Brett Ratner To Direct New ‘Conan’

Brett Ratner has chosen to direct a 21st-century reboot of Conan, based on Robert E. Howard’s original pulp stories, instead of a fourth Beverly Hills Cop installment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate Films will produce the new Conan. As of Nov. 7, Ratner committed to take on literature’s most famous barbarian and is in final negotiations to helm the picture, which is aiming for a release in early 2010.

Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly wrote the Conan script, based on Howard’s original 1930s character. The writers are doing a quick polish to incorporate some of Ratner’s ideas.

Millennium and Lionsgate reportedly envision a very R-rated approach in the $85 million budget range. Preproduction is under way for a shoot at Nu Image’s Nu Boyana Studio in Bulgaria.

The story opens on the battlefield where Conan is born and tells the origin story that sets the stage for what will be the first of multiple films.

Source: Scifi Wire