'Conan' movie Coming at Us Bloody and soon
Venkman here - It seems Lionsgate is ready to make the biggest risk so far on a movie with reinventing a new 'Conan' Franchise. The trades says:
Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain are trying to corner the market on sword-swinging fantasy adventures.
The pair have been hired to write a new script for "Conan," as in the barbarian, for Lionsgate. And the writing team's action-adventure screenplay "Amazon," an epic about female warriors to which Scarlett Johansson has been attached, is sailing out of turnaround toward Lionsgate as well, with Neal Moritz and his Original Film banner coming on to produce once the deal is completed.
You know whats funny? Is I can actually see Scarlett Johansson playing a amazon woman. Why is that funny I don't know but I laughed at the thought.
Director searches are under way for both.
Paradox Entertainment president and CEO Fredrik Malmberg is producing the "Conan" feature along with Boaz Davidson, Joe Gatta and Avi Lerner of Millennium Films. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer ("Sahara") have already been working on a separate, parallel script for the film, a potential resurrection of the classic warrior created by Robert E. Howard in dozens of pulp stories published in the 1930s. In 1982, Oliver Stone and John Milius wrote a bloody adaptation, which Milius also directed, that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"We all want this movie to go into production as soon as possible," Malmberg said. "It's a fast-tracked movie. Lionsgate felt the process was enhanced by having a second team come in and do a script."
When studios tend to rush things they usually end up sucking ass.
Much like with "Batman Begins," the studio hopes to redraw the Conan feature universe to produce a new, post-millennial franchise. So rather than remake the Schwarzenegger bloodfest, the writers have gone back to Howard's original stories to create a $100 million R-rated origin film, the largest production to date for Lionsgate and Millennium.
Ok. I like the idea of going back and using the original stories to creae something fresh and new. If they are hoping the have a 'Batman Begins' franchise with 'Conan' they better do it right. Lionsgate is taking a classic character and they are going to reinvent the movie for a new audience for $100 Million Dollars. And here the are trying to rush the project. What a waste. They also will need to get a great director to tackle the material. It should be interesting to see who they do get or who they even have in mind.
"Fans expect (these types of movies) to be more true to the source material," Malmberg said. "There's no reason there couldn't be a Conan movie every two years. He's almost like Batman: He's a dark hero. He's a hard hero. He has to be badass, but we also have to like him."
Why do they keep comparing Conan to Batman? I don't see it. There is a huge reason why there couldn't be a Conan movie every 2 years! If your first 'Conan' Film sucks and doesn't make the kind of money you want it to then you wont be making a sequel. If you rush this thing out like it looks like you are don't expect a great movie to come out of it. I'm just sayin.
In the end I'm always down for a rated 'R' Conan flick. The better it is the more time I will watch it.