Dirk Blackman just wrote on his private Outlander blog, that himself and Howard McCain never got a chance to write the screenplay for Conan ONE. But instead they were asked to write a sequel to the movie based on the screenplay by Oppenheimer/Donelly! This is strange news, as the recently leaked Oppenheimer/Donelly script is miles, yards, aeons far away from anything that Howard ever wrote, be it style, storyline, character, motivation or world-canon.

If the script that was leaked to Latinoreview really is going to be the screenplay for the new Conan movie and Blackman and McCain cannot save us from this, then i really lost all my hope for any chance of success for this movie or it’s sequel. If you start a new line of Conan movies in the way Latinoreview described it, then no sequel can repair the damage done in the first one. All Cimmerians wiped out by Werewolves, Conan on an epic revenge plot against an evil wizard… that is plain and pure generic bull-dung.

The only chance i am seeing is that the first movie will be utter trash, due to an horrible screenplay and the second one will be another reboot of the story, with a proper screenplay, that does not spit on Howard’s stories and characters.

Seriously… i am at loss for words and i am deeply disappointed with Paradox and Millenium Films if that turns out to be true.

UPDATE: Dax posted in the Outerlanderblog comments that another guy reviewed the script of O/D. While his review sounds much more optimistic, the general basic errors made to the Conan character, that Latinoreview mentioned still remain and the fact that the general story still seems uninteresting is very underwhelming, because i think Howard was a natural storyteller, with a great ability not only to tell stories in a great way, but also tell great stories.

UPDATE 2: Blackman just confirmed on his private blog, that the review i posted in the first Update of this post is really the one Brett fell in love with and therefore the one they will for now go with.

Well… basing a movie, a start of a new franchise, on a script that cries cheap-generic story, to bring back to live a franchise that Robert E. Howard invented, maybe the most illogical and strange decsision i expected and i have no high hopes, that anything good will come out of the screenplay/project that is shunned by directors… for obvious reasons.

Some of you might have noticed the little “Share” button that suddenly appears under every article. There you will find the possibility to share every news and article over dozens of different social networks, bookmarking systems and web rating platforms.

We introduced this so you can actively spread the word of the new Conan movie on the web, because even though some specialized movie pages pick up news and rumours about the movie from time to time, the general knowledge about the reboot of the Conan franchise on the big screen has not yet spreaded much farther than the horizon of the Conan fans.

So use the possibility to spread the word of Conan and twitter, facebook, reddit, whatever… the news and articles we post, so once the movie really gets going, we can start fueling the hype actively and help reviving the Conan franchise for the big audience through word-of-mouth and viral marketing! Many don’t realize the possibilities of these tools, but statistics have shown that with every year that goes by, these channels become more and more important to people and their lives and therefore as a place to find trustworthy information, that is not blurred by the marketing machinery of the big studios (aka trailers), but rated by people like themselves.

Just some days ago, we reported that CHUD found out about a new favorite director after Brett Ratner officially left the directors chair. Now it seems even more rumours have been given to CHUD about which director Lionsgate would like to see. Apparently there are two names high up on their list: Christophe Gans and Neil Marshall. But then another source that is quoted as saying Markus Nispel is the most pursued director on the list.

It’s astonishing how the upcoming Conan movie manages to jump from one absolute No-No director on my list to the next. Markus Nispel directed Pathfinder, one of the most boring Sword movies i’ve watched in years. From beginning to the end the whole movie in my opinion shows no skill whatsoever in the department of cutting, screenplay, camera, direction or acting.

A story, a movie, a song everything is about tempo and flow. If something doesn’t flow you get dragged out of the immersion immediately and Pathfinder was one of those movies where i couldn’t get into the flow for longer than 5 minutes.

I really don’t like the sound of this news and i hope that Christophe Gans is also pursued, because at least he has shown more than once, that he can direct non-typical, interesting movies that always have something unique and special to them, which i think Conan deserves and needs to stand out.

UPDATE: And yet another rumour surfaced. Latinoreview published another Conan director rumour, that another inside source (it’s like the whole movie industry is full of holes) told them all the listed directors are not really on TOP of the list but instead its: PHIL JOANOU. On his list are several low profile movies and lately a generic sports movie with Dwayne Johnson (fun to watch btw. saw it in a sneak preview).

And so the wheel keeps spinning, the dance of directors is not yet over and we will have some more weeks of uncertainty until the rumoured release of big news on ComicCon this year!

While the last news clearly was a statement from an official source, right after Ratner is officially no longer in the lead for directing the new Conan movie for now, there are rumours from an inside source that James McTeigue (Director: V for Vendetta) is supposedly the next guy Millenium Films are talking to, to helm the Conan movie.

He has not done a lot of movies himself but has been the director of many second unit shoots and learned from people like the Wachowskis, so he definitely has some skill on his hands when it comes to shooting action scenes and V for Vendetta was visually quite impressive.

According to the source he hasn’t signed any contract yet, but he is the one that Paradox/Millenium Films are talking to about the upcoming Conan movie, which can mean many things as we know. Since he himself has only done two movies and not much else of him is known we will have to wait and investigate how the situation turns out.

At least he knows how to make beautiful movies with a lesser budget, which can only be good for Conan, because in my opinion “smaller” filmmakers tend to be more precise once they get a big budget thrown at them and like to do things “the old way” instead of just shooting stuff and hoping the CGI will fix it. This especially holds true for lighting scenes, which i think is one of the most important aspects of making a movie really shine, because the actors ooze atmosphere out of there acting, if the surroundings pull them into the scene too. Its much harder for an actor to pull it off, if he is just surrounded by green screens. On the other hand, he has been doing work on the Matrix, which was green screen heaven … i just hope Conan will be approached in a way as Solomon Kane was done by Bassett.

Harry Knowles of Aint it Cool News has the honor of doing the first review of the new Solomon Kane Film today.

Despite Harry’s know penchant for using superlatives, all in all it is pretty damn promising. He says that “by the end of the film [he] was completely ecstatic that Purefoy had the role” of Solomon Kane, and praises the supporting actors as well. Having seen the previous works of most of the involved, I was not really afraid that bad acting would sink this movie anyway, though. Even more of a pleasant surprise is therefore what he says of the filming: 

…throughout everything this film is BEAUTIFULLY SHOT. Not with filters and bullshit color tones – No. This film feels dirty, feels frigidly cold, life does not look easy. The actors don’t look like actors with shiny white teeth and perfect hair.

Finally a director that seems to understands the gritty world of Robert E. Howard!

To me the greatest thing is still what he says at the end of the review, though:

This is the adventure that hypes us up for more and that’s the best I could have hoped for the first SOLOMON KANE adaptation. A desire to see more from this same team!

That is indeed what I hope for as well. According to what producer Paul Berrow has told us, the next film is planned to take place in Africa, including N’Longa and a certain staff.. The script writing is still underway on the sequel, though, so nothing is written in stone.

So, when do you get to see it? Well, seeing as this is an independently produced film, they are currently working on getting distributors. Some are already signed, with France, Greece and Belgium already having release dates on imdb (though the one for Greece is obviously wrong, seeing as it has passed). A private screening will be held in Cannes to secure distribution for other territories, including the US.

Empire online had an exclusive interview with Joe Gatta, one of the producers of the upcoming Conan movie and he said that Brett Ratner would be off the case right now and that once they found a director there would be an open casting call for the role of Conan!

In the interview Joe Gatta says:

“We’re currently in the process of hiring a director,” he told us. “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.

While it may be questionable to desperately hang on to a director that wants to do anything else but Conan first, the fact that Ratner is officially no longer involved with Conan for now is a good sign for some of us out there.

Gatta also goes on talking about the fact that Conan is the “crown jewel” of the company and the filming of Red Sonja will have to wait until Conan is done. The supposed start-date for filming is the 24th of August this year, so they better find a Director fast… and a Conan actor.

Talking about the Conan actor, Gatta also said that they would start an open casting call for the role once they’ve chosen a director, therefore anyone of you who has the guts to pull of a decent Conan could potentially jump in front of the producers and flex some muscle.