Two news items from cornerstone Fantasy works being adapted to film. Earlier today it was The Hobbit film news, now we are talking Conan. From Tolkien to Howard, from epic to Sword and Sorcery, Variety is reporting that Marcus Nispel has been given the reigns to the iconic fantasy/action character.
I’m not sure what to think about this as if we look at Nispel’s work to date in an effort to gauge possible sensibility from his previous work, we run into Pathfinder, which is and was uninspiring at best. His other films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Friday the 13th (2009), I can’t speak on with first-hand knowledge, but I can’t say either projects are a natural draw for me.
I do like this quote from the article:
Nispel said he will blend his childhood imaginings of the character with the influence of the famous Conan illustrations by Frank Frazetta, and the influence of such viscerally violent period films as Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto.”
I know Gibson is on the hate-list at the moment, but I very much enjoyed the atmosphere of his Apocalypto, and obviously Frazetta is the master. You give me something that reminds me of Frazetta or Brundage (two Brundage mentions in a single week!) and I’ll be most pleased.
This is scheduled to start filming this August and obviously the question now becomes, “Who will be this generation’s Conan?”
Please not a wrestler.
Conan by Frank Frazetta
