It’s been a while since Solomon Kane swung the rapier on the European silver screens, but the long journey across the big pond, to the motherland of the character’s creator Robert E. Howard, has not yet been abandoned. As an independent production, Solomon Kane, as any other indie production, is a tough sell to the big distributors, because they do not want to be presented with a finalized film they cannot tweak or influence to their audience liking and more importantly, they want full control over the brand.

A brand is where the real money is these days and George Lucas knew this back in the day, when he signed the contracts with the studios, that he gets the right to produce toys and merchandise for his Star War series. Needless to say, he made millions and millions.

But there is a spark of hope. The tag-line “from the creator of Conan The Barbarian” surely sparked a bit of interest in peoples mind, but even the famous Conan brand lost a good bit of it’s charm, simply because the governor laid down his sword over 25 years ago and a brand can only live for so long, before the public interest slows down considerably. All that is about to change. Conan The Barbarian is going to come to the cinemas again this year on the 19th of August 2011 and it is published by Lionsgate.

As the producers have said, they wait up producing Red Sonja until they see how successful the Sword and Sorcery film Conan will be and we assume that a successful Conan could spark renewed interest in the Solomon Kane franchise and the movie. While the wait to see The Puritan has been long for many of us (who haven’t yet imported the DVD/Bluray), there is yet hope.

For news on the Conan movie and the latest rumour, check out Taranaich’s Conan Movie Blog.

Dark Horse is going to extend their Robert E. Howard Comic selection by another re-release of Marvel Comics with the release of The Chronicles of Solomon Kane. It’s a collection of all Marvel Solomon Kane stories written by Roy Thomas and others. The issues will be released in December this year and you can already preorder it in several online shops.

Even though this is a pastiche story release, i think i will grab a copy of the issue, to see what Roy Thomas did with this REH character in the comics. (I was a bit to young in the 1970 – 1980 to read the originals) Even though i did not agree with how he changed the Conan character in the Marvel Comics, his stories where interesting and the Marvel Comics fun to read.

And let’s not forget that Comics lead to Comic-Con and there we will get our hands on the first scenes of the Solomon Kane film