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Post by theironshadow on Dec 12, 2019 6:14:56 GMT -5
This may seem like a no-brainer of a question, but the point came up amongst friends yesterday when we were discussing possibilities past and present to get Conan made into either film or television, namely Netflix or Amazon Prime. Even though the go-to answer would be 'Cabinet Holdings of course!' we were'nt sure who actually holds inhand the film and television rights to Conan. I'm not saying a US studio has bought the rights for say a decade and has sat on them doing nothing, more that there may be a 3rd party involved who owns the film rights in partnership with CPI/Cabinet who own the character. Any thoughts?
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Post by philzilla on Dec 12, 2019 14:37:03 GMT -5
Doesn't Fred still hold the rights?
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Post by terryallenuk on Dec 12, 2019 14:45:45 GMT -5
It's in Cabinet's hands to find someone , the Amazon show fell through and no-one else seems interested at present it seems.
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Post by theironshadow on Dec 13, 2019 14:45:03 GMT -5
It's in Cabinet's hands to find someone , the Amazon show fell through and no-one else seems interested at present it seems. Terry, i was 100% sure that the actual FILM rights (or television for that matter) were in the hands of a member of the public who had zero rights to the actual literary property. I recall the article mentioned it was during the L Sprague DeCamp era that things became fractured. Marvel mayhave the comic-book rights to Conan, but absolutely zero chance they will move forward with film or television adaptation, as the idea of 'licencing' a property from a third party just isn't them. Disney buy rights for decades.
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Post by terryallenuk on Dec 14, 2019 13:56:02 GMT -5
It's in Cabinet's hands to find someone , the Amazon show fell through and no-one else seems interested at present it seems. Terry, i was 100% sure that the actual FILM rights (or television for that matter) were in the hands of a member of the public who had zero rights to the actual literary property. I recall the article mentioned it was during the L Sprague DeCamp era that things became fractured. Marvel mayhave the comic-book rights to Conan, but absolutely zero chance they will move forward with film or television adaptation, as the idea of 'licencing' a property from a third party just isn't them. Disney buy rights for decades. Yes back in the DeCamp days Conan Properties was formed to enable the original films to be made . Cabinet now own all the rights to Howard's characters , apart of course for the semi-Howard Sonja , but sadly can't seem to find a film company interested or another TV outlet after Amazon dropped out.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Dec 16, 2019 0:12:27 GMT -5
In this day and age it's going to be a tough lift to get off the ground. The last movie wasn't very good and Marvel hasn't set the world on fire with the new comics. They may need to leave the US studios in the dust and go overseas to Europe. I've watched a few Russian historical flicks and have been very impressed by them. Maybe give them a crack at a Conan movie.
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Post by theironshadow on Dec 16, 2019 14:45:03 GMT -5
In this day and age it's going to be a tough lift to get off the ground. The last movie wasn't very good and Marvel hasn't set the world on fire with the new comics. They may need to leave the US studios in the dust and go overseas to Europe. I've watched a few Russian historical flicks and have been very impressed by them. Maybe give them a crack at a Conan movie. Gentlemen, my point of contention is this; during the L Sprague DeCamp era, Mr DeCamp owned the rights to the Howard library, but due to the mishandling of Howard's legacy, the actual FILM rights to Howard's characters had became the property of a third party. Those film rights in the last 50 years have exchanged hands. Paradox and then Cabinet own 100% the rights to the Howard library, but the actual rights to Conan on film may be in the hands of a third party. Take a look carefully at this quotation from Arnold in March 2019. I really don't think the person he is talking about is Frederik Malmberg! "The sad stuff about all of this is when there's an estate like this, The Robert E. Howard estate... when someone buys these rights, those people now own the rights and they have their own vision of what they want to do and the guy that has the rights is some young guy and he's trying to figure out how to get his way through Hollywood and this is not easy to do. So there are people that say to him, 'why don't you start with a TV series and then he negotiates for a TV series and that falls apart. And then he goes maybe to Netflix and that falls apart. Then he decides to make a movie maybe... but in the meantime, we have been trying to convince him for years now that the way to go is to come back and hire a really great director and to do another Conan movie and have me play King Conan, when Conan is like 70 years old and he's disgusted by sitting on the throne and being the king and then something happens after that. It's really not that far from creating a finished script. The only one who really has to pull the trigger there is the people who own the Conan rights to do a movie." This suggests that there is a 3rd party that has these rights and whomever they are they are stonewalling attempts to get Conan made into film or television.
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 16, 2019 15:27:38 GMT -5
I don't know if I'd use Arnold as a solid source for this. There's been a lot of people involved in various talked about projects along the way. He could be conflating Ryan Condal's pitch as having the rights in just a short hand way of talking. He's a few degrees back right now from the decision makers, so he could be hearing things second hand as well. Unless we hear something else to the contrary, things are as they were when the Amazon series fell through. It's up to Fred to get the ball rolling again.
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Post by terryallenuk on Dec 17, 2019 13:52:20 GMT -5
Yes you're right Fred's the man , no-one else holds any rights to the Howard characters apart from Cabinet.
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Post by theironshadow on Dec 18, 2019 12:39:01 GMT -5
Yes you're right Fred's the man , no-one else holds any rights to the Howard characters apart from Cabinet. Terry, i'll put my final word on this out for fear of being accused of dragging this out, but yes of course Cabinet hold the rights to the characters. In the schism with L Sprague DeCamp, the actual film rights were held by a third-party member of the public. And Ryan Condal did say that it took him a long time to get the rights to Conan for television. If Mr Condal had such a hot pitch for Amazon, then Malmberg would have told him to not hesitate and to get onto it without further ado. Condal never mentioned once about working with Malmberg during his attempt to get Conan on Prime. Or am i mistaken?
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Post by Aryeh on Dec 18, 2019 13:16:28 GMT -5
Yes you're right Fred's the man , no-one else holds any rights to the Howard characters apart from Cabinet. Terry, i'll put my final word on this out for fear of being accused of dragging this out, but yes of course Cabinet hold the rights to the characters. In the schism with L Sprague DeCamp, the actual film rights were held by a third-party member of the public. And Ryan Condal did say that it took him a long time to get the rights to Conan for television. If Mr Condal had such a hot pitch for Amazon, then Malmberg would have told him to not hesitate and to get onto it without further ado. Condal never mentioned once about working with Malmberg during his attempt to get Conan on Prime. Or am i mistaken?
All this is very simple and many have already stated the obvious i.e. Malmberg owns the rights. All rights, including the film rights. There is no third party. That Malmberg changes companies the way other people change socks is a different thing. That might have caused some confusion.
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Post by terryallenuk on Dec 18, 2019 14:34:07 GMT -5
Fredrik announcing the Amazon deal at Howard Days from around 17 minutes -
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Post by attilaman66 on Jan 4, 2020 19:28:16 GMT -5
On Malmberg's twitter he is asking who is with him in hoping he can get a Conan series or movie started in 2020. Hope...maybe?
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Post by Von K on Jan 5, 2020 14:24:29 GMT -5
On Malmberg's twitter he is asking who is with him in hoping he can get a Conan series or movie started in 2020. Hope...maybe? 2020 is a good year for it. The recent success of The Witcher series only adds to that of the LotR movies and Game of Thrones proving what many outside the industry have always known - that there is a big audience out there for well written and well produced fantasy series (and films). Hollywood has generally neglected the full potential of the fantasy genre for decades but a hungry audience has always been out there. The Witcher books are sold out in the wake of the TV series popularity and the Witcher 3 game has seen a surge in players. One reviewer said that 'high waters raise all boats.' He was speaking of other products in the same line benefiting from the success of one product in that line. But the analogy is as true of the genre as a whole - The Witcher's success will aid in the potential success of other fantasy franchises. Solomon Kane is closer to the Witcher in tone than Conan, but I'd say a well written pitch for either or both ought to be gobbled up right now.
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Post by theironshadow on Jan 6, 2020 13:39:59 GMT -5
I agree wholeheartedly with the above post. An issue is this; The Witcher will continue for a number of seasons. Amazon Prime has their Tolkine-based Scond Age series in production. So the only option may well be for Ryan Condal to pitch Disney+ with his almost-successful Conan series, especially as he has several episodes written. Netflix and Amazon won't want a competing fantasy show on their roster. I really think that Disney+ is the best option.
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