EXCLUSIVE: Millennium Media will finance and produce a new version of Red Sonja and is looking to it as a new franchise for the company. The project will be produced by Millennium’s Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta alongside Cinelou’s Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon. They are fast-tracking this project and next will hire a writer.

Red Sonja is based on a heroine created by Roy Thomas, editor at Marvel (in the 1970s). She has appeared in hundreds of comic books over the decades, which Dynamite Entertainment continues

“We have been waiting for the right time for this remake,” said Lerner, “and with the success of Wonder Woman, the audience has spoken. They want female heroes.”

The film’s executive producers will be Millennium Films’ Boaz Davidson, John Thompson and Trevor Short. Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman of Campbell Grobman films also will executive produce with Scott Karol of Cinelou. Red Sonja’s rights holder Luke Lieberman also will be an exec producer.

The first Red Sonja film in 1985 starred (and introduced) Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This version will be different, with fresh story ideas and characters.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 11:39am PT by Tatiana Siegel, Borys Kit

Bryan Singer in Talks to Direct 'Red Sonja' for Millennium (Exclusive)

The X-Men: Apocalypse helmer, who has battled bad PR, lawsuits and continued scrutiny in the post-#MeToo era — none of which seems to have stuck — would take the reins on a big-screen adaptation of the 1970s sword and sorcery Conan the Barbarian comic book spinoff. Ashley Miller, who wrote X-Men: First Class (which Singer produced), is writing the screenplay.

Millennium is financing and producing the new version of Sonja and is hoping to start a franchise and capture the audience that turned out for Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman. Millennium’s Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta are producing alongside Cinelou’s Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon.

A Sonya movie has been in the works at Millennium for over a decade and Singer boarding the project would put it back on the fast-track. In 2008, Robert Rodriguez teamed up with his then-girlfriend Rose McGowan for the project, making a big splashy announcement at Comic-Con that year. But those two fell off the project and it has languished in deep development, with writers coming and going ever since. Previously, the property spawned a 1985 movie starring Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sources say Millennium will pay Singer top dollar for the assignment, which is seen as a step toward rehabilitating the director's image. Singer was fired by Fox after repeatedly not showing up for work on the set of its Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, among other work offenses. In December, he was sued by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who accused the director of raping him when he was a 17-year-old boy in 2003. It wasn't the first time that Singer had faced such an accusation.

Singer is set to receive full directing credit and the movie is now generating strong buzz inside and outside of the studio. While audiences and critics will be the jury on Bohemian Rhapsody when it opens Nov. 2, Millennium is willing to take a chance on Singer given that "none of the allegations seem to have merit," says an insider.

Singer was dropped by his agency, WME, earlier this year and has been negotiating the Red Sonja deal with the help of his attorney David Feldman.

Millennium could not be reached for comment.

Millennium Films’ Red Sonja film with Bryan Singer is being put on the back burner. After the movie was on the slate last year at the American Film Market, the prolific U.S. mini-studio has told us, “the project is not on the slate at the moment and is not for sale at the EFM in Berlin.”

Embattled Bohemian Rhapsody director Singer has not been formally removed from Red Sonja, but Millennium’s statement seems to at least acknowledge the filmmaker may not be the right fit for the movie at this juncture.

The big-budget action-fantasy film, which has been on the The Expendables outfit’s slate for more than a decade, was expected to shoot this year in Bulgaria, but that won’t be happening. Cast has not been set.

Last month, we got word that Red Sonja was on hold in the wake of even more sexual misconduct allegations against director Bryan Singer. Now, it looks like Singer is officially off the movie. The news of Singer’s removal came unceremoniously, buried within a much larger story about a completely different topic. Now let us all cross our fingers and hope we never have to hear about Bryan Singer again.

THR has a lengthy piece this week about the scandal surrounding Warner Bros. head Kevin Tsujihara and actress Charlotte Kirk, which also happens to reveal that Bryan Singer has been fired from the Red Sonja movie:

“[Millennium Films’ Avi Lerner] made news recently when he hired Bryan Singer to direct a reboot of Red Sonja. After Singer was accused in an Atlantic article of sexually assaulting underage boys, Lerner dismissed the story as “agenda-driven fake news,” then walked the statement back. Eventually, he dropped Singer from the project because he was unable to secure a domestic distributor.”

In 2018, it was revealed Millennium was willing to shell out $10 million to hire Singer to direct the comic book adaptation – a business decision that immediately raised eyebrows and caused backlash. Singer has long faced allegations of sexual misconduct throughout his career. In addition to that, he also has a reputation of being unreliable – leaving sets for days and throwing productions into chaos. He was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody for this very reason, and Dexter Fletcher was brought in to complete the movie (Singer maintained final credit, though).

On January 23, 24 hours after Bohemian Rhapsody picked up five Academy Award nominations, The Atlantic ran a piece in which some of Singer’s alleged victims told their stories. The piece only renewed outcry against Singer. In the wake of the initial pushback about hiring Singer for Red Sonja, Lerner first issued a defense:

“The over $800 million Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed, making it the highest grossing drama in film history, is testament to his remarkable vision and acumen. I know the difference between agenda driven fake news and reality, and I am very comfortable with this decision. In America people are innocent until proven otherwise.”

After receiving some heat for that tone-deaf statement, Lerner backtracked a bit, saying his statement “came out the wrong way” and that “victims should be heard and this allegation should be taken very, very seriously.”

By February of this year, Red Sonja was announced as being on hold. Now, a month later, it looks as if Singer got the boot. Is this officially the beginning of the end of Singer’s career, or will he bounce back, as always seems the case?

By Crom, the actress to wield the savage sword of Red Sonja has been found.

Hannah John-Kamen, who starred as a villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp and was a lead in series Brave New World, will star in Millennium’s long-gestating sword and sorcery feature.

Joey Soloway is directing the project and co-wrote the script with Tasha Huo, the screenwriter who is showrunning and executive producing the upcoming animated Tomb Raider series for Netflix and Legendary.

“Hannah is a very talented actress who we’ve been following for years and she IS Red Sonja,” said Soloway in a statement. “Her range, sensibilities and strength are all qualities we have been looking for and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this journey together.”