The winds have carried news to Crom on his mountain, and Crom is pleased!
Ok, Crom is probably not whacking heads together with unalloyed joy, but Conan's god may have cracked a grim smile at the news that Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) is close to finalising a deal to helm a new Conan movie.
So why the qualified pleasure? Given the last attempt to bring Conan to the big screen - the semi-comic and fully ridiculous Conan the Destroyer (1984) - what this blood soaked tale is screaming out for is an epic make-over, and unfortunately Ratner's back log of movies doesn't really inspire confidence. Still, time will tell: X-Men: The Last Stand very nearly achieved the epic quality to which it aspired.
What has brought a smile to Crom's battle-scarred face however is that writers Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly have steeped themselves in Robert E. Howard's classic tales of the 1930s for their inspiration. Word is that Ratner was so taken by their script that we can pretty much take his involvement for granted, particularly if it is true that the writers are reworking the script to incorporate some of his ideas.This won't be the first back-to-roots retelling of the Conan legend, of course. Based on an Oliver Stone screenplay, John Milius gave us a bloody good approximation of the Conan universe with 1982's Conan The Barbarian. Judging by comments from Avi Lerner of Millennium Films, the writing team of Oppenheimer and Donnelly are set to give us an even more authentic Robert E. Howard experience, with their version of the story opening "on the battlefield where Conan is born". Nice! A joint production by Millennium and Lionsgate Films, with a probable release in 2010, this will be an origin story that sets the stage for what will be the first of multiple films, assuming all goes well.
Before Ratner delivers the new Conan movie he'll be directing another instalment, the fourth, of Beverley Hills Cop for Paramount. The best that can be said about this is that it has been scripted by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, the guys who penned the very entertaining Wanted.
Preproduction for the Conan movie is under way for a shoot in Bulgaria. Pray to Crom that they can pull this one off.
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