Conan @ 79

I was trolling the web the other day for news or info on CONAN the Barbarian 3D coming SOON when I came across this cool little piece published in none other than the NEW YORK times. A highly reputable newspaper. Then I slapped a logo pic together for your edification. Enjoy -Mikeyboy "Back in 2001, Conan the Barbarian, the character that helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, was tripping on his sword.
Conan’s owner, Stan Lee Media, had filed for bankruptcy protection. A new Warner Brothers movie had stalled. The story lines for Conan comics had grown plain weird. Related toys and merchandise were a mishmash of designs.
Then a Swedish company called Paradox Entertainment staged a type of intervention — the culmination of which arrives in theaters on Aug. 19.
Paradox took control of the Conan rights in 2002 and immediately withdrew everything related to the character from the market. “The products were so all over the place that re-introducing him from scratch was the only thing to do,” said Fredrik Malmberg, Paradox’s chief executive. In particular, Mr. Malmberg said that Conan’s brutality had been so watered down in search of the broadest possible audience that there was almost no personality left.
Slowly, Paradox introduced new comic books and a computer game. “There remain a lot of fans of Arnold’s version of the character, but we needed to introduce Conan to a younger audience,” Mr. Malmberg said.
After gaining some traction — the PC game sold about 1.2 million copies worldwide — Paradox decided it was ready to pursue the big payoff: a movie. It shopped the idea around Hollywood, selecting the producer Avi Lerner (“The Expendables”) and Lionsgate as partners.
Joe Drake, president of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, said the film, “Conan the Barbarian,” returned the 79-year-old brute to his politically incorrect roots. The goal is to appeal to hard-core fans while simultaneously introducing teenagers to the mythology of the Hyborian Age (the fictional world in which the author Robert E. Howard set his original Conan stories).
“It was important that this movie stand on its own, but we definitely have high hopes for Conan as a potential franchise,” Mr. Drake said.
The R-rated film will be released in 3-D and stars a long-haired Jason Momoa, who is known to TV fans for his role in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Young men are the target audience for “Conan the Barbarian,” but the movie’s producers hope women respond to a decidedly modern female character — a witty, sassy and strong-willed royal bodyguard.
If that fails, they have Mr. Momoa’s plush pectorals as a fallback."