When it was announced that BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and X-MEN director Bryan Singer was hired to direct the RED SONJA movie the internet was sent into a storm as many cited some very glaring reasons as to why he might not be the choice to tackle this particular project. Things have only gone downhill for the project from there, and after it was reported SONJA was delayed indefinitely for unspecified reasons last month word is that Singer has been quietly let go from the movie altogether.
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Tucked away in an article from The Hollywood Reporter about the scandal involving Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara and actress Charlotte Kirk, the report details how Millennium Films’ Avi Lerner factors into the mess and how the producer eventually dropped Singer from the project.
Here’s the segment from the piece:
Lerner made news recently when he hired Bryan Singer to direct a reboot of Red Sonja. After Singer was accused in an Atlantic magazine article of sexually assaulting underaged boys, Lerner dismissed the story as "agenda-driven fake news," then walked the statement back. Eventually, he dropped Singer from the project because he was unable to secure a domestic distributor.
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Singer was announced as director of SONJA back in September, and as new allegations of sexual assault arose as his new movie, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, was in theaters, Lerner and Millennium often stuck by his side. While other studios may have fired a director amid such allegations, he remained attached to the project as a report in The Atlantic dropped its bombshell report. However, things seemed to have changed. Last month the movie was put on hold, with Millennium’s statement reading, “the project is not on the slate at the moment and is not for sale at the EFM in Berlin.” Perhaps the dropping of Singer was a big factor in this, with the studio weighing their options after the backlash.
The hiring of Singer drew much backlash and concern for several reasons, one being past accusations of sexual assault, which was especially problematic given the title hero of the comics and planned movie is herself a sexual assault survivor. On top of that, the director's behavior on set has caused many raised eyebrows, most recently for his work on RHAPSODY, which before becoming his highest-grossing film around the world and winning four Oscars was mired in controversy after he was let go from the project in the last weeks of shooting after failing to show up to set. Dexter Fletcher (ROCKETMAN) finished up the shoot, but Singer was given sole credit as director.