Untitled Document

Welcome to the Official Website of the animated movie and your source for the definitive news and updates on ROBERT E. HOWARD’s CONAN: RED NAILS

First off, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! We are working on a special Holiday Posting for all of you, and there will also be one (1) more REDBLOG before New Years.

We had previously planned this blog as Halloween Special featuring the monsters of CONAN: RED NAILS The Animated Film . But now is just as good a time as any to get scared. And we'll do this like Dickens, sort of an Hyborian "Christmas Carol." I'll read some blood-curdling excerpts from the script and then we'll all go look at the monsters.

I'm going to start out of sequence, with a chilling scene near the end of the film.
For those of you who remember Howard's story, there's a little scene where CONAN comes back from scouting the enemy stronghold and finds his former ally, OLMEC , in a bit of a bind. And it goes something like this...

Olmec is chained to a frightening contraption of iron beams, chains, huge, rotating gears and counterweights.
The whole system is hooked into a DEADFALL--
A huge, massive, crushing block of stone suspended directly above Olmec.

At the sound of Conan's voice, Olmec startles, lifts his head from a bed of nasty spikes that look just like RED NAILS.

MASSIVE GEARS ratchet slowly. The web of chains gives and pulls. Olmec begs incoherently as the deadfall drops--

Okay, so that's more like Henry James ("The Turn of the Screw") then Dickens, but we're on the move!

Our next moment is the first time CONAN and VALERIA get a look at the PILLAR OF VENGEANCE. Just a reminder, in the story, two tribes are at war. When one tribe kills an enemy, they take his decapitated head for a trophy. When the other side kills an enemy, they prefer a bit more symbolism and pageantry. During an elaborate ritual, they drive a RED NAIL into the black pillar. Each nails symbolizes the soul of the fallen victim.

Hundreds upon hundreds of RED NAILS, like bloodied railroad spikes, jut from a HUGE EBONY COLUMN.

The loathsome pillar towers over everything, dominates the room and everyone in it, looming, waiting, expectant.

In sudden horror, Valeria realizes the truth.
The pillar stands for an ocean of blood, a tidal wave held back but for a moment, about to crash and engulf them.

If you haven't seen the NAILS yet, here they are. We had a blast designing them and I found some very sneaky ways to get the NAILS more screen time.

Our next scary stop is-- JURASSIC PARK !

At least the Robert E. Howard equivalent. I've often wondered if Michael Crichton enjoyed "Red Nails" and thought, "Okay, that's how you do it with magic. Now here' how you really do it!"

FOSSIL BONES explode from the earth, MAGICALLY REANIMATE into living DINOSAURS!

OLMEC (V.O.)
To defend the city, they revived the dragons of ages past from their scattered bones.

And from the piles of mixed, unrelated bones, weird amalgams reassemble. Strange, warped PATCHWORK CREATURES come to life...

OLMEC (V.O.)
Magic sustained the dragons and bound them within the forest.

The DRAGONS battle each other with savage joy.

No really good homage to "A Christmas Carol" would be complete without some mention of the Ghost of Christmas Past. In Red Nails, the haunting specter of evil days gone by is personified quite nicely, or in this case quite sickeningly, by the flesh-eating presence of TOLKEMEC . Now, as you may recall, TOLKEMEC led a miserable life in the lost city and seemingly endured an even more gruesome death. But TOLKEMEC did not die. He escaped his tormentors and fled into the ancient catacombs beneath the city. These tunnels predate the magical city and lead straight to hell. Okay, not straight to hell. It's really rather tortuous and ultimately devastating to the soul. TOLKEMEC is trapped down there for many, many years with unfortunate results...

ON TOLKEMEC

Hideous, reptilian, mostly TRANSLUCENT--TOLKEMEC is a nightmare draped in rags and long, snowy tangles of beard and mane.

Titters of echolocation pour from a mouth of needle-like fangs and his guts burn like GARISH NEON.

Under the tangles of matted hair, a RED AMULET is IMBEDDED in his chest.

TASCELA
After all this time... Your looks have not improved.

TIGHT CU - ON TOLKEMEC

Recognition and hatred burn in the creature's eyes. The amulet begins to glow.

The effects for TOLKEMEC's scenes are intense. I can't wait for you to see them. We're still keeping TOLKEMEC himself under wraps for a while. We don't want to spoil all the surprises.

The next creature featured on our fright parade is... THE CRAWLER.

At first, THE CRAWLER seemed likely to be a very straight forward design extrapolated from Howard's text. Reptilian, hideous, unpigmented from life in the lightless caverns. THE CRAWLER also emanates an intense freezing cold. This is Howard's real "Ice Worm." The other key design element Howard relates is THE CRAWLER'S dead skin had giving off an eerie rainbow iridescence.

Mark Schultz's original Concept art features a reptilian Crawler with a very talented tail.

Considering the dragons in the film would all be reptilian and dinosaurian, Conan Properties wanted a different visual for THE CRAWLER , and rightly so. This was an inspired choice that led to a many fresh and exciting design possibilities. The new direction would clearly be "Lovecarftian" and "Cthuluesque" .

In these roughs by our Character Designer Jim Stenstrum,
The Crawler starts slithering away from his reptilian roots.

The final version of THE CRAWLER is truly frightening.

I've attached a partial sneak peak. This is the first time THE CRAWLER has been seen outside the production. As CONAN'S battle with THE CRAWLER takes place largely in darkness, the finished sequence will demand some very interesting color, lighting and effects.

Some of the techniques we'll use on The Crawler include an animation ink and paint process known as "Self-Trace Color."

Now, the last stop on our holiday stroll through the darkness may prove to be the most popular. Over the last few years America's love affair with zombies has reached an all-time high. Zombies are everywhere. Movies, comics, video games, literature. I like to think their inclusion in RED NAILS helped start the trend and will be an unexpected treat for Conan Fan's worldwide.

The way zombies lumbered into RED NAILS is a great story, considering I never wrote the word "zombie" in the original adaptation. But as we handed out script sections to our storyboard team, a serious "CONAN PROBLEM" came up.

One of the film's key action sequences was given to BUTCH LUKIC (pronounced LOO-kitch), one of the top storyboard artists in the industry, who had spent the last decade boarding and directing episodes of Batman , Superman and Justice League . Butch is brilliant and had worked with VIC DAL CHELE , the director of CONAN: RED NAILS many times over the years. Vic and Butch have a great relationship and it was my privilege to get to know Butch and build a friendship with him during this project. Butch is a true CONAN FAN and loved the opportunity to really "cut loose" on this film. Butch thinks his work on RED NAILS may be the finest of his career. He did a miraculous job and helped overcome a BIG problem. It went down something like this:

BUTCH: "Hey, Vic. How many people are in this Lost City?"

VIC: "About fifty or sixty. Roughly, thirty or so on each side."

BUTCH: "Then we have a problem."

A MOMENT OF TROUBLED SILENCE.

BUTCH: "I'm on page 3 (of my section) and they way I've staged the action, all the bad guys are gone. Conan's killed them all. We need more guys for him to fight. Or the film's going to be like 10 minutes short."

VIC: "Yeah, when you think about it, with Conan and Valeria fighting alongside Tascela and Olmec, the final battle is gonna be over real fast!" You're right. We're going to need more adversaries for them to fight.

BUTCH: "So where do the people come from? They're all gone. Nobody's left. I used 'em all up.

(PAUSE- - expletives deleted)

VIC: " What about the monsters?"

BUTCH: " We're good with monsters. I haven't run out of monsters. The way it's written, we need more people."

VIC THINKS FOR A MOMENT. BUTCH IS REPEATEDLY DELETED.

(Vic is a good thinker.) VIC HITS UPON AN IDEA.

VIC: "Butch, it's The Pipes of Madness."

BUTCH: "Yeah, I am pretty hacked off."

VIC: "No, Butch, The Pipes of Madness in the movie . They summon monsters, entrance the guards and drive men mad. Why can't they raise the dead along with the monsters? We have hundreds of dead Xotalancs lying around from the feud. Let's have them rise from their tombs when the Pipes of Madness play."

Just like that, the answer was Zombies. And the film is all the better for it. Thank you, Vic. Thank you, Butch, for your hard work and many contributions. I think Robert E. Howard would have liked their solution, too. In a nutshell, this is how we generally approached production issues and found solutions. We looked at:

1) What has HOWARD given us to work with?

2) What is the BIGGEST & BEST way to get this on screen?

3) What are the needs of our LICENSOR and CONAN'S FANS?

Storyboard ZOMBIE/MONSTER action by the great BUTCH LUKIC.

Nothing says FESTIVE like Xotalanc Zombies.

This zombie, first drawn by Character Designer Jim Stenstrum, was specifically designed to resemble a key man on our crew... Character Designer Jim Stenstrum. Happy Holidays, Jim!
You are now famous!

I hope you all enjoyed this blog. Particularly, I hope you've fallen for our zombies and the story of the their creation. I hope it has latched on to you, some small piece of your heart, or perhaps a frontal lobe or two.

Zombies are important at this time of year. They make for a nice contrast.

Warmest Holiday Wishes To All,

Steve Gold
Writer/Producer
CONAN: RED NAILS

Welcome to REDBLOG TWO (2) showcasing the outstanding work of the film's Lead Concept Designer MICHAEL KALUTA.

Michael is a true legend in the field of heroic fantasy illustration. Any of you who don't own "Wings of Twilight: The Art of Michael Kaluta" should hunt down a copy. And when you get a feel for the scope of Michael's career, you'll realize, with all the amazing artwork he's known for, a good portion of his time has been spent illustrating Conan and the world's of Robert E. Howard.

When we started this production, Michael was the first artist I approached. Of all the many challenges I knew we would be facing, my initial concern was creating a believable world for Conan to inhabit. HYBORIA would have to look right. I knew we could count on Michael to deliver classic line work and a fresh, epic look.

Some initial Stygian and Aquilonian concept art had just come in to Conan Properties from their licensee, Funcom , as they started developing " Age of Conan" . It was our responsibility to take these designs into account and develop complimentary looks for the various Hyborian cities in our script. From reading Howard, I always saw Hyboria, aside from some huge palaces and ruins, as dark, gritty, intense and somewhat compact. More like parts of Boston, New York or Chicago. Not huge and sprawling like Los Angeles.

But it was clear from Funcom's art, Hyboria was going to be big. And beautiful. At this point, we started thinking vertically. And I knew no one but Michael Kaluta could do the work.

This would be a key visual theme in the film, especially as we move from the outside world deep into the confining and claustrophobic chambers and tunnels of the lost city of XUCHOTL (ZOO-Chole).

The POWER of this rough just BURSTS off the page!
The blazing sky sets off the peak (Conan's proposed vantage point) and the brooding city of XUCHOTL (dead center).
Compare the rough with the completed Production Background.

Notice the different ASPECT RATIOS between the rough and the Final Production BG

As the Lead Concept Designer, Michael's job was to showcase the world, pack the page with as much power and real estate as paper could contain- - add one more thing and the image might spontaneously combust!

Iconic work. I just gave Michael the script, a rough schedule and turned him loose on unsuspecting Hyboria.

As the Design Staff started work on the production, Michael would email roughs and color sketches and I would have the privilege of sharing the latest pieces with the director and the crew. After all the oohs-and-aahs, we'd all sit down and brainstorm. Michael was setting up a grand road map. And we would look and admire and pick a route.

When Michael started sending roughs of the lost city, the true look of the film really started coming together. Michael made amazing contributions to the film and had a major influence on the final Production design and Animation Layouts.

While he was finishing his work on RED NAILS , Michael did some work for Dark Horse on the monthly Conan comic. This dovetailed perfectly with Michael's film work as he illustrated the retelling of Hyborian history for Kurt's adaptation of "Tower of the Elephant" .

I want to take this opportunity thank Michael for all his tremendous efforts on Conan's behalf over the years, on this film in particular and on all his Conans still to come. Thank you. It's been amazing.

Following directly below are Five (5) more pieces of Kaluta's magical concept art that before this blog, have not been seen outside the production.

In Michael's VALERIA ROUGHS there is a balance between beauty and power.
His Valeria is tough-- guaranteed to gut you with her sword-- BUT SHE'S HOT!

VALERIA battles the BURNING SKULL.
She looks both tough and fast--and did I mention HOT?

All of Michael's serpent imagery, his sketches and idol designs for SET, the stygian serpent god where incorporated throughout the lost city's SNAKE TIER.

This is Michael's Concept Rough for a Stygian noble.
CAN'T YOU JUST SMELL THE EVIL?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you since the first REDBLOG – –
But it was a BUSY Summer!!!

There has been some tremendous good news about the Conan Franchise in general and upcoming toys and products. And a great deal of progress has been made on CONAN: RED NAILS The Animated Film. I look forward to sharing all the good news with you very soon.

This blog will spotlight our Lead Concept Designer MICHAEL KALUTA.
It will also detail the work of the film’s amazing design crew.

Posted right before Halloween, this little treat will bring you face-to-face with some of the many fearsome and diabolical creatures inhabiting the film.

This blog will focus on character design and how key story and script points inform major themes and design choices.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this new piece of art I think all of you will enjoy.

Welcome to REDBLOG ONE (1), your window on the making of CONAN:RED NAILS , the very first animated feature film starring the greatest character in fantasy literature.

I plan to blog to you at least once every two (2) weeks, with a goal of twenty (20) blogs over the next forty (40) weeks, as we complete the film.

I want to thank so many of you for your faith, support and recognition that we are producing a unique project. That being said, I want you to know we do read the message boards and fan forums. Your thoughts and concerns are important to us.

And every artist who worked on RED NAILS loves CONAN just as much as you do.

That's one of the reasons we're committed to seeing this film go out with different cuts and ratings. From the very beginning of this project, our goal has been to bring you a CONAN that is consistent with the passion, style and attitude embodied by Robert E. Howard's prose.

You will see an R rated RED NAILS . There will also be a mass-market PG-13 cut and an UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT . What you can expect in every cut is amazing art, an epic story and great performances. The entire voice cast was amazing!

If you get anything out of this blog, I want you have a sense of the joy and wonder, the total rush we all felt in that recording studio as Ron yelled, growled and roared.
His CONAN was powerful, gritty, tough, smart, nasty and heroic.

Everything you'd expect him to be. Thank you Ron, you're the best. And he'll be CONAN for years to come!

Ron had great chemistry working with Cree Summer, who plays VALERIA .
She brought an amazing power and smoldering sexiness to the role. She was magnificent. Just listening, you knew CONAN and VALERIA were in the room and they were dangerous. Not to be messed with. Ready to draw steel...

This was also MARG HELGENBERGER'S first major voice work in animation.
She was wonderful and wicked as Tascela! We were very lucky to get her.

I think most of you have seen JAMES MARSDEN as "Cyclops" in one of the X-Men Films. After working with him, seeing him create a character, roll on the ground with fear and laughter, I can tell you this: The man is a magician, he chews scenery! His performance fits with Ron's perfectly. You can feel the friendship and camaraderie between CONAN and TECHOTL .

I could spend an entire blog just writing about MARK HAMILL . The man is a legend and rightfully so. Hearing Mark perform Howard, as Howard was written , is something I can't wait for all of you to hear. We grabbed Mark for several roles and he dominates one of the film's most tragic moments. I don't want to spoil anything, so that's all I'll say about this, for now.

And last, but far from least, CLANCY BROWN was extraordinary as OLMEC . Clancy is a real professional and also a legend in the genre. He brings an amazing insight and wild, chameleon-like skills to his voice work. As good as he is as OLMEC , he did another voice for the picture that still gives me chills.

Any discussion of the actors' performances demands commendation for SUE BLU , the film's brilliant voice director. She is uniquely gifted and skilled at this work. Actors trust her and always come through for her. Vic Dal Chele, the director of RED NAILS, has worked with Sue on various productions, but none were more challenging. We all had a great experience collaborating and conquering the many linguistic issues Hyboria presents. Lir an Mannanan Mac Lir! Tlazitlans, etc...

I chose to focus this first blog on the film's voice talent for a number of reasons:

We are in the process of putting up onsite some film audio files so you can hear RON PERLMAN curse in Cimmerian!

And you can also expect new posts with STORYBOARD ART & previously unseen DEVELOPMENT SKETCHES. Hope you enjoyed REDBLOG ONE .

While this site was under renovation, there has been much rumor, speculation and disinformation about both the animated film CONAN: RED NAILS and our company, Swordplay Entertainment.

While we expect to make many more announcements over the next few weeks and months, for now, it is my great pleasure to share with you that CONAN: RED NAILS is back on the web with a fabulous, new site designed by the film's Animation Coordinator, Hal Forsstrom, working in concert with web designer Greg Miller.

To date, this production has enjoyed the contributions of a great many brilliant and dedicated professionals. This site showcases just a small fraction of their efforts.

I look forward to sharing more of the production with you as we proceed. From here on, www.conanrednails.com is your front row seat to the making of the very first CONAN animated film! There's a lot more to come!

Now, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Fredrik Malmberg, Thommy Wojciechowski and Jay Zetterberg and the entire amazing, talented staff at Conan Properties International LLC, for all their contributions and hard work. Together, Swordplay and Conan Properties we take great pride in welcoming you back.