David Farnor | On 01, Oct 2020

A live-action Conan the Barbarian series is in the works at Netflix.

The swords-and-sorcery icon, created by Robert E Howard, was first published in the 1930s and has since gone on to become a familiar screen presence. In addition to an animated series that notably ran in the 1990s, he has appeared in several video games and made it to the big screen three times. He was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger twice, in 1982’s Conan the Barbarian and in the 1984 sequel Conan the Destroyer. Jason Momoa then stepped into Conan’s sandals to play him in a 2011 reboot, which failed to spawn any sequels.

In 2018, a series from Colony co-creator Ryan Condal was in the works at Amazon Studios. With that failing to materialise, Netflix is now having a go.

Deadline reports that Fredrik Malmberg and Mark Wheeler’s Pathfinder Media are on board, following a deal between Netflix and Conan Properties International, owned by Malmberg’s Cabinet Entertainment. The deal gives Netflix an exclusive on Conan’s literary back catalogue to option works based on them. It joins similar IP agreements between Netflix and the Roald Dahl estate and The Chronicles of Narnia series.

 

Conan the Barbarian TV series in the works at Amazon

6th February 2018

A new Conan the Barbarian series is in the works at Amazon Prime Video.

The online giant has been shaking things up in its original TV department, as CEO Jeff Bezos has mandated a change of course away from the kind of smaller shows that have won Amazon awards to date and towards the kind of big hitters that draw audiences, such as Stranger Things and Game of Thrones.

The fantasy genre is a big part of that aim to become more mainstream, with Amazon buying the rights to The Lord of the Rings for a future TV project. Now, it’s building on that with Conan.

First created by Roberrt E. Howard, the books are being adapted for the screen by Colony co-creator Ryan Condal. Deadline reports that he has a “personal obsession with the material”, and is planning to retell the character’s story by going back to his literary origins – which see Conan, driven out of his tribal homeland, wandering to find a purpose in a place that rejects him as a savage.

Condal is exec-producing the project alongside Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik and Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale executive producer Warren Littlefield, and Pathfinder Media’s Fredrik Malmberg and Mark Wheeler. Endeavor Content are the studio for the programme, with Sapochnik at the helm. The result is expected to be different to the screen adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as the animated series. Regardless, you can expect something visually impressive: Sapochnik is a hot ticket in the TV directing game, after winning an Emmy for the Game of Thrones episode Battle of the Bastards and helming the first episode of Netflix’s Altered Carbon.

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