Red Sonja

[cqb101]

Robert Rodriguez (Grindhouse, Sin City) will produce a new big-screen adventure featuring the flame-haired comic-book vixen, Red Sonja. While Brigitte Nielsen wielded Sonja's sword in the poorly received 1985 version, Rodriguez's real-life girlfriend, Rose McGowan (Grindhouse), 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 told USA Today 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."

"When they first came to me with it, I thought it was funny," said McGowan. "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."

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 (assistant director on many Rodriguez's films), 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.worstpreviews.com/headlin...d=9173&count=0

Rose McGowan as Red Sonja? Seriously? I'm sure a Rodriguez produced Red Sonja movie would kick ass, but I really dislike that casting.