It seems the talk around a new Conan the Barbarian film has been going on forever now, and it finally seems like all the talk is getting somewhere as it has found its way to Lionsgate, who made a deal with Nu Image/Millennium Films for North American distribution rights.
The first feature in the new film series based on the Robert E. Howard-created character Conan the Barbarian will be written by the team of Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. Should the writers’ strike permit the expectation is to begin production later this year and word out of Variety is that Nu Image/Millennium chief Avi Lerner confirmed that he is in discussions to make a WGA deal akin to those brokered with United Artists and the Weinstein Co. Such a pact would speed up the process.
“It’s a possibility, though I haven’t studied it enough to make a final decision,” Lerner told Daily Variety. “The whole strike is stupid, in my opinion. They approached us, indirectly, to make some kind of deal, and we are looking at it.”
Don’t you love straight talk? “The whole strike is stupid.” Good use of words Avi!
Millennium Films acquired the rights to Conan back in August 2007 in a seven figure deal. Warner Bros. tried for seven years to make the film but apparently everything has been worked out at Millenium in a way that neither Boz Yakin, Larry and Andy Wachowski, John Milius (who directed the original and wrote the script with Oliver Stone) and Robert Rodriguez could never figure out.
The only storyline word as far as the film goes is that they plan on being more faithful to Howard’s original creation than were the Arnold Schwarzenegger films.
