Series: Conan

Related Links

0

Lionsgate leaps on 'Conan'

A report from today's Variety indicates that Lionsgate has secured the North American distribution rights to Nu Image/Millennium Films' soon-to-be-filmed movie 'Conan the Barbarian' based on the classic pulp and comics character created by Robert E. Howard.

Pic is expected to be the start of a franchise series and was set to begin production later this year. However, as we've read so many times in the past, the WGA strike could delay that. Nu Image/Millennium bigwig Avi Lerner is looking to make a pact with the writers guild that would allow the picture to move forward unhampered.

"It's a possibility, though I haven't studied it enough to make a final decision," Lerner told Daily Variety. "The whole strike is stupid, in my opinion. They approached us, indirectly, to make some kind of deal, and we are looking at it."

Screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, of 'Sahara' fame, are waiting in the wings should a deal be made.