‘Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle’ Reboot Is In The Works At Millennium
On the heels of the runaway success ofWonder Woman, studios are scrambling to find their own powerful female heroine to launch onto the big screen. Luckily Millennium Films didn’t have to look far for their own: the titular heroine ofSheena: Queen of the Junglehas already been depicted three times before on both film and television.
Millennium’sSheena: Queen of the Junglereboot will be more than just a rehash of what madeWonder Womana huge hit. In fact,Wonder Womancould owe a bit toSheena, who was debuted as the first female comic book character with her own solo title in 1938, precedingWonder Womanby three years. Now the rest of the world — who aren’t already aware of the pulpy action heroine from the ’80s B-movie or the comics — will be introduced to one of the first female American pop culture icons.
Millennium is developing aSheena: Queen of the Junglereboot 33 years after her first big screen iteration played byTanya Robertshit theaters, according toDeadline. Millennium is targeting a 2018 production start for its reboot ofSheena.
WhileSheenahas deeper comic book roots thanWonder Woman, it may be tougher to bring the pulpy B-movie heroine to the modern age. The heroine may be hailed as “savior of paradise” who can communicate with wild animals and fight tooth-and-sword with hunters, but the bulk of Sheena’s story is still about her riding around in a skimpy bikini and espousing colonialist attitudes. While she may be the first comic book heroine to have her own solo title, Sheena is part of a long line of scantily clad “jungle girls” — the female counterpart to the Tarzan archetype — who graced the covers of pulp paperbacks for decades. It’s an endlessly fascinating genre that acts as a great study of the time period from which they were borne, but makesSheenaharder to translate to modern day.
Still, if the bondage roots ofWonder Womancan be streamlined into the highest-grossing blockbuster of the summer with a$813.2 million worldwide haul, I’m sureSheenacan swing into the 21st century.
Ironically, Sheena had more live-action adaptations than Diana Prince has, first portrayed by model Irish McCalla in a 1955 first-run syndication seriesSheena: Queen of the Jungle, which ran for 26 episodes. Sheena received another TV adaptation in 2000-2002, played by Gena Lee Nolin as a shape-shifting killer who can take the form of animals. Her most famous and lasting portrayal however, was in the 1984 movieSheena,immortalized by Roberts galloping atop a zebra across a sandy dune in a two-minute opening credits sequence as serene music played in the background. Yep, it’s as B-movie as you could get.
Sheenahas been recently brought back in comic book form as well, with Dynamite Entertainmentpublishing a newSheenarunbyBatwomanandDC Comics Bombshells’writerMarguerite Bennett, newbie writer Christina Trujillo, and interior artist Moritat. The series seems like an adoring homage to the original Golden Age comic, so there’s little chance of seeing how a modern interpretation ofSheenamight go on the big screen.
Millennium’sSheenawill be produced byAvi Lerner, Trevor Short, Joe Gatta, Boaz DavidsonandJohn Thompson, according to Deadline, as well asLati GrobmanandChrista Campbell.
