Tasha Huo To Write Millennium’s ‘Red Sonja’ Film
by Erik Amaya
Millennium Entertainment is still trying to make a Red Sonja picture.
This time around, the company has tapped Tasha Huo, showrunner of Netflix’s upcoming animated Tomb Raider series, to write the script. Joey Soloway will direct the fantasy adaption. The character, created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in the pages of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian comic book, is loosely based on Conan creator Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonya of Rogatino; a 17th Century swashbuckler in one of Howard’s stories. In giving the character a new Hyborian Age backstory, Thomas also gave Conan a great foil who would later get a chance to shine in the pages of Marvel Feature and her own self-titled comic book series.
Red Sonja’s comic book adventures continue to be published by Dynamite Entertainment.
Following the success of 1982 Conan the Barbarian feature film, executive producer Dino De Laurentiis obtained the rights to the character. The resulting 1985 film, Red Sonja, starring Brigitte Nielsen in the title role, was intended as a direct tie to the earlier Conan films with Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role. But De Laurentiis became gunshy and the character’s name was changed to Kalidor. The film was not well-regarded, but does have a bit of a cult following and an entry in Comicon’s Your Weekend Cheesy Movie column.
Since the time of that film, various people like disgraced filmmaker Bryan Singer and Alita: Battle Angel director Robert Rodriguez attempted to make new Red Sonja films or television series. Millennium Pictures has been involved since the Singer incarnation, replacing him with Soloway after numerous allegations against Singer came to light.
Casting is currently underway, so it appears the film is once again on the fast track after a period of dormancy. It is unclear, though, when it might finally arrive on screens.