An Arnold Schwarzenegger fanpage dug up a rumour from an inside source that the slow going reboot of the Conan movie has come to a full stop until Arnold would end his political career and return as King Conan himself.

The source claims that this surprising move was done, because the producers did not think that a Conan movie, with an unknown cast in the lead, would cash in the right amount of money to validate for the major investment needed to bring Conan to live on the big screen.

The story itself would still be a complete reboot and not connected to the Conan movies done in the 1980’s, so they renamed the project from King Conan to Conan the King.

The question is, if the inside source can be trusted, as this would be a major change from anything that has been stated officially by any part of the production team. Even the latest interviews with Brett Ratner who seemed to be involved with the project somehow, did not hint in any way that something like this was on the table. As always, these are just rumours we have to live with until an official word nullifies them. Stay tuned, get down and…. run to da choppa!

UPDATE: Another inside source said that this was an amusing rumour. You can all make what you want out of that, but you can be sure – I’ll be back

While we hold our breath waiting for news on the new Conan film, there is something happening on the licensing front. Paradox Entertainment (the owner of Conan Properties) announces in a press release today that everyone’s favorite barbarian is being turned into a new online game.

We are not talking of a new “Age of Conan”, however, but rather a casino game themed on the famous Cimmerian. It is Canadian gaming company Cryptologic that are creating the game, with the rights to market it in any country that allows gambling. The press release does not state what kind of casino game we are talking about, or what the role of Conan will be. I personally have some trouble picturing him black-haired, sullen-eyed and croupier-dressed. Having Conan chop the heads off players that give you a bad beat in hold ‘em would be another matter..

The game is expected to be available by early 2010.

Michael J. Bassett has announced on his private blog that his little baby the upcoming Solomon Kane – Solomon is another famous character from Robert E. Howard, hence we include this news here – film is finally wrapped, mixed, glossified and finished! Obviously he seems to like his own work and says:

It’s not gimmicky or contemporary, just a very classically made and beautiful to look at dark-fantasy-action-adventure.

And at least the very few set pieces he posted on the blog hint for a visually very appealing movie. With James Purefoy playing Solomon Kane, the movie already has a great actor in its lead. The cast also consists of Josiah Kane being played by the astonishing Max von Sydow and the red girl from “The Parfum” – Rachel Hurd Wood.

The only thing that is missing now, is a great trailer and the producers doing proper advertisement for it! We don’t want another Outlander to happen, so the best of luck to you Michael!

In an article published by a french cinema portal Howard McCain talks about his involvement in the project, the status, the director and that from his knowledge the Conan producers are thinking about doing two separate Conan movies that are not connected. One would be based on McCain and Blackman’s script and the other on Donelly’s and Oppenheimer’s script.

He also states that Bret Rattner is attached to the project, but he hasn’t come to terms and the last pieces are not tied yet, though without openly stating it, he does not like Rattner to be attached to it by hinting at what the fans on the Internet have been saying is pretty much what he thinks too…

Then he shortly jumps to describing the direction of his own script as a more mature, dark and gritty approach than Milius was doing. No humour, just brutal Conan in its full glory. The main inspiration for his version of the script is coming from the two REH short stories: A Witch Shall Be Born of the People and Black Circle.

These are very strange news and i bet that many people reading this right now are confused on to what Paradox and Millenium are really up too. How can they possibly make two Conan movies, not connected? Was this just a misunderstanding of the interviewer and McCain? So many questions and so few answers from any official source.

UPDATE: Thanks to an explanation of a commenter there arose another possibility. The movies will be done “one after the other”. That sounds like what happened in the 80′ s. Two movies who are not related in style or character. Let’s hope that does not turn out to be the case, as this would kill the franchise yet again as it did back then. Additionally in another french interview he spoke of whos script would be picked first, so i guess this is all some kind of lost in translation problem.

The main problem though remains: We have a mediocre script by Donelly/Oppenheimer revealed, a secret script by Blackman/McCain – who have shown great interest and knowledge in Conan and talent in their latest screenplay efforts – and the rumours around a not so much loved Director called Bret Rattner. We will see how this turns out and if Conan ever comes to live at all and if he does, in what state. Exciting times!