Last month, we reported that the creator of the gender-swapping show Transparent, Jill Soloway, had been given the reigns to a Red Sonja movie.
We weren’t just skeptical, we openly laughed at what appeared to be yet another example of Hollywood putting social issues and gender politics above character and story in a franchise that should be very popular with general audiences.
In other words, the all so tiresome getting woke and going broke.
I Guess We Were Wrong
In a recent interview with Deadline, writer/director Soloway set us all straight:
DEADLINE: Speaking of other stuff happening. Clearly, you have a lot in development, and Deadline exclusively reported last month that you are going to direct Red Sonja…
SOLOWAY: Yeah.
DEADLINE: …which on first glance, seems a massive jump. I wanted to get a sense from you about going into that project with Millennium Films and about the scope of your ambitions for it as you move past Transparent in your career?
SOLOWAY: I can’t wait. I’m super excited. I get to write it as well, which is really a dream come true. I know it feels different when you compare it to Transparent, but for me, it feels just really very much like it’s coming from the same place.
We’re with you Deadline, that is exactly what we thought!
How are they giving an event action movie, one set in a fantasy Medieval era, to a woman whose only experience to this point has been creating contemporary social justice fare?
But Soloway explained it all to Deadline and the doubters:
DEADLINE: Really?
SOLOWAY: Yeah, because I’ve always talked about myself as doing work that attempts to heal the divided feminine in our culture, the idea that women get kind of chopped up into wife or other woman or good girl, bad girl or Charlie’s Angels or all the women on Sex in the City, and that this idea of the divided feminine means that women get like a small slice to be.
All my work is really about humans searching for some divine feminine, asking these questions about God and looking for meaning. So, for me to transfer that into the world of Red Sonja felt incredibly natural, because Red Sonja is a very different kind of superhero. She’s not really typical.
What The #$%&?
Divided feminine? Divine feminine? Questions about God? Superhero?
Bro, Red Sonja is not a superhero any more than Conan would be considered a superhero. She’s a warrior and adventurer, driven more by internal forces of revenge and desire for danger, excitement and wealth than any motivation to help others or set the world right.
This is pure, uncut balderdash! But, Soloway wasn’t done…
DEADLINE: What’s the plan?
SOLOWAY: I can really have so much fun with Red Sonja. I see her a little bit more like the first kind of bad girl superhero. Sort of like the Batman of The Dark Knight or Deadpool, you know?
The world is changing so much right now for superheroes, that I just really look forward to not only going to the edge of what I’ve ever written and directed before, but to the edge of the genre as well.
Next, she’s going to be telling us what a fan of Red Sonja she is. How it really helped form her character as a woman and was the real reason she got into filmmaking! Maybe she’ll post a picture of herself reading the comic to Instagram! Dressed in a chainmail bikini!
