McTiernan, who has done some great action movies (Cliffhanger, Predator, Die Hard), will be attached as a marketing ploy, which is what dominates producer-driven crap.

Gerard Butler is more a soccer hooligan than a barbarian.

2) Howard's Conan is a cunning, lightning-quick, giant, semi-feral, steel-thewed absolute fucking killer. Milius's Conan is a sluggish, clumsy, lumbering fathead who depends on his sidekicks to get him out of scrapes more often than not.

3) Butler would be an awful Conan, and I say that as someone who genuinely likes Butler a lot.

4) I love The 13th Warrior. Say what you want about it, but it's one of the more accurate depictions of viking-era Scandinavian life - well, minus the war against neanderthals on horseback. Also, I've always thought that Vladimir Kulich, the guy who plays Buliwyf, would at least visually have been an excellent older Conan (if you dyed his hair black and beefed him up). The guy is the spitting image of the Ernie Chan-era Conan from the comics.

5) McTiernan on the top of his game would be a good choice for director, but that guy doesn't exist anymore.

6) I call bullshit on this whole story.

"That is without a doubt the most contemptible plan in the history of the Universe."

Are you serious?

Excellent call on Blade Runner and yes... Flash Gordon.

Let him rot in jail.

McTiernan kind of worries me though, he hasn't been on game for a long time, and even when he was at his full blooded best, I don't know if he has the grit for a full blooded Conan. Yeah, at his best he can make big, violent, entertaining films, but I still can't see him painting a proper Conan canvas, I just don't know that he's got the vision and scope to deliver on that, even at his best.

And while I personally love the Milius Conan movie, and would have loved to have seen one final outing with Milius and Arnie to tie that series off and send it out in style, that time has passed, so how about this time they actually make the R.E. Howard version of Conan? Now there's a "remake" or "re-imagining" with an actual purpose for once. And no pg-13 bullshit either, he's a barbarian, a reaver, not a fucking babysitter, so the film needs to be primal and full blooded, not toned down or packed with cheesy 'humor'. Take the material seriously, play it straight, give it an epic sense of scope, and don't castrate it of it's rough edges. Conan is all about blood and passion, and any new Conan film needs to have plenty of both. So bring it, or by Crom I'll kill you all.

God, I hated McTiernan's DVD commentary for "Die Hard." I went in expecting some great behind the scenes info about the flick, and instead I get two hours of him waxing on about how he wanted joy in the film and comparing it to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Please, give me a break. When Jackson DeGovia, the film's production designer, gives a better commentary on the film than the director, you know you have a bad commentary track.

And thank God McTiernan didn't direct "A Princess of Mars" back in the 90's. Read this link: http://tinyurl.com/2vwrmr

According to Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, McTiernan wanted to change John Carter of Virginia to "John Carter of Vagina" and have him be an alcoholic. Great, McT, real nice. Not to mention he helped prevent the film "Smoke and Mirrors" from getting made.

Now I admit he's made some terrific films in the past. But why do people think he's so great? Lest you forget, he also made "Basic," "Rollerball," and "Die Hard with a Vengeance."

I don't know where ABking gets his ideas from since WB lost the film rights in June of this year from what I understand. Just his usual jizz-dreams I suppose.

And count me as someone who really enjoyed the 13th Warrior. I always try and catch that when it's on TV.