Brett Ratner Off ‘Conan’ Remake; James McTeigue In?
By The Movie God
| @
|
Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
If you’ll recall, everyone’s favorite director, Brett Ratner, had a pile of movies on his desk, including: God of War, Beverly Hills Cop 4, Youngblood, a Hugh Hefner biopic, some heist movie, and the Conan reboot. Since accumulating this variety pack of projects to do, he’s killed his God of War project, and now comes word that he will not be directing Conan anymore either. And a smile gently formed upon my face. While Ratner still has more than enough work to choose from, at least now two of the more cherished properties are removed from his grasp. Now fans of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise just need to wish upon a star.
Empire Magazine spoke to Joe Gatta, producer of Conan as well as the Red Sonja re-imagining. Gatta had this to say about Ratner directing Conan:
We’re currently in the process of hiring a director. For the past six months we were discussing the movie with Brett Ratner, and for more timing issues than anything else we had to part ways with Brett. We all wanted him to do it, believe me; just the timing didn’t work. But you never know what can happen.
That seems to be the running theme with Ratner. He gathers all of these projects that don’t really fit his style, but due to these “scheduling conflicts,” he has to let them all go and concentrate on things much more fitting to his style such as Trump Heist — a movie with Eddie Murphy and Chris Tucker as a couple of janitors who plan a heist at Trump Towers.
I like to think of all of this as a sort of delayed karma. Not to toot my own horn, but this was kind of my prophecy. When Youngblood was announced, I laid claim to a theory involving Ratner as simply a hobbyist who collects projects without actually directing them (Read: Brett Ratner To Direct ‘Youngblood’ Adaptation).
It didn’t take very long for someone to get a scoop on who might replace Ratner in the chair for Conan, and the name is one massive step up. CHUD has exclusive word from an trusty source that the man selected for the job is James McTeigue. The director hasn’t been officially locked yet, but it appears he’s the choice and now they need to just get the machine moving forward toward signing him. James McTeigue has done a bunch of work with the Wachowski brothers before directing the great V for Vendetta. He recently directed the much-buzzed Ninja Assassin as well.
It this pans out, it could mean great things for movie fans. Conan is looking to begin shooting in August of this year.
McTeigue should be great. I just hope Hyboria doesn’t become the dark rainy CG pit most Wachowskiesque adaptations seem to become, but a dazzling vibrant world of adventure I remember from the comics.
You may have noticed that we're now AD FREE! Please support Geeks of Doom by using the Amazon Affiliate link above. All of our proceeds from the program go toward maintaining this site.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
McTeigue should be great. I just hope Hyboria doesn’t become the dark rainy CG pit most Wachowskiesque adaptations seem to become, but a dazzling vibrant world of adventure I remember from the comics.
Comment by Captain Karl — May 11, 2009 @ 8:29 am