Filmstalker: Ratner takes up Conan?

Brett Ratner is being rumoured as taking the helm on the new Conan film, the one that goes back to the original stories and recreates the life of Conan.

While the news that the restart of the franchise is being welcomed, the suggestion that Ratner could take up the position is not, and yet I would have thought this would have been more suited for the director.

There's no real hard and fast confirmation of Brett Ratner directing Conan, just a passing comment that seems to suggest that he's in there. It comes from AICN through /Film, and with it the point of view that is sweeping the interflab right behind it, a big resounding "oh dear".

However I think that might be a little unfair. Ratner's X-Men film, X-Men: The Last Stand (Filmstalker review) wasn't exactly terrible. Sure it wasn't earth shattering and superb, but it was good and had some nice turns to it. It wasn't all bad.

Also we have to consider what Conan really is, it's about a barbarian on ancient Earth. Come on now we're not looking for deep and complex plots and layered dialogue with subtle undertones fo intent. Surely even the overly negative image of Ratner could deliver something decent here, surely? I mean how complex and difficult a script is Conan and how complex are the characters really?

Even so, Ratner isn't such a bad director that he couldn't handle Conan the film?

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hear hear-Brett Ratner is a reliable director-his attempt at XMen the Last Stand was admirable-although by far the weakest of the 3 movies-it was still a solid affair-it was going to be a hard act to follow Bryan Singer's very multi-character led plots- who i felt let us down with his Superman movie-
Conan the Barbarian is a classic movie and the sequel-Conan the Destroyer-A-OK.
The Conan novels were thunderous sword & sorcery stories set on a fantastical mythological past -probably on an alternative universe-but that's what they were -adventure stories-splattered with fantasy elements-
politics were simple- 1) bad king/ good king-bad king very evil use bad wizard against people of the land - opportunist Conan kills bad king/bad wizard becomes hero- 2) bad wizard using human sacrifices to evil ends-opportunist Conan kill bad wizard takes the closely guarded jewels and becomes hero in the eyes of cowardly villages- etc-i can go on- but you get the basic premise-
It is pure adventure-letting the imagination go wild in a wild past-
Brett could handle this quite easily-and can deliver an entertaining Conan movie can be as bad as Kevin Sorbo's Kull the Conqueror-not too bad though-but Red Sonja (Brigette Nielsen-what were they thinking?????)

Posted by: Doc Saj Hussainoc Saj Hussain | October 19, 2008 2:18 PM

Aha Doc! Someone sane at last! ;)

Yeah, I don't rate Ratner highly, but he's no Uwe Boll, and Last Stand was a good X-Men film, as you say not the best but good.

Anyone else think he could do this while the rest of the interflab slag him off?

Posted by: Richard Brunton | October 19, 2008 6:56 PM