Director Bryan Singer In Talks for ‘Conan the Barbarian’ Spin-off Movie ‘Red Sonja’

Filmmaker and producer Bryan Singer is in talks to helm the newest comic book adaptation Red Sonja for Millennium Films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The ex-Bohemian Rhapsody director and long-time X-Men helmer is in negotiations to reignite the long-time pending project (saving it from development hell). Alongside Singer will be Millennium producers Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta with Cinelou Films’ Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon. X-Men: First Class scribe Ashley Miller is currently attached to write the screenplay.

Red Sonja is the heroine in the 1973 Marvel fantasy comic book Conan the Barbarian created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Smith. The production of the movie was first announced over a decade ago by Robert Rodriguez and his then-girlfriend Rose McGowan in Comic-Con 2008. Rodriguez was set to direct the film while McGowan plays the lead role. The project eventually fell through with them dropping it and writers coming and going, leaving its development on the rocks ever since. The 1985 version of the film starred Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The project comes after the director became the center of much controversy. Earlier this year, Singer was dropped by his agency. 20th Century Fox also removed him from the Bohemian Rhapsody director’s chair two weeks before principal photography wrapped, replacing Singer with Dexter Fletcher. His on-set absences and continuous spat with star Rami Malek prompted the studio to eject Singer. But the director said in the defense that he had to care for his mother. In June 2018, producer Graham King announced that Singer would get sole directing credit for Bohemian Rhapsody, following the Director’s Guild of America’s longstanding rule of having only one director for a film,

Singer was also sued by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who filed a lawsuit alleging that the director raped him in 2003. Singer defended himself, saying that he “categorically denies” the allegation and that it’s a “convenient” scapegoat by Sanchez-Guzman.