Looking past what may be the most imaginative news headline I’ve ever written, the latest rumblings out of Hollywood come in the probably more creative form of Robert E. Howard’s quasi-historical fantasy, Bran Mak Morn.
Peter Berg (director of the pretty damn good Friday Night Lights) has been set up by Universal Pictures to helm the adaptation of Howard’s multinovel series which is being penned by John Romano (Intolerable Cruelty, the upcoming Philip Noyce film American Pastoral).
Howard, as many of you know, is probably most famous for the creation of everyone’s favorite Hyborean Age Cimmerian, Conan. With Bran Mak Morn, Howard "mixes the historical with the fantastical as the title character, a mythical king of ancient Britain, forges an alliance with supernatural troops to contest the unstoppable forces of the Roman Empire." Though I haven’t read these particular novels (yet), I can’t help but be utterly intrigued by the concept. I’ve always been a huge fan of Conan (both the books and the films… well, actually Destroyer can just go to hell as far as I’m concerned), so I’d love to see other material of Howard’s get the filmic treatment. Having someone like the talented Peter Berg involved also goes a long way in warming the loins. So it’s all good.
Bran Mak Morn will supposedly be Berg’s follow up to his upcoming collaboration (again) with Michael Mann, The Kingdom. No word on what’s going down with Splinter Cell (a video game property with actual potential), but my guess would be that of the two, the Mann-produced project will be the one that’s given the go.