Exclusive: Brett Ratner Off Conan? Director has timing conflicts
Empire magazine spoke to Conan and Red Sonja producer Joe Gatta today, and he had a few revelations to share about the upcoming films. Most importantly, it appears that Brett Ratner is currently off Conan, which he was expected to direct.
"We’re currently in the process of hiring a director," he told us. "For the past six months we were discussing the movie with Brett Ratner, and for more timing issues than anything else we had to part ways with Brett. We all wanted him to do it, believe me; just the timing didn’t work. But you never know what can happen."
That last comment would appear to leave the door open for a return for Ratner, should his schedule free up (he's currently got about 12 films on his To Do list) but for the moment he's off the project. Still, that hasn't dented Gatta's determination.
"We have a potential start-date on Conan of August 24. And we’ll be shooting in Bulgaria. I would say though the emphasis is on Conan [rather than Red Sonja]. It’s our crown jewel here at the company and that will be the leader. Red Sonja probably won’t happen until next year, as far as making it goes. So we want to launch Conan and reinvent the franchise."
As for the hiring of Conan himself, you might want to start pumping some serious iron: Gatta says that, "We’ll have an open casting call: as soon as we hire our director the search is on."
With luck, between Conan and Red Sonja, this could be a brave new dawn for the horny-helmet genre, restoring it to its rightful place at the top of the movie pantheon, crushing its enemies, seeing them driven before it and hearing the lamentations of their women.
For more revelations about Conan and Red Sonja, pick up the next issue of Empire, on sale May 28.
I'm gonna go against the highly stuffy opinions here and say that I thought Ratner did a great job on X-men 3 and while I dn't think he's teh best actor for Conan, I still think he could've done a decent job. Looks like he's off it now anyways so lets hope they find a more suitable guy. John MacTeirnan (Predatot 13th Warrior) would be a good choice! ... Read More
Brett Ratner to direct Conan? Why not? That way the poor execs in Bollywood, er Hollywood, can make a 12 cert movie and lots of tie-ins made by cheap labour in China eg Conan on a quad bike, a stretch Conan, a conan sword with 6 realistic sounds. Fuck all those that read Conan books and watch the original hack its way through yet another DVD screening. Looks like they fucked us on Terminator Salvation by making it a (USA) PG-13, so a 12 cert Conan is something that will happen. Brett Ratner... Read More
Brett Ratner directing a Conan movie?? What is wrong with the Conan producers? Talk about aiming low - did they not see X-Men 3! Conan needs the sam ekind of treatment LOTR got, namely a faithful adaptation of the original source material (Conan is older than Bilbo, Frodo et al by a good few years) an dthen a decent director to bring it to life: let's put this name out there - Sir Ridley Scott? ... Read More
... personally, is for this film to attract a proper thesp who doesn't mind getting buff. It works for Christian Bale and it works for Daniel Craig. Let's see a Conan movie that's as good as a Bond, Bourne or Batman, please Krom, please. It's got to be about the emotions first, because then the kick-assery will be motivated and believable. ... Read More
Maybe they watched X-Men: The Last Stand again....
....and realised he was shit. Brett Ratner shouldn't be directing anything. Apart from maybe directing his way to an island somewhere in the middle of the pacific. Where he should stay. Forever. ... Read More
nothing about this project bodes well - if they were even prepared to consider Ratner then they obviously have their hearts set on a PG13 franchise-starter - so expect anachronistic one-liners, annoying comdey side-kicks and CGI up the ying yang, complemented by action figures, lunch-boxes and duvet covers. The only way to do Conan justice is to make a moral-minority-baiting stew of gore, boobs, paganism and bad behaviour. Conan is the ultimate testosterone junkie - there's not a single sympat... Read More
