Conan Director Rumors Continue, Doomsday’s Neil Marshall Now In Mix
A few days agoRob Zombiewas said to be up for the skull-and-horn adorned director’s chair on the 2009 Lionsgate tent-poleConan. The plethora of dried blood and fur, swords, mating calls and battle cries that drenched my imagination when I heard this rumor was lovely. Zombie could do both the classic barbaric character and John Milius’s wild original film supreme justice. Of course, now wenow knowthat Zombie’s next film will beTyrannosaurus Rex, with word growing that it’s a hardcore flick about bikers, set for late summer 2009. NoConanfor him.
Another name swirling in the rumor mill isXavier Gens, who helmed the flashy video game flickHitman. I donotwant to see Gens’s $100 millionConan. He needs to sharpen his teethhardon non-iconic material likeVanikorofirst. The other name circulatingright nowisNeil Marshall, who batted a nice fanboy double withDog Soldiersand the cave-horror crowd pleaserThe Descent.
Marshall’sMad Max-meets-cliche-apocalyptic-virus semi-epicDoomsdayopens in March, and I’m sure its reception on the Net will play into his chances for theConangig. If the producers wish to wait that long. At 38 and with his career on the come up, we still haven’t seen Marshall’s biggest visions, but his work thus far has focused too much on the visceral and there’s a British B-movie filter at play that doesn’t work for me for this flick. What aConanepic needs is a director who will not compromise atall, like Milius. You know that scene inConan the Barbarianwhere Arnold is nailed to a cross, and suddenly his eyes explode and he rips into the neck of a lingering vulture with no-hands and keeps biting until it makes you shockingly hungry? I remember seeing that and going “Note to self, I have never and will never see that again in a movie.”
That’s what I feel Zombie would have brought (here come the “redneck profanity doesn’t belong in the Hyborian Age” quips.). To me this film is not about the action, it’s about the R-rating and the most gung-ho macho expression fathomable. If Marshall or Gens snags it, my attention automatically refocuses on Matthew Vaughn’s shoot-the-moon take onThor.
Who do you want to bringConanback?
