LIONSGATE TO DISTRIBUTE NEW CONAN FILM

Lionsgate has gained the North American distribution rights to the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN series from Nu Image/Millennium Films, VARIETY reports. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer will write the first film in the planned series, which will go back to the source material created by Robert E. Howard.

Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Joe Gatta, Paradox Ent.'s Fredrick Malmberg, George Furla and Henry Winterstern are the producers, with Trevor Short, George Furla and Danny Dimbort exec producing.

Lerner, the head of Nu Image/Millennium Films, is currently hammering out a deal with the WGA similar to the one inked by UA and The Weinstein
Co. If a pact can be reached, the producers hope to get the film in front of cameras later this year.