Lionsgate has secured distributions rights for the new Conan The Barbarian franchise based on Robert Howard’s classic character currently being developed by Nu-Image/Millenium Films, according to today’s Variety.
Nu-Image/Millenium hopes to have the initial Conan film in production later this year, though the company stipulates that the date is in flucuation due to the Writer’s Guild strike. The script is being provided by the writing team of Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, though given that these two are responsible for the failed Sahara and A Sound Of Thunder (both 2005), I’m not sure that I would want be the one entrusting them with a $100 million franchise-launching film.
Avi Lerner, head of Nu-Image/Millenium, told Variety that he is hoping to reach a separate agreement with the Writer’s Guild, similar to the one reached by United Artists earlier this week, to allow them to go ahead with the film.
No director or cast have yet been hired.
