Specifically, Lerner has vocally defended his decision to hire Singer—who was fired by Fox from last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody under circumstances that are still somewhat murky—to direct a Red Sonja movie. At the time, Lerner was blunt about his interests, citing “the over $800 million Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed” as more then enough reason to stick with his guy. Of course, that was before he was forced to shelve Red Sonja because of a possibly Singer-prompted lack of distributor interest. Now, it sounds like the producer might have quietly reversed his decision to stay in the Bryan Singer business.
This is per a small aside in THR’s reporting on the Brett Ratner/Charlotte Kirk/Kevin Tsujihara scandal currently causing headaches for Warner Bros. Lerner is tangentially associated with that whole mess, and THR’s report includes the following line: “Eventually, he dropped Singer from [Red Sonja] because he was unable to secure a domestic distributor.” Given that Singer was the only big name officially attached to the comic book project—about a badass female warrior hacking her way across Conan Land—the movie is probably now about as dead as dead gets, and it’s hard not to read it as a refreshing (if belated) blow for those who might hope that these sorts of allegations will “blow over” before their effects on business interests come into play.
