Our amigos over at FILM JUNK brought the following news to our attention. It appears that Bret Ratner has indeed been tapped to direct Conan. We get the following word from AICN’s Moriarty:
When I met Howard McCain after the screening of OUTLANDER, he told me he’d just been hired with his writing partner to write CONAN for Lionsgate, and in talking with him, I could tell the material was in the right hands. He genuinely adores the Robert Howard stories, and it seemed like he had some big plans for how to structure the film.
And now it appears to be official that Brett Ratner is directing the goddamn thing.
I’ m not very excited at his news. I don’t hate Ratner, but certainly don’t think anything he’s done has been awesome. When it comes to Conan I don’t want someone who is going to do an “ok” job, I want an artist of the highest order. Perhaps Ratner will do his best work with Conan and make me eat my words. I certainly hope so, I will wear a silken bib.
What pleases me most is that Howard McCain is a disciple of Robert E. Howard. The quality of the story and the mettle of Conan will depend on how well the team pours over the works of Howard and gleans from them an epic tale fit for the silver screen. I want Howard on Howard to be a winning formula.
Crom, bless McCain in his translation and Ratner in his directorial responsibilities; and if not, to hell with you!
@wintle, i did not know that. thanks for that tidbit.
Frank Frazetta, creator of the iconic cover paintings for the paperback editions of Conan, was considered for the job of making the original Star Wars posters. Even though he didn’t participate, his influence is obvious in both the Star Wars poster and the Conan theatrical poster. They’re both riffing off the same source.
i’ve never noticed this before but the conan movie poster used in this post is very similar to the star wars anh poster (luke w/ lightsaber in the air and leia kneeling)
KRISTINA,
I get that you didn’t mean to insult. I really understand that. However, it is the fact that your complete second paragraph could be completely edited out and your point of view would still be made solid. John has the total right to say that he is a small time movie maker on the MovieBlog, because of the fact that it is HIS blog. You have your own BLOG that we can all link to and read if we want to and that is where you should write about your EXPERIENCE. It’s a simple idea. There was ZERO word “twisting”. I didn’t take anything that you said out of context. Oh, and I think that you should stop assuming things about me, when you know nothing of me… I didn’t assume anything about you.
At least that’s the way I see it.
Thanks, Wintle.
I read your post twice, Kristina, and I have no idea what Robert Frost is talking about. I find it refreshing to not only get a different perspective, but to have some context for it. It’s also nice to see someone on the internet actually acknowledge that they may have been mistaken in the past. If that’s not humility, I don’t know what is.
whos gonna play Conan? they need someone who has the same presence as Arnie(is there any??), other than that its gonna bomb! but why remake in the first place? dont fix it if its not broken.
Uh, it only came across that way to you. No one else has stated that I insulted them with that post, save for you. If you were insulted, that was not my intent, but I genuinely do not see how that entry could have insulted anyone. If anything, the manner in which you have twisted my words to present me as some sort of condescending prick, when all I did was state that I was less harsh toward directors than I used to be due to a tiny bit of experience doing their job, was truly insulting.
I didn’t once say or even so much as IMPLY in that entry that I was better than anyone here, or that I was the only one on this site with any filmmaking experience. Plenty of people here have experience, and have gladly shared that experience with all of us. Hell, the founder of this site has made a documentary and is currently making his first feature film and HE even said that he respects the filmmaking process more now that he’s gone through it. He said the exact same thing that I did. Is he insulting you as well? Many people say that they have a greater appreciation of somehting once they’ve had a taste of it. How is that insulting in any way? YOU read that and felt the need to get uppity. You and you alone. Clearly you are new around these parts, because if you ask anyone on this site who has read my posts over the years, they will tell you that the last thing that I would do is put myself on some sort of pedestal and preach down to people like I am better than them. I’d greatly appreciate it if you do not twist my words around again.
“Did I say “haha poopyheads I know more than you?””
No, however, from an outside perspective the way the entry was written it came across that way… Just saying.
Arnold needs to give up politics and get back into the movie BIZ! However, he’d definitely have to grab his muscle costume from his closet. What was the last movie he did? Around the World in 80 Days? That movie sucked but his character effin’ ruled!
ALL HAIL ARNOLD!
I totally agree with Kristina- The world of movie blogs and so called fan boys like trashing certain people and Micheal Bay and Brett Ratnor are two of them. Ratner, while not a visionary, is a solid director. His Rush Hr series is entertaining, Red Dragon was good and I liked X-men 3, and so did alot of people. Personally though, I don’t think there will be huge interest in another Conan movie, and since its being financed by Lionsgate the budget will be kept in check big time!
It has been confirmed that I will not see this movie.
I wasn’t insulting anyone! All I said was that the job is a lot tougher than I used to think it was, and I appreciate their hard work now that I’ve had a taste of it. How is that INSULTING anyone? Did I say “haha poopyheads I know more than you?” No! I said that the Rat was, in my opinion, unfairly scapegoated for X3 and at least deserves a chance.
Guys, please read my post and tell me where I insulted and attacked anyone. I just re-read it and can’t find it anywhere.
Look, “Red Dragon” was a good film… I personally really liked “X-3” (I realize I’m a part of a minority.) It’s not a death warrant. I would rather have someone other than B.Ratner Direct it, but now that he is set in stone… I will be happy to see a new CONAN, no matter what. It’s better than not ever getting another film in my opinion. New people bring new Ideas and Change is rarely the WORST thing that can happen.
I’ll wait to see what happens. I don’t get why they wouldn’t just wait and try to get Robert Rodrigez to try to fit it into the universe that he is creating with Red Sonja. But I am not in power.
Oh, and KRISTINA… don’t insult others on the blog by stating about your newly trained skills in Film Making and Appreciation… you are not the only one of us on here that have been through such courses and life-lessons in Film Making. Some of us just have the tact and decency to maintain our humility of our own knowledge as such. Just assume everyone writing on here has a similar background and appreciation that you have.
This movie has just been signed its death warrant. At best Ratner will deliver a competent film.
The biggest reason I hate Ratner, is because – to me – the guy’s way of directing has no ‘personality’ to it. You can see it when you’re looking at his films. And it’s all cool with the Rush Hours, because no one gives a damn. But with a gem like Conan The Barbarian?
It’s a fucking insult to give Ratner this project. I don’t want to see just a bunch of cool fights with Conan. I want to see a bunch of cool fights in the World of Conan.
Kristina, the film will be bad pretty much who ever directed it. You have to look at what day an age its been made in, we will probably get something looking like 300. That will take away any of the effect which made the original stand up so well. film school will only make you judge in a standard way. You said it made you appreciate how films are made because it was hard for you as a first timer? well what do you expect? why we can judge is because these people have talented guys, crew and a whole lot of money and it gets wasted on crap such as this remake.
I wouldn’t say its fun to rip on the “rat” its just the truth i think everyone that has a clue knows he will never ever do anything that will give him credit? unless he remakes makes something popular in to a film like a toy or something, then it will be cool to like him.
I’m indifferent about this film and The Rat as a director. It’s popular to rip on him due to the X3 debacle, but the truth is, when Singer left he took his entire team with him. It wasn’t just Singer that made the X-movies what they were. He had a production team of writers,producers, and various others who all contributed to the success of those films, and when they all departed in one swoop, it was inevitable that the next film would see a noticeable decrease in quality I feel a bit of sympathy for The Rat that he was so badly scapegoated, but everything else that he’s done hasn’t particularly rocked my boat, either, save for Red Dragon which wasn’t half-bad.
Now that I’m a film major in school (and most recently shot my first-ever short film), I have more of an appreciation of the effort that it takes from the entire filmmaking team to complete a film. It was tough enough for me to get the correct exposure setting on my camera for a quick establishing shot of a lake in my short film, so I can only imagine how draining it is to shoot a big budget film for months on end with no real idea of what you have until you see that first rough cut. No wonder PJ lost so much weight on King Kong. I was stressing all week about whether my film was going to look alright. Thankfully, it does. Whether you like them or not, and there’s a few that I flat-out detest, you have to give directors a nod of rspect to even be able to stand in the center of the hurricane that is a film set. I used to immediately dismiss a film based solely on its director, and I’m still guilty of this from time to time (Terminator 4, why pick McG?), but now I’m much more apt to give a film a chance after experiencing firsthand the shit that they have to endure. Let’s just give him a shot…and if the trailer is crap, THEN we can rip The Rat yet another asshole:)
Good update, Doug. I find myself in complete agreement with you. No matter who they cast in the role, you know they’re going to be compared with Arnold, and the odds of them measuring up will be long. Maybe some people will conflate their memories with Conan The Destroyer or something.
For what it’s worth, here’s my take on the original:
http://fightingtheyouth.blogspot.com/2007/05/schwarzenegger-sunday-conan-barbarian.html
Doug, they shouldn’t be remaking this at all or even thinking about it! you know what a remake is going to be like, heaps of cg over the top battles and stupid shit. The original is like a mater piece they can never recreate its score or look at feel again. Plus there is no Arnold so what will this movie be? There is nothing for it to be anything new.