Despite the numerous times that allegations of sexual assault have been made against him—accusing him on multiple occasions of coercing underage men into sex—Hollywood just can’t seem to shake its Bryan Singer addiction. He makes X-Men movies; he (sort of) wins Oscars; what more do you want of folks like Millennium Films’ Avi Lerner, who pushed back hard in recent months against the idea that these kinds of allegations should stop him from working with a certified money-maker like Singer?
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.