Conan the Barbarian for the New Generation

German director Marcus Nispel will take on the major update

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

The man behind the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Friday the 13th (2009) has signed on to direct yet another film reinvention, Conan the Barbarian. Marcus Nispel (pictured left), a German-born filmmaker who used to direct music videos and TV commercials, will helm the esteemed project, something he's dreamed about since his childhood.

Nu Image/Millennium Films, in association with Lionsgate, have announced that production will begin later this year in South Africa and Bulgaria, with a producing team that includes Avi Lerner (The Wicker Man), Joe Gatta (Labor Pains) and Fredrik Malmberg (Mutant Chronicles). The latter runs the Paradox company which owns the rights to Robert E. Howard's famed Conan character.

Thomas Dean Donnelly (Sahara) and Joshua Oppenheimer (A Sound of Thunder) have been attached to script the upcoming feature, a project that had been in the works for years now. Prior to Nispel signing on, directors like Robert Rodriguez, Brett Ratner, and Larry & Andy Wachowski had been approached to helm a motion picture redo, but nothing ever came of these inquiries.

The 1982 original film, Conan the Barbarian (pictured right), was directed by John Milius and famously starred relative newcomer Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as James Earl Jones. It led to a second film in 1984, Conan the Destroyer, which also starred Schwarzenegger, who was about to star in The Terminator as well.

Nispel got his start directing TV ads, working on hundreds of commercials for Pepsi, Coke, Nike, Visa, AT&T, Kodak, NBC, ABC, CBS, and dozens of others major corporations, before moving on to music videos for the biggest stars in the industry, including Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Billy Joel, Cher, Bryan Adams, Puff Daddy and the Spice Girls. He's also won multiple MTV Video Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards for his prolific resume.