Conan The Barbarian (1982 Film) - Production

Production

From the 1970s, licensing issues had stood in the way of producing film versions of the Conan stories. Lancer Books, which had acquired the rights in 1966, went into receivership, and there were legal disputes over their disposition of the publishing rights, which ultimately led to them being frozen under injunction. Edward Summer suggested Conan as a potential project to executive producer Edward R. Pressman in 1975, and after being shown the comics and Frazetta's artwork, Pressman was convinced. It took two years to secure the film rights. The two main parties involved in the lawsuit, Glenn Lord and de Camp, formed Conan Properties Incorporated to handle all licensing of Conan-related material, and Pressman was awarded the film rights shortly afterwards. He spent more than $100,000 in legal fees to help resolve the lawsuit, and the rights cost him another $7,500.

The success of Star Wars in 1977 increased Hollywood's interest in producing films that portray "heroic adventures in supernatural lands of fables". The film industry's attention was drawn to the popularity of Conan among young male Americans, who were buying reprints of the stories with Frazetta's art and adaptations by Marvel Comics. John Milius first expressed interest in directing a film about Conan in 1978 after completing the filming of Big Wednesday, according to Buzz Feitshans, a producer who frequently worked with Milius. Milius and Feitshans approached Pressman, but differences over several issues stopped discussions from going further.

Oliver Stone joined the Conan project after Paramount Pictures offered to fund the film's initial $2.5 million budget if a "name screenwriter" was on the team. After securing Stone's services, Pressman approached Frank Frazetta to be a "visual consultant" but they failed to come to terms. The producer then engaged Ron Cobb, who had just completed a set design job on Alien (1979). Cobb made a series of paintings and drawings for Pressman before leaving to join Milius on another project.

The estimates to realize Stone's finished script ran to $40 million; Pressman, Summer, and Stone could not convince a studio to finance their project. Pressman's production company was in financial difficulties and to keep it afloat, he borrowed money from the bank. The failure to find a suitable director was also a problem for the project. Stone and Joe Alves, who was the second unit director on Jaws 2, were considered as possible co-directors, but Pressman said it "was a pretty crazy idea and didn't get anywhere with it". Stone also said that he asked Ridley Scott, who had finished directing Alien, to take up the task but was rejected.

Cobb showed Milius his work for Conan and Stone's script which, according to him, re-ignited Milius's interest; the director contacted Pressman, and they came to an agreement: Milius would direct the film if he was allowed to modify the script. Milius was known in the film industry for his macho screenplays for Dirty Harry (1971) and Magnum Force (1973). He was, however, contracted to direct his next film for Dino De Laurentiis, an influential producer in the fantasy film industry. Milius raised the idea of taking on Conan with De Laurentiis, and, after a year of negotiations, Pressman and De Laurentiis agreed to co-produce. De Laurentiis took over the financing and production and Pressman gave up all claims to the film's profits, though he retained approval over changes to the script, cast and director. Dino De Laurentiis assigned the responsibility for production to his daughter, Raffaella, and Feitshans. Milius was formally appointed as director in early 1979, and Cobb was named as the production designer. De Laurentiis convinced Universal Pictures to become the film's distributor for the United States. The studio also contributed to the production budget of $17.5 million and prepared $12 million to advertise the film.