MORE Conan Movie News!

To add on to the news posted by Cromsblood the other day (great scoop, my brother!) and to finally pass on some info sent to me by intrepid CROM! reader, Rob Rozum, several articles have been cropping up alluding to all kinds of Conan casting, make-up and creature design and other stuff, from ComicBookMovie.com.

Stated one article:

It looks like Lionsgate's new Conan starts shooting February 2010 in Bulgaria. Marcus Nispel ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Pathfinder") will be directing. Empire has the casting breakdowns, which help understand the characters, and some indication of the plot.

Conan: 20s-30s, Caucasian, the last of the Cimmerians, out for vengeance on Khalar Singh, a formidable warlord and warrior in his 40s or 50s, for whom the producers are "open to all ethnicities".

Singh is looking for Queen Ilira, whose blood will help him raise a demon army. Ilira's handmaiden is Tamara, who allies with Conan in what sounds like a Red Sonja hot amazon role. And there's Ukafa, Singh's untrustworthy henchman for whom a massive African or African American is required.

There are also supporting roles for Conan's dad Corin, who teaches his son the Riddle of Steel; Fariq, Khalar Singh's son and heir, strangely described as a "proto goth-rocker"

Remo the evil wizard; Fassir, a monk protecting Ilira.

Lucius, a mercenary scarred by Conan dumping him into a fiery pit

An unnamed one-eyed thief Conan rescues from Lucius.

Artus, Conan's pirate buddy; and Cheren, Khalar Singh's mystical blind archer.

Now interstingly is the worry for Khalar Singh and the reason he wants to raise a demon army in the first place, could it be arch-wizard Thoth-Amon, he only appears in one original Robert E. Howard Conan story, but is mentioned in a couple of others.

Thoth-Amon was played by Pat Roach in Conan the Destroyer (Love that movie ).

I think this has potential but unsure of the director. I hope Conan finally gets the on screen treatment he deserves.

Another article when on to discuss the art direction and creature design and a shooting date:

Mania broke the exciting news that Scott Wheeler and Shaun Smith of Zack Snyder's comic book movie '300' are on board to do their stuff.

Scott Wheeler will be heading up the makeup department bit and Shaun Smith will be acting as the creature designer on the new 'Conan' adaption. Both of the guys right now are working up the creature schemes for the picture with the director Marcus Nispel (Of the Friday the 13th reboot fame).

Smith confirmed all the news exclusively to Mania saying, "as you might expect I really can't say much except it looks really cool and we are excited to be a part of it."

Filming is soon to commence on the epic big screen return of the barbarian hero 'Conan'. Production plans are to start shooting in Bulgaria next February.

And for those of you with stronger stomachs than mine, there's even talk of Dolf Lundgren being in the film. Mitra preserve us.

To read the full scoop, along with all kinds of other sweet Conan movie speculation and rumor, click your mighty mouse pointer HERE!

Thanks again, Rob, for send me the links!

Hordes of Chaos! Epic Barbarian Metal!

CROM! reader known only as Ryan sent me the link to this wicked video of the thundering metal band, Kreator, ripping it up on their song Hordes of Chaos, while footage of Conan-esque barbarians beat the living tar out of each other and drag hot chicks around by their wrists. This is the kind of music I grew up on in high school, so I found it especially rocking. >:)

Anyway, thanks to Ryan and everyone enjoy!

Frank the German Barbarian!

Hail Fellow Conan Fans!

I received a great e-mail from a nice guy from Germany who is all about dressing up like Conan and hitting the comic/sci fi/fantasy conventions. Anyone who's got the stones to walk around a European convention center wearing little more than a fur loincloth is okay in my book. So swing by Frank's Myspace page and say hello!

And as Frank says, Strength and Honor!

And While We're at it...

Let's all show some respect to one of my all time favorite artists, Earl Norem. Just look at how awesome this piece is!

Conan Art by Jack Kirby!

Growing up on comic books taught me a lot of things, but lesson #1 was pretty much that the legendary Jack Kirby is the friggin man, and don't you forget it! Hell, I learned to draw from ripping off his comic panels and his influence can be seen in my personal artwork to this day. So, naturally, when I came across this Kirby piece of our favorite barbarian, I just had to post it (Kirby did the cover for Giant Size Conan #5).

This piece was actually penciled by Kirby and inked by contemporary artist Alec Fritz. Damn fine job, too!

Epic Conan Costume!

Oh man, Greg is going to kill me for this, but I just have to post a couple of pics of him dressed in his wickedly awesome Conan costume that I stole from his Facebook! You all may remember Greg as my good buddy who gave me my Conan Mego action figure for my birthday this past year.

Seriously, this costume is EPIC!

What I love about this costume is that he clearly put some thought towards the original Howard stories, with him square-cut black mane and his sandaled feet. Most people would have gone for the movie version, but Greg kept it old school and classic.

I raise my cup to you! May Crom watch over your battles!