Paradox Entertainment, owner of The Legend of Conan and other Robert E. Howard intellectual properties, has been acquired by Cabinet Holdings.
In a perfect world, Arnold Schwarzenegger really should have finished The Legend of Conan by now. He was considering his third Conan the Barbarian film just before he was elected governor. Then the 2014 release date was pushed back so the new script could be finished. Now the crew is scouting film locations but might face another shake-up – Paradox Entertainment, the company that owns the Conan the Barbarian‘s intellectual property, has been purchased by Cabinet Holdings. Whether that will be a good or bad thing for The Legend of Conan remains to be seen, but with the film so early in production some impact is likely.
Paradox Entertainment isn’t just Conan‘s IP holder – it owns multiple Robert E. Howard’s properties, including Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Conquerer, and Solomon Kane. Paradox also owns various tabletop miniature and role-playing games, including Mutant Chronicles, Kult, and Chronopia. Over the past decade, Paradox Entertainment produced several films based on its properties, such as Solomon Kane, Mutant Chronciles, and the 2011 Conan the Barbarian reboot. Paradox is also producing Legend of Conan, which hopes to conclude the story of the 1982 original.
What’s really interesting is that the Paradox acquisition is almost a return to previous ownership. The company was founded by Fredrik Malmberg, who left in 2014 to become an independent film producer. Malmberg went on to found Cabinet Holdings, which with this acquisition brings all his original properties back under one umbrella. From that perspective, it’s the CEOs that are changing hands more than the actual Conan IP – but as long as Legend of Conan is underway I doubt most fans will be concerned.
