Remember Red Sonja? No, I don't mean the 1985 original with Brigitte Nielsen, I'm talking about the reboot that has been in development hell for the better part of the last five years. Names like Robert Rodriguez, Brett Ratner, Doug Aarniokoski and Rose McGowan have all talked about it at some point, and we even got a teaser poster at one point. But nothing has ever actually gotten beyond the "Hey, wouldn't be a great idea if..." stage. Sadly, it looks like a project that will never die.

Empire has learned from producer Avi Lerner that not only is Red Sonja still trying to get made, but that they may have a new director and star. According to Lerner, Simon West, who directed Con Air and last month's The Mechanic, is in line to helm the project while Amber Heard is the top choice to play the lead (though she hasn't been contacted about the role just yet). Acting as though keeping the project in development hell has been the plan all along, Lerner says that they didn't want to start the new project until Marcus Nispel's Conan The Barbarian was finished, and the plan is to shoot Red Sonja some time between Conan and Conan 2.

While it does make sense to keep the Red Sonja dream alive now that Conan the Barbarian is set to be released this August, I'm going to keep my skeptical hat on. They managed to take pictures of Rose McGowan wearing chainmail, holding a sword and sitting on a pile of skulls and they still couldn't make the movie happen. Would Amber Heard be a good choice for the character? Why not (though she is only 5'8"). All the same, I'll wait until I see some set photos.