In what we're guessing is a final bit of principal casting, Rose McGowan has signed on to join Marcus Nispel's Conan, playing a character Variety describes as an "evil half-human, half-witch" who - and we're going out on a limb here - causes trouble for our Cimmerian hero.
McGowan's casting must cause speculation over the fate of the planned **Red Sonja **film. After all, last we heard McGowan was set to play the lead, and since that story exists in the same universe as Conan, it's a bit odd to cast her as a very different character here. Either they're messing with Sonja's (admittedly confused) backstory, or they're giving her an evil twin, or that film's gone on the backburner or been recast.
McGowan joins Jason Momoa as Conan, as well as Rachel Nichols as love interest Tamara, Stephen Lang as the big bad Khalar Singh, Ron Perlman as Conan's old man Corin and Said Taghmaoui and Bob Sapp.
Shooting started on Monday in Bulgaria, so look out for this in 2011.