Red Sonja), Shock Till You Drop (Underworld), Aint It Cool News (Lost), First Showing (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Filmofilia (Ice Age 3), Coming Soon (The Spirit)

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Comic-Con ‘08: Red Sonja Panel

Bruce Simmons — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:24:11 +0000

The Red Sonja panel with Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Rose McGowan (Grindhouse) and Doug Aarniokoski (2nd unit director, Resident Evil 3) was held on Thursday, the 24th.

While this wasn’t in the “big hall,” the presentation was in a very large room and it filled up- which surprised me a little bit. Then again considering the history of the people on the project, maybe it shouldn’t have. It showed me there’s a strong public interest in the two principles on this project: Rodriguez and McGowan.

They presented two new movie posters for Red Sonja that I found most interesting and were handing out t-shirts with the image of the 2nd poster on it. It was rather coveted by the masses.

Rodriguez chatted about the first time he saw a Red Sonja comic book and his challenge of trying to get his mother to buy it for him. The challenge was the possible risque cover art! After that, the Red Sonja comic book franchise was his obsession since he was about 11 years old!

From there, he’s basically become a Robert E. Howard fan.

Panel questions lend some insight into Rose McGowan:
She tends to enjoy roles that embody female empowerment and vengeance.

She made an interesting statement about a turning point in her career. In regards to how her old method of landing movie roles was to wait for good roles to be offered to her, but of late, she’s decided to go after the roles she wants. The powerful, angry female roles.

Rose as Red Sonja, the fortuitous timing:
One morning Rose was going through some scripts and pointed out the Red Sonja script to the then secretive but fervent Red Sonja fan Robert. Upon seeing what the script was, it made him snort up his water at the fortuitous possibility of his much favored franchise with his favorite girl.

It’s important to note that Rodriguez’s version of Red Sonja will be an origins film that will be a “cold, hard, bloody, dirty movie“.

For those of you who don’t know the story, Red Sonja was a young girl who is driven by a personal tragedy to become the red headed woman warrior on the path of driven vengeance. Through it all, she discovers a larger purpose in her life.

Other bits about Red Sonja:
McGowan is starting her sword training this upcoming Monday. They haven’t locked down any other cast for the film yet and Rodriguez coyly dodged the question of who’d he like to be in it.

Unrelated Bits and Pieces:
Robert Rodriguez’s next “10-minute cooking school” will be Texas Barbeque and will be included in the Grindhouse DVD.

There’s been progress on a Sin City 2 script. Frank Miller showed him a written script about 3 months ago and they’re trying to figure out how to squeeze that project in between all the other projects they’re doing.

On the newest Conan project: Rodgriguez dropped that he could be either the producer or director for that effort and he left it at that, which the audience responded rather exuberantly to. What a tease!

Images courtesy of MoviesOnLine

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Remake #899: Red Sonja

Niall Browne — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:29:32 +0000

I’m not sure what makes this story so comical – the fact the Hollywood has jumped on the remake gravy train once again, or is it the fact that Robert Rodriguez has once again hired his girlfriend Rose McGowan to star in yet another one of his projects?

It’s a tough question to answer, but for the sake of argument I’ll say that I can’t believe that Red Sonja is going to be remade.

Nu Image/Millennium Films, the company behind the recently annnounced (and forever in development) Conan remake have stated that they are producing a film version of Robert E. Howard’s second most famous character that will be “presented” by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski.

The movie, based on the 1985 Richard Fleischer film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen as the titular (easy, boys – look that word up) red-haired heroine is yet another project by Nu Image/Millennium to use iconic and pre-existing characters – see Conan, The Three Musketeers and Rambo.

Is there really an audience for this film – considering that the big draw for the original film was a certain Mr Schwarzenegger?

Probably.

Let’s be brutally honest – you could probably make this movie on a cheap budget – and I’d hazard a guess that McGowan doesn’t get paid that much (I know, a lot more than you and me – but you know what I’m getting at).

Nu Image/ Millennium Films’ head honcho said this:

“This is an amazing property and film for our company. Working with the talented Robert Rodriguez, having Rose McGowan as Red Sonja and Douglas Aarniokoski directing is a fantastic combination. We could not be happier.”

Oh, it should be noted that director Aarniokoski worked as assistant director on several of Rodriguez films and he also helmed the terrible Highlander: Endgame.

I see this thing going straight to DVD, and while I could be wrong, the “Robert Rodriguez Presents:” title feels like it belongs on a DVD box.

Locations are being scouted in Michigan (?!) and other areas across the United States, with filming scheduled to begin in October.

With a bit of luck this could be a minor diversion, but what about Conan ? Surely we should have heard more news about that – considering that it has been on the boil longer than Rodriguez has been making films.

Possibly, just possibly there could be a bit of Conan cross-over here – like what Marvel are doing at the minute. The studio might also be testing the waters, to see if there is an audience for this sort of film, before they decide to make the mega-budgeted Conan.

As always, we’ll keep you posted on both projects.

Source: Latino Review

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