This rumor is a little hard to believe, what with the impending prison time for former A-list director John McTiernan (DIE HARD, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER) but well, stranger things have happened I guess. Who would have thought this time last year that a ‘live action and out of continuity’ JLA movie would be in production?

A French magazine is reporting the news from an insider that McTiernan is at the top of Nu Images’ list of potential directors to revitalise their newly acquired CONAN franchise from Warner Brothers. If it wasn’t for the prison time, the news would make sense.

McTiernan was once one of the top Hollywood action directors around and he even worked with the original CONAN (Arnie) on PREDATOR and did a terrific job with that. He also once upon a time directed the viking epic 13TH WARRIOR, which had it’s moments. Earlier this year, McTiernan had spoke of his interest in directing again after some time away following a string of flops and had even signed up to a few projects, all of which have since stalled.

The rumor goes further and says Gerard Butler is wanted to star in the picture, my guess would be the villain. Certainly make sense after 300 and Butler hasn’t shyed away from geek projects recently, so I guess it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.

I couldn’t see him as the new CONAN though. I would go for an unknown for that but I would love to see Butler as the bad guy. As for McTiernan… unless he can prep this movie from his cell block (it is likely to shoot just after the strike) then I just can’t see it.

source - aicn