After his own attempt to adapt Lord of the Rings fell through, filmmaker John Boorman (Zardoz, Exorcist II: The Heretic) decided to bring his own unique sensibilities to the legend of King Arthur. Together with screenwriting partner Rospo Pallenberg he crafted a cinematic adaptation that covers the whole of the Arthurian legend, from his conception to his downfall, largely adapting Sir Thomas Mallory's Le morte d'Arthur.

Intended as a "family picture", Wizards evolved into an idiosyncratic work mixing a variety of tones and animation styles into one piece of counterculture art. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where nuclear holocaust has resulted in a return of magic, elves, and fairies, Wizards tells the tale of sibling spellcasters Avatar and Blackwolf and the war of their nations of Montagar and Scortch. When Blackwolf discovers the lost art of Nazi propaganda to motivate his armies of goblins and monsters, Avatar must journey with a small band of heroes to destroy his brother's film projector.

Debuting in the pages of pulp magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s, Conan the Barbarian was devised by his creator Robert E. Howard to express a philosophy of rugged individualism, unhindered freedom, and a critical view of modern ideals of civilization and progress. The character's popularity had surged thanks to the Frank Frazetta illustrated paperback editions of the 1960s, and the Marvel comics adaptation of the 1970s, and so the film rights were snapped up by legendary producer Dino de Laurentiis.