Michael J. Bassett’s Solomon Kane blazed through cinemas earlier this year with an enjoyable blend of swordfighting and supernatural forces, and now the film is about to find its home on Blu-ray and DVD.

We’re giving you the chance to win one of three copies of the film on Blu-ray.

Our review of the film is here, and you can listen to our interview with the star of Solomon Kane James Purefoy here to get a flavour of what to expect.

All you have to do is answer the following question using the form below.

Which writer created Solomon Kane?

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only.
• Only one entry per household will be counted.
• The competition will close Monday 28th June (release date) at 23.59 GMT.
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received.

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

©2009 Epic Tales Limited, Davis Films Productions S.A.S., Czech Anglo

We decided that the release of Solomon Kane this Friday, 19th Feburary was so exciting that one competion just simply wasnt enough! If you haven’t already, you can check out our competition to win a signed Solomon Kane poster, and now we’ve been given 3 copies of the novelisation courtesy of Titan Books.

Solomon Kane is a sixteenth century adventurer and mercenary; but when Kane meets the Devil’s Reaper, he postpones his fate by renouncing violence and takes up life as a Puritan. But his vow is soon tested by the forces of evil, and Kane once again straps on his weapons to embark on an epic journey of redemption.  Written by master horror and fantasy author Ramsey Campbell, this official novelisation gives readers the full story of the film and more, with extra scenes not featured on screen.

Question: Which film is James Purefoy currently filming which is being directed by Pixar legend, Andrew Stanton?

User the form below to enter.

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only.
• Only one entry per household will be counted.
• The competition will close Friday 26th February at 23.59 GMT.
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received.

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

Last week HeyUGuys were invited to a round table interview with James Purefoy, star of Rome, Ironclad and Solomon Kane.

During the course of the interview Purefoy went into a great deal of detail about Solomon Kane, talking about how the story came about, the difficulties of filming in Eastern Europe during the winter, and some of the unfortunate accidents that happened on set, when overworked actors are asked to go hell for leather with big , shiny swords.

He also discussed Ironclad, John Carter of Mars and who would win in a fight between Kane and Conan.

The interview is embedded in full* below. As well as myself and Purefoy, the other voices you will hear are David from Geek Syndicate, and Rob from Orange Film. There may be the occasional piece of strong language, but nothing shocking.

Solomon Kane is released on Friday. You can read our review here.

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/podcast/James_Purefoy_Solomon_Kane.mp3"] HeyUGuys meets James Purefoy: [/gplayer]

*The recording has had a very slight (unskilled) edit, to remove a couple of awkward pauses. None of the content or context of the interview has been removed.

This Friday, Solomon Kane is set to hit cinema screens with a bang and to tide us over for that week, we have some great new images from the movie which stars James Purefoy, Robert E. Howard, Pete Postlethwaite, Max von Sydow and is directed by Michael J. Bassett. If you haven’t already seen it, you can check out the trailer here and enter our competition to win a signed Solomon Kane poster.

Plot: Solomon Kane is hoped to be the first of a trilogy of movies. When the story opens Kane is a mercenary of Queen Elizabeth I fighting in Africa, but after an encounter with a demon, The Reaper, he realizes he must seek redemption or have his soul damned to Hell. He returns to England and lives a life of peace, converting to puritanism, but soon the doings of an evil sorcerer upset his plans and he must take up arms again.

Solomon Kane is released this Friday, 19th February.

Solomon Kane starts out reasonably enough. Within the first ten minutes there’s a naval battle, haunted mirrors and James Purefoy, snarling like a lunatic. It’s daft and makes very little sense, but it’s also fun, that peaks just before the opening credits, with Purefoy’s Kane leaping through a window to escape being dragged to the depths of hell.

Unfortunately, post credits the film takes a severe downturn. To

avoid his infernal fate, Kane has renounced violence and found God. He’s also become one of the most tedious characters ever committed to celluloid.

For the next ninety minutes Kane mopes around a fictionalised England, where towns are adorned with hanged corpses, and witch-burnings are a fun spectator sport. This basic idea could actually have worked, even taking into account the fact that the baddies are essentially cast-offs from Lord of the Rings, but writer/director, Michael J Bassett, has stripped the film of any real passion.

Instead the picture is monotonous, and just as it seems to find its feet, and feel like the fun action romp it should have been, it stumbles and becomes dreary and dull.

Much of this is a product of the film being yet another origin story. By insisting on explaining every trait the character has, it gets bogged down in its own mythology, and loses much of its narrative thrust.

At 104 minutes the film has ample time to tie up loose ends, or at the very least, make sense. It fails to do so. There’s no real explanation why Kane is condemned to hell, and there are several story threads that need a justification, and fail to find one. Instead, Bassett fills the movie with countless ‘cool’ action shots that serve absolutely no purpose, and in many cases disrupt the story telling. If he were making a standard, dumb action movie, this wouldn’t be a problem, but in trying to be more, Solomon Kane draws attention to these failings.

In addition to this, Purefoy is criminally misused. He is by far one of the most charismatic actors working today, and ordinarily he’s an absolute joy to watch. As Marc Anthony, he was the best thing in Rome, and in the BBC mini-series Beau Brummell: This Charming Man and Blackbeard: Terror at Sea he showed quite clearly that he’s a top-notch leading man. The film could have been vastly improved by allowing him to use his natural charm, but instead he’s hemmed in at every turn.

With a more commercially-minded director Solomon Kane could have been an enjoyable action movie, in the vein of Willow. As it stands, it’s an absolute dirge. That said, as bad as this film is, it picks up a little towards the end, as Kane finds himself, and Purefoy is finally allowed to make the character his own. It’s a real shame that the filmmakers didn’t have the confidence to start at this point, as it would certainly have allowed them to tell a more exciting story.

To celebrate the release of Solomon Kane, James Purefoy’s tale of swords and sorcery, we’re giving you the chance to win a signed Solomon Kane poster.

Solomon Kane was created by Robert E. Howard and the film is directed by Michael J. Bassett and also stars Laura Baranik, Mackenzie Crook, and Pete Postlethwaite and you can read our review on HeyUGuys soon.

Solomon Kane is released in UK cinemas February 19th and the official website is here: www.solomonkanethemovie.com

All you have to do is answer the following question,

In which forthcoming movie does Solomon Kane star James Purefoy wield an enormous sword?

Please use the form below to enter the competition and include your postal address.

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close Friday 19th February at 23.59 GMT
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

IN CINEMAS FEBRUARY 19

© 2009 EPIC TALES LIMITED, DAVIS FILM PRODUCTIONS S.A.S. CZECH ANGLO PRODUCTIONS SRO

A whole host of new clips and a behind the scenes look of Solomon Kane have been released over on the movie’s official website (embedded below). Solomon Kane stars James Purefoy, Robert E. Howard, Pete Postlethwaite, Max von Sydow and is directed by Michael J. Bassett. It’s set for release 19th February.

Plot: The movie tells the origins of Solomon Kane and is hoped to be the first of a trilogy of movies. When the story opens Kane is a mercenary of Queen Elizabeth I fighting in Africa, but after an encounter with a demon, The Reaper, he realizes he must seek redemption or have his soul damned to Hell. He returns to England and lives a life of peace, converting to puritanism, but soon the doings of an evil sorcerer upset his plans and he must take up arms again.

French website, IMP Awards, have released a new poster (click the image to enlarge) for the movie, Solomon Kane which stars James Purefoy. It’s directed by Michael J. Bassett and also stars Laura Baranik, Mackenzie Crook, and Pete Postlethwaite.

The text at the top of the poster reads, ‘Combattre Le Mal Par Le Mal’ which means ‘Fighting evil with evil’.

Wikipedia gives more info on the man himself: Solomon Kane was created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A 16th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms. His adventures, published mostly in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, often take him from Europe to the jungles of Africa and back.

We can expect to see it on our screens, 5th February 2010.

The chief executive of Paradox Entertainment (Fredrik Malmberg) has revealed in an interview with www.Fantasy.fr that a new Kull movie is going into production.

For those who are unaware Kull is the first character created by Robert E. Howard (father of the sword and sorcery fantasy sub-genre) back in 1929. Kull is in fact a precursor to Howard’s most popular character Conan the Barbarian. After Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to return for a third Conan movie back in the ’90s, the proposed film was reworked into the awful Kull the Conqueror starring Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys).

This announcement comes as no surprise as Paradox Entertainment own the licenses to most of Howard’s characters (the only exclusion being Red Sonya) and currently have four films based on these characters set for release over the next few years. These are Solomon Kane, Vultures, Conan, and Conan: Red Nails (animated). Hopefully this time around the Kull film does justice to the character.