Cartoon Graveyard #6 (Conan Red Nails)
CONAN THE CIMMERIAN, the greatest hero of his age, battles man, monster, and magic in his first ever animated motion picture, based on the classic story Red Nails. Filled with adventure, sorcery, and romance, the mighty Cimmerian prepares to face a powerful foe in one of his greatest quests…
Alright I had to do it. I mean the site for this movie hasn’t been updated since December 2007. And even though as of last September the movie was back on according to MTV Splash Page I just am not confident. I mean come on even in the MTV article they are talking about money difficulties.
The Conan story Red Nails first appeared in Weird Tales in 1936 by creator Robert E Howard. Often lauded as one of the best of the Conan stories its themes of death and betrayal are universal. Valeria is also included in this story and is a long time favorite of Conan fans.
The rumblings about this movie started over five years ago and were followed quickly by production artwork and the website. Everything seemed to be moving along well. Michael Kaluta was brought in as the Concept Designer for the film; Mark Schultz, who produced The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, was brought in as part of the art team. Veteran animation director Victor Dal Chele, was tapped to helm the feature.
And the voice cast was beyond par with Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Mark Hammil and Marg Helgenberger all adding their talent to what seemed to be turning into a very true to the source material adaption. Conan fans were flush with excitement and talk of a very adult and bloody cartoon were to be found all over the internet.
And then….nothing. The website stopped updating and nothing was heard from anyone. The last bit of news was that from MTV and that is now a year old. If this movie were truely going to be released in December I think they would have at least updated the blog on their own site. But alas I think this means only one thing. Conan Red Nails has joined the cartoon graveyard.
Author: Marc Fletcher (398 Articles)
Marc is the author of Adam Zero: The Last Man of Earth from Ronin Studios and numerous anthology pieces. He is also an avid animation fan and loves to write Cartoon Graveyard and blog at Rayguns & Sixshooters.
I suppose that the delay could also be caused by the producers of the upcoming live-action film, so that the animated film can be used as a marketing tool for it.