By Crom! Warner Brothers spent the last seven years trying to bring Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian back to the screen, even throwing big names like the Wachowski Brothers, Robert Rodriguez, and in a bit of irony, John Milius, who wrote and directed the original “Conan” in 1982, at the project, but it was not to be. Now, weeks after Warner gave up the rights to Conan, new contenders have stepped up to the plate, but they’re going to have to open the wallet. The price tag? $1 million for the first year, and $1 million for every year of renewal thereafter. According to Variety, New Line Cinema is the top contender. So why would they pay all that money? One word: “300″.

A brief history of Conan from Wikipedia:

Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland, Cimmeria) is a fictional character often associated with the low fantasy, sword-and-sorcery subgenre, also known as heroic fantasy. He is the most famous fictional barbarian, and indeed one of the best known and most universally recognizable iconic figures in modern popular culture.

Created by American writer Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy pulp stories sold to Weird Tales magazine, the character has since appeared in licensed books, comics, films, television programs and video games, contributing to his long-standing popularity.

And let me just say again — by Crom!