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SOLOMON KANE was from ROME? Hey, I've Read My Robert E Howard Books And He Didn't Come From ROME... oh... the HBO thing. Oh
Hey folks, Harry here. You know, I was on the road, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest when Michael Bassett (DEATHWATCH & WILDERNESS) announced he was writing and directing an adaptation of SOLOMON KANE from the brilliant pulp author, Robert E Howard (aka Private Pyle -- sorry bad joke) - This is one of those projects that if it's produced at the right level could very well be a genre-bending piece of geek heaven. Now - the idiots at Variety believe that Robert E Howard wrote SOLOMON KANE as a classic comic book. Well, let's see - SOLOMON KANE was a comic book in the seventies by Marvel. However, approximately 40 - 45 years prior to that stint in Marvel - it was a series of PULP stories spread out over various issues of Weird Tales in the late 20's & 30's. Then those stories were gathered in novels. Which are actual books without a lot of panels. But when CONAN became a huge hit thanks to Frank Frazetta and Barry Smith.... well Marvel optioned SOLOMON KANE to be a comic book - but contrary to what Adam Dawtrey writes in Variety, "a movie based on the classic comic book by Robert E. Howard," it isn't that. It's based on a series of PULP stories.
Now - what is SOLOMON KANE? First - he's a badass. He's a Two Gun Raconteur - a Swashbuckling Pilgrim that fights pirates, demons and anything else that'll get in his way. Technically, he's a Puritan. A 16th Century destroyer of Evil wherever it may hide.
Now - Stephen Sommers ripped off SOLOMON KANE's look quite a bit for VAN HELSING, but never fear, this won't come across as a retread, as Michael Bassett - who seems to like his films serious and badass... well, I think he's going to nail this.
And my first clue is this. He cast James Purefoy as SOLOMON KANE. Why do I love that so much? Well, if you watch HBO's ROME - he's Mark Antony - and James is 43 years old.... not a boy - but an actor with the face of a man. Someone that I can imagine being an adventurer from long ago.
Folks, I'm gonna pray this goes well - I hope to god that Michael Bassett launches this into the stratisphere. SOLOMON KANE is an absolutely awesome character - just look at the art - and go buy some of Howard's collected stories on SOLOMON KANE. They're unbelievably great! Let's just hope the movie is half as good! Ah - finally found the cover of the WEIRD TALES he originally appeared in. August, 1928 - Yes - That's the original Pulp look at him on the cover:
After writing the above article, I figured I'd drop Bassett a letter wishing him well on the project - we met at Sitges when he was there to premiere DEATHWATCH - and we've been in contact ever since. Anyway - here's what he wrote me back with - and yes - the below art is actually for the movie!!! Exclusive to AICN!!!
Hey Harry,
Thanks for the good wishes. I became a director because I wanted to make
fantasy movies so this is a huge opportunity for me and I'm determined to
make it amazing.
It's all down to character so the casting is everything and James is a great
foundation stone for me to build on. There are never any guarantees in this
insane business but you can be sure I'm going into it with the will and
determination to deliver a unique and darkly powerful heroic fantasy
adventure which also does full justice to REH.
Hope you like the image by Greg Staples.
See ya
M
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Love to see him in an action adventure!
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So the God man blasts a few non believers and gets what?
72 virgins? -
Cool news, I love Solomon Kane and i'm happy they're adapting it, but what I really want to know is why James Purefoy left V for Vendetta in mid-production. Can anyone tell me, it's been bothering me for a while. THX
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Always liked his Conan books but never heard of Solomon Kane but damned if it would be some cool shit if they pull this off.
Nice bunch of graphic images to illustrate all this Harry. -
But with beasties it looks like. I Know nothing of Solomon Grundy or whatever but think perhaps Harry was a Swahbuckler in a previous life!
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THERE'S you perfect SOLOMON KANE movie.
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Sorry. Anyway, I wish people would get over the idea that Arnold was a good Conan--he was if you've never read a page of Howard--and cast some unknown who can ACT and display the character's intelligence and get on with some of the great stuff Howard's written. Kane is ok, I guess, but man, some of his other stuff, like Conan among others, was like Tarzan meets HP Lovecraft. THAT kinda thing I'd like to see, not this Sommers and Bay garbage--an adventure with REAL imagination, not just something recycled from genre tropes. Howard's stuff is so intensely visual, and different. Too much fantasy is off-the-rack, with dragons and crap. What? Oh, the rating for a movie that did Howard right? Well, NC-17, but...why are you tossing me out the door, come on, man...
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I've always loved the Kane stories and am a bit of a Howard fanboy and even wrote a thesis on Howard's Conan stories.
Purefoy is actually an excellent choice for the dour ol' fuck. This might actually be good. -
...is because 99% of those characters described as badass aren't. They shoot guns like they're water pistols, and it's fantasy time. You want badass, you gotta look at The Wild Bunch or something.
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...it was beyond tasteless. For those NOT in the know, Robert E. Howard took his life with a gun. Furthermore, I think for some of us that have lost family to suicide, ya really ought to re-think making jokes about it.
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"Solomon Grundy want pants too, brother!"
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That wasn't the joke - I was talking about Vincent D'onofrio who played Private Pyle and Robert E Howard in THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.
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You know it
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Not to mention deliciously naked
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Iggy Pop as Solomon Kane. He's got the weathered, thin, dour look that would really bring him to life. I always liked Solomon Kane better than Conan, or even Kull. Here's hoping they don't screw it up completely. And I really really hope that what I read on IMDB is wrong, that he is trying to redeem his soul from Satan. Ripping off Constantine would not be good. Especially since Solomon was a devout believer in good and hated evil of any kind. He believed he was God's hand of justice. The whole angle of Satan owning his soul is just stupid.
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Oct 02, 2007 6:11:16 AM CDT
That last image reminded me not of the Howard books...
by jackpumpkinhead
...of my childhood, but rather of the very modern Sommer's Van Helsing. Argh!
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Damn you Michael Bay
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purefoy walked from V because of the mask thing. he said some actor stuff about not being able to perform to his true potential with his face hidden. pity cos agent smiths voice didn't fit the costume.
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Especially in the second season that guy rocked the shit hard. One of the most intense acting performances I have ever seen. He had several scenes with Kevin McKidd (spelling?) that were unbelievable.
I'd watch anything with James Purefoy in the lead, especially a cool project like this.
It's great to see the ROME-bunch getting rewarded for their superb work in this masterful series. Stevenson is the new Punisher, Kevin McKidd is rumored as Thor and now Purefoy can show his skill once again in this. Well deserved! No get Ciaran Hinds some good parts, he's awesome too! -
I agree Purefoy was excellent as Marc Anthony, but did anyone see him in the atrocious "George & The Dragon?"
I'm hoping they don't camp up Kane like they've did with every modern incarnation of Conan. -
Purefoy is fun to watch. That black and white picture of him in this article makes me wish he was being cast as Green Lantern instead of Tyrese McBoring.
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No other man has ever made me cry before. Not even in Brian's Song(Or is it Bryan's Song? I'm lazy). But seriously, Purefoy in the second season of Rome was unbelievably fantastic. One of the great performances. And I never knew that it was HE who was supposed to play V in V for Vendetta... like I knew someone got canned or walked, but never heard anything else. Jesus, what if it had been him?! Would have been BADASS.
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Anyone who regularly watched Rome has seen this guy's peepee.
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Kane is a serious character relentlessly driven by his Puritan faith and an unshakable belief that it is his responsibility, his destiny, to be a vessel for God's wrath. That he is an instrument to vanquish evil wherever it is found. To protect the weak and to aid the helpless. So no snappy wisecracks, no hitting on the ladies hoping for a steamy hookup, and no pansy PC second guessing of himself. "Is it really moral and ethical to destroy the vampire queen? Perhaps I should have given negotiation more time? Did I do enough to establish a productive nonconfrontational dialogue? Maybe I caused this misunderstanding due to my own ignorance of her culture?" etc. Solomon Kane believes implicitly in what he is doing. He is a raging emotional firestorm kept under rigidly disciplined control. Casting an excellent performer like Purefoy for this role is a great first step in the right direction.
P.S. I hope they keep Kane's slouch hat, it is such an iconic part of REH's character. -
I hope to god they get this right. Chances are they probably won't, but I hope ...
And if you haven't read any of the Solomon Kane stories, please do so ... now. heh -
It seems as this little HBO show is turing out some great comic/action film stars. I bet now that HBO had wish that they kept the show going and let the actors film all these great flicks while on hiatus.
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We'll see if they can actually pull it off.
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"I'm not getting out of bed until I f**k somebody."
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I remember Savage Sword of Conan from Marvel, and at the back you used to get a Soloman Kane tale. I really liked the character and loved the 17th century setting. Hope it translates well.
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If someone could capture the grit and heart of Howards charachters... that would be too much to hope for. Getting all the pieces to fit is the problem.. great cast, great production design, great script, great director. all these things must come into play... with the same feel. Thats the problem with Hollywood messing with our minds eye. They dont see Howards world the way each of us does, and each of us sees it differently, Each of us sees it perfectly. None of us has the same vision and feel for how these charachters should be handled. So i never expect the best. Peter Jackson was the only one who has done it right in my opinion, the closest to what was in my mind's eye when i read the books. I consider myself lucky.
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Something like the second image seems much more fitting for the character. The concept art is way too stylized in my opinion.
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I remember a while back on this site, there was a review for Del Rey's collection of Solomon Kane stories. I forgot who reviewed it (it was one of the @$$holes, I remember that) and they pretty much said it straight: "you can tell that this is before REH had his cherry popped, so to speak." The Kane stories never really had the...how do you say it, the kineticism of the Conan or Kull stories. I wish this movie well though, because if this rocks maybe we'll finally get an ass-kicking CONAN film...and by proxy, a JOHN CARTER flick. ^_^
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and kills Octavian and that bitch Cleopatra, I'm all in.
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YES! I love all the SK stories by the great REH, and I've been hoping for a SK movie for a long, long time... BUT I really hope they don't screw this up. To screw this up would be UNFORGIVABLE.
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If the screenplay and art direction are strong, there might be hope. Michael Bassett reminds me of Neil Marshall a little. Their films are always based on a KILLER idea with tons of potential ... but parts of their films seem to have a way of "getting away from them." (Although the Descent was undeniably awesome) Anyway, if Bassett is inspired by the material, maybe he'll rise to the occasion? Let's hope.
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however it's cool to see those guys getting good roles. This looks pretty cool.
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The figure on the Wierd Tales cover is so obviously NOT Solomon Kane but rather the villain of the story. Solomon would never attack a helpless woman in one of his stories.
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Shame on you Harry. The first 4 illustrations in your post are by Gary Gianni. He's an amazing artist who has been around for a while and works in a classic style reminiscent of Howard Pyle. They are from a terrific reissue of Howard's Solomon Kane stories titled The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. I'm not a shill for Gianni, I've never met the man, but a little credit where it's due.
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not Kane, on the 1928 cover.
Kane's not the maiden stabber in these tales, and Le Loup's not the hero. The cover is about the defining transgression, committed off-stage and unseen in the story, for their conflict. -
Actually, let's not give him that much credit. More likely he ripped off VAMPIRE HUNTER D, which in turn was ripped off/inspired by SOLOMON KANE.
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It's odd that Kane is braught up this week. Just this Saturday and the weekly used book sale on my block I picked up a couple Solomon Kane books along with a few Conans for 0.25 each.
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Personally there's so much damn potential for a cool Solomon Kane film, and Purefoy was superb as Mark Antony in Rome, so he certainly has the chops for the role, even though I always kind of pictured Kane as a more gaunt looking and dead eyed presence, kinda like Lance Henriksen back in his genre glory days.
Still, a project I'll definitely be keeping an eye on and hoping for the best from, that's for sure.
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someone needs to start a petition
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Oct 02, 2007 11:17:49 AM CDT
Rome was perfection, I have trouble seeing the actor(s)
by stormwatcher
In anything else.... I can't watch Journeyman for this reason. Although I will give Punisher a chance as Stevenson owns that look. Perfect casting, just so long as I can suspend my disbelief that Titus is in the future and avenging his 21st century family not his dead-slave-wife from Rome Season 2. Purefoy is due though. They all are. What about giving Attia a role in something big as she clearly has more balls then any other women actor out there save maybe Blanchett. (I realize she doesn't have actual balls)
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What I mean is that MCMLXXVI is damning Michael Bay again. Is that because of the sequel or was Bay just announced as the director of something else that's sacred to many? "Captain Planet: The Movie - A Michael Bay Film"?
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Any chance we could get Purefoy to play Talon in the Sword & the Sorcerer Sequel as well? He'd be perfect for that, too. Purefoy was beyond outstanding in ROME - he's an actor with real charisma.
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It'll be very cool to see James Purefoy in this.
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reh is the man. solomon kane kicks all kinds of ass. he even fights a gorilla.
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5 of the 6 marvel limited series comics from the 70's. they're pretty sweet.
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Long as we're talkin about Purefoy, his turn as the Black Prince of Wales was, dare i say, EPIC! Okay, a little hyperbole there, but it is among the greatest cable movies of all time, right up there with Rounders, The Color of Money, and Road House...
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here you go. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v376/thejeditraitor/kane.jpg[/IMG]
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I love the 82 milius conan movie, but it wasn't really like Howard's Conan. btw did anyone know that the conan stories were going to be made into films in the 1930s using stop-motion animation like king kong for the effects? how uber would that have been?
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Oct 02, 2007 5:18:15 PM CDT
So that's the new Punisher? Looks just like the old one
by guy who got a headache and accidentally
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And the reason Purefoy left V for Vendetta was because he said that wearing that damn mask for the entire filming of V would've driven him crazy.
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Purefoy is awesome. Man, there was some great casting on ROME.
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I had no idea about THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD...I'm totally gonna have to check that out. Cheers
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I am now psyched for this project. Purefoy could be great for this role, I only hope the director is up to the task. No Sommers-ization is needed here, just let Kane be Kane and kick ass in the name of the Lord. In a perfect universe, Basil Rathbone would have played Solomon Kane and knocked it out of the park... but I'll be happy with a movie that does justice to a great pulp hero.
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Eh?! EH!?!
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...mark my words: this one will get touchy before it's all over with. There's a LOT of racism in those stories. Solomon Kane is one of my all time favorite charicters, but Howard was a product of his era and his head was obviously full of eugenics. His personal letters get real bad, and the Kane stories are where it's most blatant in his commercial writing. Classic case of something likeable being made by someone unlikeable. I enjoy the stories, but I enjoy them more when it's not Howard's actual writing (comics, etc). I'm sure the script has Kane adopting webster or something to try to get past all this but somebody somewhere is gonna be majorly pre-offended over this movie.
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but this sounds damn cool. Count me in.
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First read Solomon Kane as back-up story in Savage Sword of Conan magazine- black and white with nudity, can't believe I could buy the mag over-the-counter in the early eighties! Anyway, I think it was "Wings in the Night" with Kane fighting Harpies in a remote African village, fucking awesome with Kane using rapiers and flint-lock pistols against winged man-eaters! The thing I loved about Solomon Kane was he was the opposite of Conan- totally repressed and dour while Conan was gregarious with his "ale-drinking and wenching!" Another Kane comic adventure was his first meeting with Dracula; Kane was looking for a young girl who vanished in Transylvania, Dracula turned her into one of his vamp sluts, she tries to seduce Kane and he shoves her off saying he is no plaything for a strumpet or some shit. He kills her and challenges Dracula to a duel. I actually liked Solomon Kane better than Conan because he is rooted to real history. Although I always imagined Daniel Day Lewis as Kane, Purefoy is a good choice.
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Shane Hensley,(creator of the Deadlands Weird West roleplaying game, the Savage Worlds RPG, and former creative director of the City of Villains computer game)is set to release the Savage World of Solomon Kane RPG. Early copies were released at Gencon, but the public will be able to buy it sometime this month. I actually have yet to read the SK stories, but I enjoyed some old Conan years ago, and I like most of Shane's RPG product, so I bought it. It's a great book for gamers and/or fans of Solomon Kane. More at peginc.com Here's hoping Hollywood doesn't pussify this project too much.
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Purefoy - hot
Kane - hotter
licks lascivious lady chops in anticipation
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