Solomon Kane

[illmade2]

Recently a movie was made based on one of my favorite RE Howard characters. Kane is with out a doubt one of Howard's most complicated and darkest characters. As of this date the Solomon Kane movie has been released in Asia, Russia, and parts of Europe, but not in the birth place of the creator, the Good old USA. No release has been planned for the US at this time.
Now I do not believe in watching pirated movies but in cases like this where no one seems concerned about doing anything to distribute a film I have no qualms.
Anyway the movie can now be found on the internet, and while I can't say much about production standards due to the crappy screen capture, it does appear to be well done.
OK I know it does not follow any story line that Howard wrote, but it does capture the feel and for the first time we have a movie that matches Howards dark imagery, thank God. This is not the humorous PC Kull, the truely stupid Red Sonja, or the muscle bound, operatic Conan, this is the down and dirty, gritty and blood laden world of Solomon Kane. I hope that this makes it to the big screen or even goes direct to DVD so I can have the pleasure of seeing it without squinting.
See it if you can it's worth the look.

[Torawashi]

Illmade; thanks for the heads up. I have no qualms whatsoever about watching movies that are posted on host websites. If everyone in the world is going to be watching them anyway, then I might as well get the entertainment. Just my personal opinion. I'll look for it online.

[illmade2]

Enjoy Tora let me know if you find a good print out there...
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m31/painbrush3/First_Kane.jpg

[Dotanuki]

illmade, thanks for the heads up on this movie!
For others the trailer is here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSDZNHYLDOY

Robert E. Howard was one of the greatest storytellers ever. Instead of Hollywood just stealing his characters they should just try to make movies of his stories. (that are much better, then what passes for a plot now)
Solomon Kanes character was the first, that the later character's Von Helsing and Vampire Hunter D are loosely based on. (especially the look!)

illmade remember this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWkHAekqJzU

R.E.H.'s historical fiction is often overlooked but quite good also.

[illmade2]

Yep I do..
I have to say that at least his works are being published again, for a lot of years the only place you could find RE Howard was on dusty back shelves of used book stores....that's were I got most of mine.
I loved his historical characters El Borak is one of my favorites behind Kane and Bran Mak Morn, his westerns aren't bad either not really my cup of tea though....but where I think he really shines is his Horror..Pigeons from Hell must be one of the all time great horror stories.


PS Solomon Kane (movie) does not follow any of Howards work but at least you can see the influence unlike the other one I mentioned above.

[illmade2]

For anyone who hasn't read Howard you can find Pigeons from Hell here, along with many of his other stories including Solomon Kane..
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600721.txt

[Dotanuki]

Actually I was talking about the stories of Tamurlane and other true historical personages set mainly in Medieval times.

They are supposed to be releasing soon, the collected works of Robert E. Howard, all of his published stories in one book. It will be on the expensive side though.

One of the scariest stories they ever had on the old Boris Karloff's Thriller series was "Pigeons from Hell", it wasn't till much later I found that Howard wrote it. He was suppossed to be good friends with H.P. Lovecraft also.

[illmade2]

Sorry I thought you meant his his "fictional" historical characters, if that isn't a oxymoron, El Borak was very loosely based on Lawrence of Arabia, but yes I love the stories you mean too..
R.E. and H.P. were pen pals back in the day when that implied something of a friendship. He also corresponded with Clark Ashton Smith all three wrote for Weird Tales at one time or another. If you would like to read a very good fictional story of the three together and saving the world from Cthulhu check out Shadows Bend by David Barbour.

A complete collection would be great but far out of my budget I'm sure..I'll just stick to my moldering paper backs for now...

PS you can find Clark Ashton Smiths work here http://www.eldritchdark.com/

[Torawashi]

Illmade; if you're not already a fan, you need to start reading David Gemmell's books. He writes what is called "Heroic" or "Military" fantasy and is about the best author of that genre I've ever read. His character Druss swings a mean double headed axe and most of his books are set in a medieval type era. He also has written some ancient Greek fantasy and historical fiction novels and his "Jerusalem Man" character reminds me very much of Solomon Kane. He was a British writer who unfortunately died a couple of years ago, but luckily for us he wrote lots of great books before he passed on. If you haven't read any of his writing, give him a shot. You'll be hooked.

[illmade2]

Already a fan, Druss is one of my favorite characters in fantasy.

[bobO]

Thanks for the heads up fella's. Just read my first Stephen Hunter book "The 47th Ronin" Not bad.

[zentredi]

ah yes conan, soloman kane two of my favorites. i have been a fan of howard since childhood the darker aspect of his stories always made his characters seem more real to me. been looking to replace my collection since it literally wore out. hope this movie is bettor than the others.