The City Watch are battening down the hatches, and the vultures are circling the Tree of Woe: Marcus Nispel's revivified Conan has a release date. Expect him to crush his enemies on August 19 2011.
It's perhaps not surprising, given the $100m budget, that Lionsgate should want to give Conan maximum summer blockbuster exposure. But it does suggest studio confidence in a film that nobody would have been much surprised to see snuck out in the quiet winter months. This way, the barbarian arrives (assuming day-and-date release parity in the UK, which we possibly shouldn't) the same day as Spy Kids 4 and 21 Jump Street. In the US it'll also face Fright Nigh****t, but we don't get that here until the end of October.
In terms of the wider release schedule, Captain America and the last Harry Potter will be safely out of the way, having opened a month previously (Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Pirates 4 and Hangover 2 will have happened even earlier) and Conan will be debuting a week after Cowboys and Aliens and Mr Popper's Penguins, and the week before Fivenal Destination.
Reasonable late-summer space for Jason Momoa to flex his muscles then. The film has been shot in 3D (reports of flakey Clash of the Titans-style post-conversions are incorrect - thanks to Lionsgate for the clarification) and co-stars Ron Perlman, Stephen Lang, Rachel Nichols and Rose McGowan.