After Paradox and Millenium kept themselves pretty closed up about the recent casting rumours, that have been going around on the web and the start of principal photography, they released a press announcement on their company portal, in which they unveil and confirm pretty much all of the casting rumour we’ve been telling you about. Note: Rose McGowan rumour officially confirmed, you heard about it here first

Principal photography started today (15th March) in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Nice to finally get some confirmation on the rumours, best would be a new story synopsis or a better casting description, because the present casting list and character (even name) description might be very much outdated. All we lack now is some spy in Bulgaria, that makes some set shots or connects us with the people working on the production. If anyone lives in Sofia Bulgaria and wants to participate in this lil project, contact me on Facebook.

As reported by Hollywoodreporter, another actor from the G.I.Joe team joins the cast of the Conan Movie. Said Taghmaoui, who played the Breaker in G.I.Joe is going to join the cast and take over the role of a thief, that will be rescued by Conan. He will later on team up with Conan, to fight the character played by Stephen Lang. Now the really interesting part in this rumour is the short line stating:

Lang is a ruler in search of a queen whose blood will bring life to the demonic minions of a long-lost god.

The former used “Acheron” is clearly not a long-lost god, but a kingdom. Does this mean the rewrite by Lobel and Hood has been so substantial, that it may fix some of the butchering of Conan lore? We can only hope that this quote was not taken lightly, but really based on a new story arch, that is more in line with Howard’s stories and world lore.

As I already wrote in the last article, the seed of hope has been planted in my heart and this little quote, yet again is a gush of water on dry earth.

As just reported by NyMag.com The Wrestler Mickey Rourke has signed off from playing Conan’s father and instead the infamous Ron Perlman has taken over the job literally in the last minute, since on the 9th March, Leo Howard wrote on his webpage, that he was flying over to Bulgaria to start shooting soon after. There is no additional info as to why Mickey or the producers changed their minds and how this change will affect the performance of the bunch.

Ron Perlman has some special connection with the Conan franchise, as he has already been the voice of Conan in the videogame made by THQ, and was supposed to voice over Conan in the comic adaption of the Red Nails shortstory by Robert E. Howard.

I am not entirely sure I like this rushed approach to this project, the last minute casting etc… because it makes the project look like rushed art, which is never a good thing. In most other, well done movies, the actors meet up 2-3-4 weeks prior to actual shooting and do test-readings, rehearsal, sometimes together with the writers and directors, to discuss their characters and to make last minute changes to the script and dialogue. In almost all movies, the directors claim that these readings brought the characters forward and empowered the actors to make it their own. In this movie everything is so last minute, that I don’t know if they’ve got the time to actually improve upon dialogue, script and the like. But we’ll have to see how it turns out in the end, before we cry foul of course!

The rumours about the upcoming Conan movie are going wild again. According to a source, that has been correct to often, to not believe it, Rose McGowan is going to play a yet unknown character called Marique in the Conan Movie. That name isn’t mentioned on the casting call, so we assume it’s a new character that was created in the process of rewriting the script. Another interesting information about Stephen Lang’s casting. He was offered the role some days ago and has now supposedly accepted it. Now the really interesting part is that the name of his character (Khalar Singh zhe evilz wizardz) is going to be changed.

I must say, that a seed, a glimmer of hope has been evoked by this little hint. Maybe more than just his characters name has been changed in the process of rewriting the script. We can only hope, that the magical hands of Andrew Lobel and Sean Hood have changed the script for the better and the characters name change is only a hint at greater things to come. Let’s wait and see what he future brings.

Update

The source confirmed, that the character Marique has been a male character before and here is his former casting description

He’s in his 20s to early 30s, Asian or Middle Eastern, open to all ethnicities, slight of frame, piercing eyes, cruel, determined to prove to his father that he can rule the world when the time comes. But he has the mentality of a proto-goth rocker, so ruling the world will prove elusive. However, Fariq makes up for his lack of battle skills with his deft understanding of sorcery and evil determination to find the real queen of Acheron. SUPPORTING

So the proto-goth rocker is now a proto-goth chick I am not entirely sure that instills much hope. It rather sounds like some heavy potential for “hot evil girl monologue”, at least if the script continues down the road Doppenheimers started it. It’ll be interesting to see how they utilize the new possibilities of another female antagonist, played by such a charismatic female performer.

Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, created many awe inspiring heroes and one of them is Solomon Kane.

As it is with all independent movie productions, after the struggle of bringing them to live, after the producers convinced the investors of their vision, they have to make the film. Very often that happens in much tighter fashion, with less money, less luxuries than the average Hollywood production. Those are the guys, that put in their heart and their soul and quite often their own private money, some of them putting their private money at risk, to realize a dream.

Solomon Kane has been adopted by many countries around europe, as the pricetag to release a movie in europe is much lower and so smaller movies or independent movies are picked much more often for a cinema release, than in bigger countries, with bigger audiences like the United States. Now that the puritan has started to take over Europe, the american distributors are still not fully convinced, they want to give Solomon Kane a wide release with proper large ad-campaign and NOW it’s your turn to help the puritan.

Help Solomon Kane to make it to the United States, Canada or wherever you live by DEMANDING IT! This has helped other independent movies like Paranormal Activity and we fans of the puritans are clearly not less passionate. So let’s create a virtual boat for Solomon Kane, so he can sail over to the new world and smash the demons of the USA.

View all Solomon Kane tour dates

Rumour has it, that Rachel Nichols (G.I. Joe, Star Trek) is going to be Tamara, Conan’s love interest in the upcoming Conan Movie. Since there haven’t been many official announcements about the casting, we have to go by the rumours flying around and see what we make of it.

Here is the casting description for Tamara:

She is 18 to 24 years old, Caucasian or Middle Eastern, open to all ethnicities; beautiful, studious, correct, a novitiate of a Greek influenced monastery. A master of martial arts, she has been trained to be the Queen’s servant, bodyguard and best friend. She and many other female bodyguards to the queen have been in hiding most of their lives because of the curse of Acheron, which would take the queen’s life to bring almost immortal power to its king. When Khalar Singh, a powerful warlord with ambitions to become the king of Acheron, storms the monastery and captures all of the novitiates, she is separated from Ilira, the one she must protect. With all of her strength and will, Tamara is determined to find and rescue her. She finds herself in league with Conan because of a mutual need to find Khalar Singh. She is not in the least intimidated by Conan’s size or grim demeanor and their alliance eventually blossoms into something that surprises them both… LEAD

Rachel Nichols certainly is a very beautiful woman. I recently rewatched G.I. Joe and I think she has the physicality that is needed for her role and the acting talent, to fill out the wide variety of emotions her character will go through.

UPDATE

Rachel Nichols officially confirmed that she is cast as Tamara.

RachelNichols1
@der_waldgeist well…he wasn’t lying…the deal is closed and i am going to be TAMARA. i am thrilled. xxx.