Conan the rewritten

Everyone’s favorite Cimmerian death-machine is experiencing a resurgence in popularity, thanks to top-selling videogames and comic series. So where’s his big return to theaters?

Still wandering the Hyborian Age in search of a script, that’s where. A new pair of scribes has been brought in to tell the latest adventures of Robert E. Howard’s sword-swinging pulp icon, and they have a bit of experience in the genre: Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain, who wrote the Vikings vs. alien tale OUTLANDER, the prequel UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS, and the long-in-development warrior-women epic AMAZON.

Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (SAHARA) had previously been working on a script. John Milius, who originally brought the character to cinematic infamy with Arnold Schwarzenegger, had once written a script titled KING CONAN: CROWN OF IRON, which was sadly discarded.

The Lionsgate project is “fast-tracked” but still lacks the attachment of either a star or director (the arrival of which will no doubt necessitate even further writing). Meanwhile, Conan’s female counterpart RED SONJA is on her way to screens with Rose McGowan in the crimson hair and chainmail bikini.