When the news broke this morning that actress Rose McGowan had joined the cast of Marcus Nispel's upcoming "Conan" movie as "an evil half-human/half-witch," one question seemed to be on the minds of fans: What about "Red Sonja"?
Originally tagged to play the female barbarian back in 2008, McGowan reported in August 2009 that "Red Sonja" had been delayed. The character was rumored to make a cameo in "Conan," since she made her first appearance in "Conan the Barbarian" comics, but today's casting news certainly makes such a cameo difficult — if not altogether impossible.
Fortunately, MTV News checked in with "Red Sonja" producer Robert Rodriguez during the recent South By Southwest Film Festival to find out where the project is at these days.
"If I kept the project myself, we could've just made it, but it belonged to another company that had financing problems," said Rodriguez of what's been holding up "Red Sonja."
"They had to wait until they made a couple of other movies first," he explained. "They're actually waiting until they make the 'Conan' movie before they do that — to see how that works for them."
As to whether he's been keeping tabs on the upcoming "Conan" movie starring Jason Momoa, Rodriguez indicated that it wasn't exactly a big part of his newsfeed these days.
"I haven't been following it," he said.
Robert's next project is MACHETE due out later this year, also starring Rose McGowan who is reprising her role from Planet Terror(2007).