Robert E. Howard came up with the idea of Conan the Barbarian 1932. It's now 78 years later, and they are talking about making a new Conan movie. My understanding of the copyright laws is that 75 years after creation, the copyright to a particular work is over. However, the Conan name has been generating new works the whole time since then as books and movies and comics.
So, what I'm wondering is: now that the original Conan copyright is up, do the people who are making the new movie have to answer to anybody? Or do the intermediate authors have some kind of copyright hold on the name since they presumably had permission to use the character and name in their work which is still under copyright?
Or is the name free for all to use now, but the stories in the stuff that is still under copyright can't be used without permission?
I'm just wondering. The whole copyright thing is a bit weird.