Take your mind to March 5th 2008 and the mass Internet speculation which arose when Two Time Academy Award nominated Gladiator and Blood Diamond actor Djimon Hounsou mentioned in an interview he was soon set to star in a film based off the Conan comic books, what he called his “dream project”.

Originally, we thought it could actually be the newly resurrected Conan series at Millennium which then had no actor attached and that despite his race, he was a great build to either play Conan himself or a villain.

Today though the mystery has been solved. He will play big screen sorcerer Thulsa Doom in a big screen movie based on the character that is usually a big villain in the Conan and Kull comic books. The project is being setup by Dynamite Entertainment who are also producing a new comic series of the character next year.

This new origin movie will focus on the character’s journey into villainy, a flawed hero who had good intentions but slowly descended to the dark side, ala Anakin Skywalker, Magneto and Harvey Dent.

No film studio is actually attached as of yet, but you have to expect it will be Nu Image/Millennium as they already have Conan and Red Sonja (starring Rose McGowan and produced by Robert Rodriguez) in production and will be thinking about franchise building and future spin-off’s.

The character originally appeared in the Robert E. Howard pulp story “Delcardes’ Cat,” published in the 1930s but is more well known to film geeks for his portrayal by James Earl Jones in the 1982 adaptation Conan the Barbarian.

Though the character was usually drawn with a skull like appearance and is radically different from Jones’ portrayal.

Who’s loving this Robert E. Howard resurrection right now, with no less than four of his works in production right now and should it be really that surprising? Studio’s are desperate for new epic tentpoles and a big sweeping mythology always stands a good chance.

And if they are smart… we could see a new movie in this franchise each year. Nu Image/Millennium have to pick this up!

source - variety