Robert Rodriguez discusses the disappearance of Red Sonja

RED SONJA was announced at Comic Con in 2008, and it’s no closer to reality today than it was then. So where is the flame-haired warrior?

As producer Robert Rodriguez explains to MTV, it got stuck in money problems and is still a ways off, if it ever happens. “If I kept the project myself, we could’ve just made it, but it belonged to another company that had financing problems,” said Rodriguez. “They had to wait until they made a couple of other movies first. They’re actually waiting until they make the CONAN movie before they do that — to see how that works for them.“

Rodriguez’s RED SONJA was going to star Rose McGowan as the vengeful sword-swinger, but the actress just recently joined Marcus Nispel’s CONAN as an entirely different character, a “half-human/half-witch” villain. So it seems unlikely she’ll be returning to Robert E. Howard’s fantasy realm as the fierce gal in the chainmail bikini.

RED SONJA was set to be directed by Rodriguez protege Douglas Aarniokoski. The mythical busty heroine was made famous in Marvel Comics and recent books from Dynamite, and the movie would be an origin story detailing Sonja’s transformation from a victim of savagery to the “Red Goddess’ Blade of Justice”. She would team with mischievous childhood friend Cyrus and mentor Ozzyus to slice her way through the forces of evil Kulan Gath and exact revenge for the brutal slaying of her family.