Everyone knows what the definition of insanity is, but that hasn’t deterred the Red Sonja reboot from experiencing failure after failure during its repeated attempts to escape from development hell.
The project was first announced way back in 2008 with Robert Rodriguez at the helm and Rose McGowan starring in the lead role, before Con Air director Simon West stepped in behind the camera. McGowan dropped out, too, with producer Avi Lerner saying he wanted Amber Heard as the titular warrior, prior to Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s Hanna John-Kamen was cast last year.
Naturally, she ended up dropping out of Red Sonja as well, but if you can believe it, cameras are now rolling in Budapest. Per Deadline, Solomon Kane director M.J. Bassett is calling the shots, with Matilda Lutz heading up a cast that also includes Sex/Life alum Wallis Day, and The Umbrella Academy favorite Robert Sheehan.
Michael Bisping, Martyn Ford, Eliza Matengu, Manal El-Feitury, and Katrina Durden round out the principal cast, with the script from writers Tasha Huo and Joey Soloway remaining intact. Arnold Schwarzenegger once called Red Sonja the worst film he’d ever been a part of, and it flopped at the box office while being panned by critics back in 1985, so the redux doesn’t have a particularly high bar to clear.
Then again, it’s amazing enough that it’s managed to even get in front of cameras, given the constant cycle of turmoil that’s engulfed the swords-and-sorcery fantasy ever since Hollywood first decided it was ripe for a reinvention in the first place.