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

On this day 104 years ago, Robert E. Howard, a writer blessed with a magnificent talent, was born in Peaster, Texas. He was the only child of Dr. Isaac Mordecai Howard, a traveling physician, and Hester Jane Ervin Howard, a caring and loving mother who would play an important role in Howard’s future.

Young Robert’s interest in writing and poetry was from the beginning nurtured in large part by his mother, who shared with her son a great passion for poetry and literature. Hester would encourage the boy to read a wide variety of literature. In the years that followed, she would offer both praise and support when Robert began writing his own stories and poems.

In school, he was a polite if somewhat reserved pupil, chafing with boredom and taking scant interest in the dry, repetitive lessons ladled out by his teachers. Robert’s educational strategy was to do just well enough to satisfy his instructors with the least effort possible. Here his passion for freedom first surfaced and took possession of him. He developed a disdain for the discipline and mundane jobs forced upon him by others. He wanted to be his own master. Over the years, he worked at a variety of jobs, but routine labor distressed him. It was not the hard work he detested, but rather the fact that others determined what he had to do with his life. The desire to control his own destiny contributed to his passionate determination to succeed as a professional writer. Robert E. Howard became his own master, enjoying the fruits of his own labor, and living with a supreme satisfaction that no one could tell him what to do or when to do it.

Robert E. Howard’s childhood was marked by frequent relocation due to his father’s many migrations from one small Texas town to another. All those journeys across the warm Texas landscape brought the young Howard into contact with other migrants who were experiencing the chaotic and brief prosperity of boom towns that rapidly declined after the area was sucked dry of its oil. Young Robert eagerly listened to ghostly stories told by former slaves and the more evocative tales spun by his grandmother. As the years passed, Robert came to appreciate the strength and rough honesty of the people and the land itself.

As he explained in his letters to his friends, all those people, places and images he encountered on his journeys, all those lessons learned about society and civilization, became the inspiration for his characters, invented worlds, and fabulous tales. Howard described Conan’s character as a mixture of oil-field roughnecks and other leather tough working men, both honest and otherwise, that Howard continued to encounter in the Texas oil patch over the years.

By 1928, he had finally succeeded in making a full time living with his writing. Howard’s stories would be published in many Pulp magazines of the period (Weird Tales and the like). His creations would reach a broad, enthusiastic audience and he was proud of his success. Over the following years he created famous characters like Conan the Cimmerian, confidently tramping across the nations of Howard’s Hyborian Age. Other remarkable protagonist included Bran Mak Morn, a pict in ancient Britain, Solomon Kane, a sombre puritan wanderer in a dark and twisted 16th Century Europe, and Kull of Atlanis, a great King living in an ancient world that predated even Conan’s Hyborian Age. In addition, Howard created dozens of characters who existed in wonderfully rendered historical times. He was an amazingly versatile writer, who could spin yarns in all kinds of genres and master them all.

In the relatively brief time of his professional career, Howard published well over a hundred stories in different pulp magazines and even more poems. He is generally acknowledged as the father of the Sword and Sorcery genre, which continues to provide heroic inspiration for fantasy authors to this very day.

Howard’s life was not free of heartache and tragedy, yet Howard channeled even his darkest anguish into his stories. He endured and prevailed, but at a huge personal cost that eventually demanded payment. On the night of the 11th of June, 1936 Howard succumbed to a deep depression, the tragic combination of his own darker impulses and a long series of emotionally painful experiences with which he could no longer cope. As he had often intimated in his bleakest poems, Robert E. Howard took his own life with a pistol borrowed from a friend.

In thirty brief years, Bob Howard played many parts. He was a good and caring son, a creative and imaginative teller of tales, and a loyal friend to many men and women who were privileged to know him. Howard lives on, his memory enshrined in his immortal characters and stories. With humble gratitude for his profoundly enduring legacy, we celebrate this 104th birthday of Robert Ervin Howard.

Additional Information

• Detailed REH biography by Rusty Burke
• Official Conan Homepage

Since the news on the Conan movie are rare these days, i wanted to take the time and write a little summary on another Robert E. Howard project. Even before he created Conan, he created Solomon Kane. A puritan living in a dark version of our 16th century, rich with dark magic and great fights. This hero has, after years of hard work, found his way to the big screen. Davis Films and Wandering Star Productions came together to realize this interesting project with the creative talent of the young British director Michael J. Bassett. The first public premier at Toronto Film Festival is over and an official trailer is released.

So without further ado:

• Solomon Kane Homepage
• Solomon Kane Twitter
• Solomon Kane Facebook
• Solomon Kane Myspace

You can find two exciting videos on the official homepage and on the facebook, so join the pages to stay in touch with this great looking movie.

Dirk Blackman, one of the writers for the, as we reported, second Conan movie posted a practise Conan screenplay on his private blog. As he states he created the script to see if he can get into the right mood to write a Conan screenplay. The screenplay is an adaptation of the Frost Giant’s Daughter, one of Robert E. Howard’s original Conan stories, that was adapted in many Comics and pastiches. It’s the story of Conan meeting the cruel daughter of Ymir, the Frost god of the Vanir and Aesir living far up to the north, above the lands of Cimmeria. The screenplay itself would transform into a 5-6 minute short-film as Mr. Blackman states and he stresses the fact it’s not much of a hint of how he wrote the screenplay he was hired for, or the quality present in the finished script for the second Conan film.

I think the scenes and pacing he extracted from the original story are well chosen, though i think he generally took to few pieces of dialogue portraiting Conan again as the dumb brute as he was pictured in the existing Conan movies. Additionally I think the screenplay misses the fact, that Conan was lured by magic, but was carefully aware of it, even mocking her that if she would lead him into a trap her kinsmen would fall flat on their faces with their heads chopped off. The pure confidence and even arrogance of the young Conan and the raw and brutal power that even mock the gods is missing in the screenplay.

Since he states that this is only a practise and does not hint at how his Conan screenplay will be written, I hope he did not take as many liberties in his movie script, as that would mean it would lack all that makes Conan special and different from “ye average sword wielding bad ass”.

UPDATE: Dirk Blackman was so kind to write a very long and explanatory answer to the many comments he got on his blog and in the REH Forum. I think it’s great of him (and not unexpected, he always was honest and open to the fans) to take the time and explain his thought process and the process of creating a screenplay.

In the early hours of June 11th 1936, the well known pulp author and creator of characters such as Conan and Solomon Kane, shot himself with a pistol, outside his house in the village of Cross Plains in Texas. Even though his father, Dr. Isaac Mordecai  Howard, did all he could to save his son’s life, Mr. RobertErvin Howard died 8 hours later at 4pm. But the legacy of Robert. E. Howard is living up to this day.

In his room a lonely chair was standing in front of the table, where he had written all his stories on a mechanical typewriter. A last piece of paper had been fixed into it by Howard that fateful night, to write his last words:

“All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over and the lamps expire…”

73 years ago he took his own life but his stories would continue to influence generations to come. Not only did he inspire greatness in many fantasy writers and invented a whole new genre of fantasy – Sword and Sorcery – his stories, his worlds also went on to be recreated and brought to life in all different types of media.

While he is most famous for the creation of Conan the Cimmerian and bringing to life his own world – The Hyborian Age – in a unique, brutal and savage way, with words like thunder and lines that resonate in the reader’s mind, his skill was not limited to this type of magnificent story telling.

He had shown his skill and perfection as a writer in many other types of stories and poems. His mind wandered beyond the imagination of most and told stories of the Great West, of a dark and twisted Europe in the times of Solomon Kane, of the long gone kingdom of Atlantis and its great KingKull and also more historical stories about strong and honest men and women and beautiful poetry, that complemented his unique melodic rhythm in writing.

He was a true Teller of Tales!

We thank you Robert E. Howard, for every line you delivered, for every character you have created and will further spread the knowledge of your legacy throughout the world. Rest in peace wherever you may be Robert E. Howard, through your stories you will live on.

Links about Robert E. Howard

• Wikipedia page about REH
• REH creations that are in the Public Domain
• Owner of REH license

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.

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!

As reported in the official Conan boards a British production company, also consisting of people who created the Rome TV series, are planning to pursue a TV series based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan short stories.

Due to Copyright reasons they are going to use the Public Domain stories as the source for the series, to avoid any trouble with CPI and not use the Conan name in the advertisement or title of the treatment. As reported by an associate of the group the usage of the name Conan in the series itself is not prohibited, since it is a very common Gaelic name.

The present working title for the first treatment is supposed to be “Robert E Howard’s The Devil In Iron” and they plan to make it with a 90 minute length. Not much more than these outlines are known yet as the project itself is in its early stages.

To me this sounds very interesting as the adaptation of the REH stories directly points out to be much closer than any movie can ever go, due to different market, costs and structure of a series compared to a full feature film. The fact that creatives from Rome are involved spawns even more hope, because i personally thought the series was done with the right production values and had the right detail to characters and setting that many movies cannot afford due to time limitations (recent example Watchmen, which is a great movie but feels a bit “stuffed”).

Solomon Kane is another one of Robert E. Howards more famous characters he created in his short stories and poems. Just as Conan he is kind of a bad-ass and the stories itself are just as action packed and well written, so i thought i give you an update on the status of this REH movie.

As the director of the new upcoming Solomon Kane film wrote on his private blog, the new Solomon Kane film has reached the last stage of active, creative work: the sound mixing. He is spending some time personally in the sound studio  in London to supervise the mixing of the several hundreds of sound layers per scene. In the last weeks and months he has continuously posted little articles talking about the movie on his blog, including some set shots that give a little hint on the quality of the set design and it looks amazing.

Lets hope once Conan has a director he will be just as passionate and into the whole production as Bassett is on Solomon Kane and maybe gives us small insights on the production via a blog too, since those views through the keyhole are really what make a “production” more personal and interesting to follow than just official news and trailers.