Empire Online is reporting this long-standing, on-off remake/vamp/boot is back on. Producer Avi Lerner says: "We didn't want to start it until we'd finished Conan... We will definitely shoot Red Sonja in between Conan and Conan 2. We already chose the director: an English guy called Simon West." West most recently did The Mechanic, but for our purposes, is best-known for the first Lara Croft film.

As for who's going to play Sonja? Well, that was going to be Rose McGowan, but that was back in the day when Robert Rodriguez was slated to direct, and she was his main squeeze. Now "We're talking to a few girls for the role of Sonja," Lerner says, "but we just finished a movie called Drive Angry with Amber Heard, and I want to see her. She's my favourite for the role." That film hasn't been released yet - February 25th in the US - so for now, you might have seen Heard as the next-door neighbour who turns into a zombie in Zombieland. Does she quite have the Brigitte Nielsen physical presence? Does anyone?

I'd like to see Bridget Regan take a stab at the role:



She doesn't have the SAME presence as Brigitte Nielsen, but she has a great presence. Honestly I prefer hers to Brigitte; Bridget has the heart of a compassionate warrior. She's proven she can perform compelling swordfights, look convincing in fantasy-garb, and -- surprisingly -- she can actually act. She was the only living presence on that show, surrounded by mannequins. Her face can convey so much feeling in such a short time, like haiku, and she really seemed capable of making vengeance and war.

As for Amber Heard, I... dunno. I've seen her in Never Back Down and in The Informants, and I wasn't impressed by her energy. She had sex scenes in both movies, scenes that were supposed to be hot, but they were... what's the opposite of "sizzling?" Inert? Utterly lacking a sense of chemistry? She looked like she was playing "Anywhere But Here" in her head, or counting how many bottles of beer would be left if one of those bottles should happen to fall. Perhaps because she was performing sex scenes with men, when she herself is a lesbian, but that's what actors are supposed to do, isn't it -- embody feelings they don't actually feel.

She's young enough that she may yet find a screen presence, but so far she's been a waste of screen space. Until she's grown as an actress, I wouldn't cast her as Sue Storm, let alone Sonja the Red.