stingermck

Featured today on USA Today and Newsaramma:

Red Sonja is back.

And Robert Rodriguez has her.

The Grindhouse co-director will produce a new big-screen adventure featuring the flame-haired comic-book vixen. While Brigitte Nielsen wielded Sonja's sword in the poorly received 1985 version, Rodriguez's Planet Terror zombie slayer and real-life leading lady, Rose McGowan, will wiggle into the metal mesh bikini in the 2010 release.

"I was surprised when Rose brought me a script of Red Sonja that she liked," Rodriguez says from his home base of Austin, where he is shooting Shorts, a family film with James Spader and Jon Cryer. "I found it very entertaining. Sonja was strong, smart, cunning — just about everything she'd have to be to survive."

McGowan's initial impulse when offered the part? To laugh.

"When they first came to me with it, I thought it was funny," says the actress, 34. "I do have a body made for sitting on a veranda with mint juleps and a parasol. I don't know why I always have to save the planet."

Rodriguez considers her a perfect fit as the mighty, and mighty voluptuous, avenger. "Rose is a pistol. She's whip-smart, has attitude to burn, is sexy, extremely strong, yet has a vulnerable side that would surprise her closest friends. That description also fits Red Sonja."

Not that his star isn't committed to the whole barbarian babe concept, including the crimson locks.

"I do have a very scrappy-do personality," says McGowan, who will undergo intense training before filming starts in October. "I lean toward physicality. The story has characters trashed by life who fight their way back. That is my theme."

Unlike her one-legged Planet Terror heroine, she assures, "I need all my limbs for this."

McGowan and Rodriguez have not seen Nielsen in the original, and they have no plans to catch up. As the actress explains, "Why put that in my head?"

Instead, the origin story, to be directed by longtime Rodriguez associate Douglas Aarniokoski, will take its cues from the comic books as well as works by pulp novelist Robert E. Howard, father of the original Sonja (then spelled Sonya) and Conan the Barbarian (also undergoing a movie revival).

"Howard's goal was always, first and foremost, to spin a good yarn and to entertain," says Rodriguez, who is hoping his Red Sonja turns into a franchise. "That's our goal."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...terstitialskip

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USA Today reports that the Red Sonja movie has taken a leap forward – Robert Rodriguez is now attached to produce, with Rose McGowan starring as the red-haired warrior. The film, to be directed by Rodriguez associate Douglas Aarniokoski is slated for a 2010 release. This will be, of course, the second time the character has travelled to the screen, the first being 1985’s Red Sonja starring Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarznegger.

The film news is the latest in a building Sonja resurgence, begun by the character returning to comics at Dynamite Entertainment in 2005. Through Dynamite, the character has now seen its longest-running series and most acclaim in comics to date.

According to the USA Today report, McGowan was approached first (she found the concept funny – “I do have a body made for sitting on a veranda with mint juleps and a parasol. I don't know why I always have to save the planet,” the actress tells the paper), and she then took the script to Rodriguez, who said he saw the actress as the perfect fit for the character.

"Rose is a pistol,” Rodriguez tells USA Today. “She's whip-smart, has attitude to burn, is sexy, extremely strong, yet has a vulnerable side that would surprise her closest friends. That description also fits Red Sonja."

McGowan said that she will undergo extensive physical training (and presumably a dye job) for the film, which is slated to go in front of cameras in October. The movie’s story will tell Red Sonja’s origin, and will, according to Rodriguez, take its cues from the comics as well as creator Robert E. Howard’s themes.

Newsarama readers will recall that the comic book version of Red Sonja is not the exact character created by Howard, who also created Conan, the Barbarian. Howard created a character named “Red Sonya,” while comic book creators Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith are credited with the creation of the scale-mail bikini wearing Red Sonja (with a j). Rather than keeping her in her original 16th century France setting, Thomas made her a contemporary of Conan.

Rodriguez is hoping to use the film to launch a franchise.


http://www.newsarama.com/film/080627-SonjaFilm.html





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Well sounds good to me. She may not be really tall, but shes got the other qualifications! Heres hoping its better than the original, though a guilty pleasure, good to see its closer to the comics.

shizawn

No Ernie Reyes Jr., no sale!

I dunno about this, but it can't be as bad as the original.

leacha

I dunno, it seems whenever couples get together on screen....it's a train wreck.

Sean O'Hara

Sorry, but it's impossible for me to find Rose McGowan hot -- no matter how attractive she is, Marilyn Manson got there first, and knowing him there's not an inch of her body that he didn't do something freaky to.

RyoHazuki

I'll pass. Rodriguez is way overrated as it is and McGowan just gets on my nerves. How the hell do you pitch a movie with your girlfriend as the lead? Even Tim Burton can only get his lady a supporting part.

Rizor

What happened to Barbarella?

Giantrobo

I loooove Rose but I don't care for the Red Sonja character.

Peep

I'm in!

starseed1981

Pass for me. The director-starlet couple thing pretty much never leads to good things.

My Other Self

I love Rodriguez flicks (minus Spy Kids) but this sounds like garbage. I hate Rose McGowan.

Cellar Door

Rodriguez needs to get working on Sin City 2, not this crap!

stingermck

You guys did see that Rodriguez isnt directing right?

Patman

Did McGowan get her face fixed (she had a car accident in the fall of last year, and looks sort of weird).

calhoun07

The studio rejected it. I forget where I read it (I think it was in Empire or maybe Geek magazine), but I thought at the time how do you fail at selling that idea?

And to only find they passed on Barbarella only to get Red Sonja? I don't know...I feel iffy about this at best.

Rodriguez is hit or miss for me, and obviously I hope this is a hit along the lines of Planet Terror, but I am not holding out too much hope. There is a short list of directors I'd like to see tackle a cheesy girl action movie, and Tarantino would top my list. I thought of him doing a Red Sonja flick even before this was announced, or a Supergirl flick.

Of course, the movies I imagine would have a hard R attached to them, so I doubt they would ever sell to a studio.

stingermck

Hmmm I wonder how this affects Sonja (and I thought Barbarella was already dead)

McGowan And Rodriguez Split?
http://www.imdb.com/news/ns0000002/#ni0255178

Actress Rose McGowan has reportedly split with fiance Robert Rodriguez - because of financial difficulties on forthcoming film Barbarella.

The Grindhouse star was set to take the lead in a remake of the 1968 cult classic, with Rodriguez directing the movie.

But the couple have now allegedly split following disagreements over the film's money problems.

McGowan apparently wasn't a big enough box office draw for the $70 million (GBP35 million) remake, after her 2007 film Grindhouse only grossed $25.4 million (GBP12.7 million).

A source tells the New York Post's gossip column PageSix, "Too bad Grindhouse didn't gross $100 million (GBP50 million). Then, maybe, Barbarella would have gotten the green light.

"Instead, the moguls were saying, 'We need a bigger star, a bigger name.'"

The project was reportedly set to be axed by Universal Studios in October, because of Rodriguez's decision to cast girlfriend McGowan in the lead role.

The screen beauty fell for the filmmaker on the set of Planet Terror, one half of the double bill Grindhouse, and the couple went public with their relationship in May that year - shortly after Rodriguez filed for divorce from his wife of 16 years, Elizabeth Avellan.

Charlie Goose

What is so special about McGowan? I just can't see it.

Groucho

She played the lead's best friend in some horror movie spoof that came out 12 years ago.

chris_sc77

Someone needs to tell Rodriguez to get his ass to work on Sin City 2 and 3.
Angelina Jolie is interested in a part and this Rodriguez wants to remake Red Sonja or barbarella.
Eh, please dont do these remakes and go make some Sn City. What the hell is the hold up?

islandclaws

Pass. As much as I like Rodriguez's work I think this relationship with McGowan is clouding his judgement on projects. She's a hot piece, no question, but she's far from being a top-billed talented actress with great chops. He needs to keep his fucking separate from his filmmaking.

Cellar Door

Look in the area between her arms and below her neck.

RocShemp

Rose McGowan...

I'm not sure about this. As cheesy as it is, I love the original. And I'm not too sure about the director of Highlander: Endgame (a movie I liked but wasn't wowed by the direction).

Josh-da-man

So I wonder if it was worth it for RR to dump his wife and five kids to tear off that piece of ass for a couple of months?

LorenzoL

I'll be interested. It's not like the original was a classic or anything...

stingermck

Posters revealed at Comic Con:





Panel at CC:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=17376

"When asked about ratings decisions on "Red Sonja," Rodriguez said, "My name is 'double-R!' That's what you're gonna get! "

islandclaws

I'm still not convinced that McGowan is the right choice for this, but those banners do look pretty sweet. I get kind of an Italian giallo feel from the first one. Great image.