For anyone interested, I wrote up the history of this production from the original 1982 announcement to the version director Albert Pyun released (hitting DVD in the US via Lionsgate today). I was even able to talk with the man about it. Here it is if you are interested.
http://originalvidjunkie.blogspot.com/2012/01/never-got-made-files-71- tales-about.html
Good article.
I was about five years old when The Sword And The Sorcerer was released. Wanting to see it badly and being denied on account of it's R-rating, my mother bought my brother and I one of the film's few (if any other) toy tie-ins, a cheap plastic sword from a no-name company, zip-tied to an official Sword And The Sorcerer cardboard backing. I always wondered why they never went ahead with a sequel.
Although I mildly enjoyed it, finding it hard to become outraged over a B-movie sequel and having a soft spot for Albert Pyun, I think Tales Of An Ancient Empire should be studied in film-schools as what your movie might end up looking like if you run out of money half-way.
The first indication that the film's budget wasn't there should have been the fact that they couldn't afford Lee Horsley. Seriously, I haven't seen him in anything since his TV-series "Paradise" was cancelled in the late-eighties! Kevin Sorbo must've been a steal.
I have to hand it to Pyun though. His scheme of getting a zero-interest loan by selling DVD pre-orders, then refunding the money after inking a distribution deal, is absolutely brilliant!