By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 11, 2019 |
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 11, 2019 |
Deadline are reporting that Millennium Films’ planned Red Sonja adaptation has been put on the back burner, with the studio now saying, ‘the project is not on the slate at the moment and is not for sale at the EFM in Berlin [Film Festival.]. For those of you who may have forgotten, Red Sonja was set to be directed by one Bryan Singer, who was allegedly set to cash in a $10 million paycheque for the honour. Shockingly, Millennium have now decided that may be a bad idea because, you know, it’s a bit awkward having a man with two decades of sexual assault allegations against underage boys to his name on the payroll.
Let’s be clear here: This does not mean the film has been canceled or that Singer has been sacked. The project has just been put on the naughty step, probably until Millennium think it’s safe to greenlight it again because we’ve all got such short memories regarding things like systemic abuse and the manipulation of young boys by grown men. Millennium Film CEO Avi Lerner infamously called the allegations against Singer ‘fake news’, but quickly rolled that back by claiming that those comments’ came out the wrong way’. He didn’t say he believed the allegations or anything. He was clearly on Singer’s side, also adding, ‘I just don’t agree to judge by Twitter.’
Millennium want the clout that comes with having the sole credited director of one of 2018’s biggest hits on their roster. It doesn’t matter that the film is bad or that he got sacked from directing it or that he’s an accused rapist or that he is notoriously difficult to work with when he even bothers to turn up on set. It’s all about the money. And Millennium would rather put this project on hold than get rid of Singer officially and bring on another director. That’s how much respect they have for Red Sonja, one of the great female icons of speculative fiction. It’s just a money making machine for them, one they simply must have an accused abuser at the helm on. So don’t applaud them for this decision. Let’s just hope Singer’s name is fully removed at some point. It’s genuinely embarrassing that we have to publicly humiliate major corporations into not paying accused rapists 8-figure sums to make movies rather than them, you know, not doing that.