You better believe it. And I’ve been informed by one of my dear nephews that the Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian) character is going to be an action movie hero next year.

According to the Weird Tales blog:

“An earlier [than Conan] WEIRD TALES series starred Solomon Kane, a Puritan warrior who traveled the globe battling the evils of the 16th century with sword, knife, and pistol. In 2008, Kane will get his own Hollywood blockbuster starring James Purefoy (Rome, A Knight’s Tale) — and director Michael J. Bassett has just released the first look at the movie’s teaser poster.”

Here are the (as far as I’m aware) unbowdlerized* original stories, collected in The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. I like the cover copy:

“Collected in this volume, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, are all of the stories and poems that make up the thrilling saga of the dour and deadly Puritan, Solomon Kane. Together they constitute a sprawling epic of weird fantasy adventure that stretches from sixteenth-century England to remote African jungles where no white man has set foot. Here are shudder-inducing tales of vengeful ghosts and bloodthirsty demons, of dark sorceries wielded by evil men and women, all opposed by a grim avenger armed with a fanatic’s faith and a warrior’s savage heart.”

And here is James Purefoy’s IMDb page.

Now, I’m off to bed a bit early to start reading Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel (my first time reading Sherwood!)

*bowdlerize
tr.v. bowd·ler·ized, bowd·ler·iz·ing, bowd·ler·iz·es
1. To expurgate (a book, for example) prudishly.
2. To modify, as by shortening or simplifying or by skewing the content in a certain manner.

(from The Free Dictionary.)