Conan the Barbarian is on the move, and his new home may be New Line. Conan owner Paradox Entertainment apparently declined Warner Brothers attempt to extend the rights to the franchise a fourth time. The studio has taken seven years to come up with a suitable project they could move forward with, and Paradox is ready to see a movie, not just talk of a movie.
The auction for the rights started at one million dollars for one year’s rights, with an added million for each year’s extension. In other words: studios would have a year to get a project off the ground or pay another million. Considering such a high starting price turned several studios off from attaining the rights, it’s clearly asking a lot.
Not for New Line Entertainment, however. The Lord of the Rings distributor has apparently put in an incredibly strong bid for an 18-month option with one potential extension. Clearly, New Line wants to aquire the rights and then wants to move forward quickly on making a movie.
Variety speculates the sudden interest in Conan comes from the success earlier this year of 300. This would make sense. Studios want to try and capture that same audience and Paradox Entertainment wants to capitalize on it as well. Clearly that wasn’t happening with Warner Brothers, who had a spring deadline to be in production but claimed they still didn’t have a script they were happy with to move forward on. Understand, WB has had quite a few big names attached to their Conan project, from the Wachowski brothers to Robert Rodriguez. Unfortunately all of those starts belong to Warners, so whoever gets the rights will have to start from square one.
Still, I can’t imagine another company would take as long as Warner Brothers has. I imagine part of the hold up has been determining whether Governor Schwarzenegger would be involved or not. Whoever acquires the rights jut needs to decide he won’t be and get the ball rolling. Not that I wouldn’t love to see the former Conan wielding the sword again, but if it’s taken Warners seven years, it’s clear that Arnold has put politics as his priority. That’s fine. Move on.
Warner Brothers has reportedly filled the void of Conan with their intended He-Man movie. Hopefully they can get that one off the ground a bit sooner than the Barbarian’s tale.
