Well here’s some news that just throws us for a loop! First impressions tell us this is awesome news but… is it really? Yes, it involves director Marcus Nisepl. It also involves an upcoming movie about a big buff dude swinging a sword around..
I’m talking about the remake/reboot/reimagining of CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Last we heard Brett Ratner was in line to direct this one amidst some minor turmoil between Ratner and producer Avi Lerner. Well it seems that turmoil was beyond minor because according to Variety, Nispel now has the job!
So is this good or bad? Let’s weigh the options shall we… wait a minute.. Ratner is out? That’s good right off the bat! Nispel is no stranger to bringing us twisted flicks with lots of violence either! He’s the one behind 2009’s FRIDAY THE 13TH, the recent TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake, and PATHFINDER. Granted Nispel has his fair share of negative feedback but let’s cut the guy some slack… at least he’s better than Ratner!
And apparently Nispel has been dreaming about bringing his own version of Conan to life for a while… since he was a kid actually! He’ll be blending his childhood vision of the barbarian with the influence of the Conan illustrations by Frank Frazetta and influences from period flicks like APOCALYPTO. The script comes from Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer with Lerner, Joe Gatta and Paradox’s Fredrick Malmberg producing. Paradox being the company that owns the rights to CONAN and all other Robert E. Howard properties. A large group including Boaz Davidson, George Furla, Henry Winterstern, Trevor Short and Danny Dimfort are all serving as executive producers.
Nu Image/Millennium Films and Lionsgate are planning on starting production on CONAN later this year in South Africa and Bulgaria. We’ll be on the lookout for any other news for CONAN throughout the Summer. In the meantime let’s spit some bullets below on what you think of swapping Ratner for Nispel and who might be the guy slapping on the loincloth this go-around.
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