Lionsgate has acquired North American distribution rights for a planned relaunch of the Conan The Barbarian film series, based on the mythical warrior created by Robert E. Howard, according to an announcement made today by Lionsgate and Nu Image/Millennium Films.
Production on the first film, which will be written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Sahara), is scheduled to take place in Bulgaria in summer/fall 2008.
This isn’t the first attempt to revamp the Conan film franchise, the original 1982 movie of which launched the career of former action hero turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Warner Bros. initially held the film rights to Conan and in 2006 hired Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans) to write and potentially direct the first movie. After seven years, WB’s option on the rights were not renewed, but instead were sold to Millennium.
In 1932, Robert E. Howard created the character of Conan the Cimmerian, who would appear in fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine. For more on Howard’s original Conan series and its non-creator-written spin-offs, check out Geek of Doom’s Searching for Conan The Barbarian feature.
[Source: Lionsgate and Nu Image/Millennium Films]
“Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That’s what’s important! Valor pleases you, Crom… so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!”
[...] Geeks of Doom [...]
“Mr. Schwarzenegger, if elected, what will be your strategy for combating the gang problem in L.A.?”
“Well, Maria, that’s a very good question. If I am elected, I fully intend to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”