Bryan Singer's Red Sonja remake shelved in wake of sexual misconduct claims
A remake of the 1985 movie Red Sonja with Bryan Singer as director has been put on hold by its producers, in the wake of underage sex allegations against Singer.
Singer had been signed in September 2018 to direct a new version of the 1985 sword-and-sorcery yarn that starred Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a rumoured $10m (£7.77m) fee for Singer – even though he had been fired from the Queen and Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody in December 2017.
Producers Millennium Films had been under increasing pressure to drop him after the Atlantic magazine published an article containing claims from four men that Singer had sex with them while they were under age. Singer has denied the allegations as a “homophobic smear”. In a statement, Red Sonja producer Avi Lerner had denounced the article as “agenda-driven fake news”.
It now appears that Millennium Films has decided not to go ahead with the film, having withdrawn it from its sales pitch at the European Film Market, currently under way at the Berlin film festival. The studio told Deadline: “The project is not on the slate at the moment and is not for sale.” Singer has not been officially removed from the project. However, Deadline has reported that filming planned for later this year in Bulgaria will not go ahead.
Singer’s association with Bohemian Rhapsody has proved troubling for the Queen film as it has found success on the awards circuit. Star Rami Malek, who is favourite to win the best actor Oscar, has conspicuously not mentioned Singer in his acceptance speeches after winning the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama film and a Bafta for best actor. Malek has acknowledged director Dexter Fletcher, who replaced Singer after the latter’s departure from the film.
In a now-deleted post on social media, Singer thanked the Golden Globes for naming Bohemian Rhapsody as best drama film. His name was removed from the Bafta citation after it was nominated for best British film. It lost out on that award to The Favourite.