Red Sonja News?
Eek, Rich has some scary news up here.
Actually to be fair, I don't dislike Ms. McGowan as much as Rich seems to. I think she can be funny and seemed to do a well enough job in the Grindhouse movies.
Having watched quite a bit of Charmed, however, I can say when it comes to drama or heavy emotion...well, let's just say Ms. McGowan is one that comes to mind when I see someone argue that it's automatically better to cast a "real actor". I don't doubt her resume, but just because acting is someone's primary profession doesn't necessarily mean they're GOOD at it.
To be fair, I'm not sure Red Sonja is a role that really requires a dynamic acting range. I liked the Brigitte Nielsen version a lot and I don't think her acting abilities are anything to write home about.
Of course, Brigitte Nielsen was also a stunning statuesque amazon of a young woman, which rather made up for her deficiencies in certain other aspects. I've always thought Ms. McGowan was very pretty, but she's pretty in a petite and softly curvaceous way, in my opinion. She's far too pampered to be believable as Sonja and I really don't think any amount of physical training can change that. Especially when supposedly they're going to start filming in October. That's only four months away!
I wouldn't mind being wrong though. A new franchise of Sonja movies would be all kinds of awesome and possibly the kick in the pants I'd need to give the comic book series a try.
(...as long as there's no more ripping the heads off babies. No matter how good the in-story reason, that's still a dealbreaker for me. :-P)
Actually to be fair, I don't dislike Ms. McGowan as much as Rich seems to. I think she can be funny and seemed to do a well enough job in the Grindhouse movies.
Having watched quite a bit of Charmed, however, I can say when it comes to drama or heavy emotion...well, let's just say Ms. McGowan is one that comes to mind when I see someone argue that it's automatically better to cast a "real actor". I don't doubt her resume, but just because acting is someone's primary profession doesn't necessarily mean they're GOOD at it.
To be fair, I'm not sure Red Sonja is a role that really requires a dynamic acting range. I liked the Brigitte Nielsen version a lot and I don't think her acting abilities are anything to write home about.
Of course, Brigitte Nielsen was also a stunning statuesque amazon of a young woman, which rather made up for her deficiencies in certain other aspects. I've always thought Ms. McGowan was very pretty, but she's pretty in a petite and softly curvaceous way, in my opinion. She's far too pampered to be believable as Sonja and I really don't think any amount of physical training can change that. Especially when supposedly they're going to start filming in October. That's only four months away!
I wouldn't mind being wrong though. A new franchise of Sonja movies would be all kinds of awesome and possibly the kick in the pants I'd need to give the comic book series a try.
(...as long as there's no more ripping the heads off babies. No matter how good the in-story reason, that's still a dealbreaker for me. :-P)
posted by kalinara @ 1:15 AM
6 Comments:
At June 30, 2008 11:11 AM,
Mana G said…
I have noticed a disturbing trend in casting petite, or even waif-like women in the roles of characters whom are supposed to be powerhouses. (Even though now, of course, I can't think of any in particular.)
At June 30, 2008 6:17 PM,
notintheface said…
Now that's a movie where you could cast someone from "American Gladiators".
At July 01, 2008 3:38 AM,
Avalon's Willow said…
...I don't dislike Ms. McGowan as much as Rich seems to. I think she can be funny...
Dear Kalinara,
My condolences on the loss of your artistic brain. I'm told every lawyer knows to expect this moment sooner or later. Perhaps it's a good sign for your career that yours was sooner.
We'll always have Miles Vorkosigan.
Sincerely,
Willow (who could not even finishing reading your post due to abject horror)
At July 01, 2008 7:41 AM,
kalinara said…
Too bad you stopped reading. After that I do pretty much insult the poor girl's dramatic skill something awful. :-) Oh well.
At July 02, 2008 1:10 AM,
Anonymous said…
I'm actually looking forward to this. Not so much because of Rose - but because of Robert Rodriguez.
I noted this over on my journal, but before he hit it big with Sin City, he was trying to get the rights to do the long lost-in-limbo Conan the King movie off the ground. Apparently the big sticking point was that he insisted he MUST film all of the exteriors it in the Texas hill country. As in, the area which inspired all of Robert E. Howard's stories...
That kind of attention to detail and desire to tap into the same creative spirit bodes well, even if he is just producing and not directing.
And whatever your feelings about Sin City as a film or a comic, you can't deny that Rodriguez DID translate the spirit of the comics to the big screen perfectly. That can only serve to benefit a new Sonja film... even ignoring the fact that Roy Thomas himself is working on the script, according to IMDB.com
And one more reason to be hopeful - Rich's linked article didn't mention this fact, but according to USA Today, Rose is a big Red Sonja fan.
My whole article, with the link to USA Today, is up at - http://looking2dastars.livejournal.com/71681.html
At July 02, 2008 2:46 PM,
Joe said…
I'm sure Rodriguez's desire to film in Texas hill country has nothing to do with how close it is to his homebase in Austin. ;-)
Kidding aside, count me in the club of those who greatly respect Rodriguez as a filmmaker. He once said something like "if a problem pops up on set, you can either throw money at it, or solve it creatively. I prefer the latter." He keeps costs low by controlling the entire process from his Austin studios and keeping a lot of the work a family business. I love his soundtrack work too (much like John Carpenter, Rodriguez does most of his own scoring).
That said, he is an auteur and likely prefers to work with the same stable of actors. More to the point, he's engaged to McGowan, so dropping her isn't likely in the short-term. :-/
We can always hope. There's always the possibility she could be another Kyle McLachlan: brilliant actor when directed by David Lynch, kind of weak with anyone else.
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