Conan the King?

[Mordar]

Hi all -

So, the news is making the rounds that Conan is getting another go'round at the theaters. Arnold is back as the titular barbarian...likely as an aging king in The Legend of Conan.

Now, I know for many there will be an automatic "No! Too old, too cheesey, too long away from the gym and the big screen"...but I am hopeful.

As I recall, The Phoenix on the Sword was the first Howard Conan story to see print, and it featured an aging King, sitting on the throne of Aquilonia. Disenchanted by life at court, and disgusted by the back-deals and maneuvering of politics, he is "saved" by an assassination attempt. There a nice amount of sword-and-sorcery (Thoth Amon!), limited time in loin clothes, and would only require a modest amount of action from Arnold.

I think (if they follow some variation of this idea, or even the story wherein he goes on a final campaign...forget the name of that one!), they might have a wonderful bookend to Conan the Barbarian, and we can relegate Destroyer and the Jason Momoa film to the back burner.

What say you all?

[turkishproverb]

They should totally cast Jason Momoa as Conan's son. Just to cause continuity fan's heads to spin off and land in the punch bowl with confusion.

[JoshL]

On one hand, that's the movie I've been waiting for ages for! I would totally dig that!

On the other hand, Momoa's Conan was way better than Arnold's. It's a shame everything else about that movie was terrible. But, hey, director of Pathfinder, so what did we expect (caveat: I love Pathfinder. Double Caveat: not because it was in any way good)

[Kobold-Bard]

Originally Posted by Mordar

...

Now, I know for many there will be an automatic "No! Too old, too cheesey, too long away from the gym and the big screen"...but I am hopeful.

...

Who will be saying that? I've seen nothing but unbridled glee from basically everyone I know about this news.

[Lensman]

Trouble is, I can't get the image of Cohen the Barbarian (from Discworld) out of my head...

[Yora]

I think I'll keep an eye on this. Who knows, something good might come out of it.

[Kitten Champion]

I like Howard, but I can't bring myself to like Arnold as an actor. Regardless, I can't muster much enthusiasm. Perhaps the previous versions of Conan have simply soured me on the idea that another film is a good idea.

I think I'd like to see Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser done in film instead, it doesn't have the baggage behind it.. and it's a marvellous series in its own right.

[KillianHawkeye]

I am 100% in favor of a new REAL Conan movie!

[Zen Monkey]

They could do a combination of Phoenix on the Sword and Hour of the Dragon, both dealing with an older Conan already on the throne. Hopefully they keep it true to the original stories. The last film had claims that it would do so, then borrowed extensively from later authors, which is like saying that you're going to make a movie true to the source and then using fan fiction instead. The first movie wasn't entirely true to the original stories, but captured the feel and lessons of the setting very well.

[dehro]

the more I think about it, the more I like this idea..
would be nice to see if Arnie has learned anything in his years in Hollywood, acting-wise (except for banging the maid and hiding it from the wife)
..and it makes actually more sense than I initially thought.
it would also be one of those Palpatine situations..where the actor plays a role 30 years after having played that same role in a younger incarnation despite the older incarnation actually being published first.... like Palpatine, except in reverse.
as for other movies I'd like to see filmified, but not by this director, rather than Fafhr and the Grey Mouser, I'm thinking (Druss the) Legend

[Traab]

Originally Posted by dehro

the more I think about it, the more I like this idea..
would be nice to see if Arnie has learned anything in his years in Hollywood, acting-wise (except for banging the maid and hiding it from the wife)
..and it makes actually more sense than I initially thought.
it would also be one of those Palpatine situations..where the actor plays a role 30 years after having played that same role in a younger incarnation despite the older incarnation actually being published first.... like Palpatine, except in reverse.
as for other movies I'd like to see filmified, but not by this director, rather than Fafhr and the Grey Mouser, I'm thinking (Druss the) Legend

First off, I am looking forward to this movie. Yeah yeah, arnold is old and out of shape. He was old and out of shape before they filmed termintor 3 as well. They have trainers that can bring him back to peak fitness for filming. He will still be old and not even close to as toned, but I dont think he will look that bad.

Secondly, hell to the effin YES for druss the legend. My only concern is, should it be druss the legend? or should they do it as a series and start from the start? You know, lumberjack with a temper, the only girl that calms him down gets snagged by raiders, and he has to run off with a cursed axe to save her? If it does well, then they could turn it into a trilogy. Do Deathwalker next, THEN druss the legend. I still have a hard time picturing who would do the best job in the role. Sean Connery of 15 years ago would have had the face voice and mannerisms perfect, but I dont think he could pull off the man mountain body build. Honestly, we would need a conan type build for the early and mid stories. Possibly an old conan for legend.

[dehro]

Originally Posted by Traab

First off, I am looking forward to this movie. Yeah yeah, arnold is old and out of shape. He was old and out of shape before they filmed termintor 3 as well. They have trainers that can bring him back to peak fitness for filming. He will still be old and not even close to as toned, but I dont think he will look that bad.

Secondly, hell to the effin YES for druss the legend. My only concern is, should it be druss the legend? or should they do it as a series and start from the start? You know, lumberjack with a temper, the only girl that calms him down gets snagged by raiders, and he has to run off with a cursed axe to save her? If it does well, then they could turn it into a trilogy. Do Deathwalker next, THEN druss the legend. I still have a hard time picturing who would do the best job in the role. Sean Connery of 15 years ago would have had the face voice and mannerisms perfect, but I dont think he could pull off the man mountain body build. Honestly, we would need a conan type build for the early and mid stories. Possibly an old conan for legend.

I daresay that Arnie knows enough about fitness and bodybuilding to be his own trainer that's how he got into it in the first place.
as for the actor playing the legend... I'm oddly more concerned about him being able to carry off the beard convincingly than I am about hulking muscles and so on.. I'm thinking Kriss Kristofferson if he were a better actor.. or Jeff Bridges.. in fact, Jeff Bridges could totally pull it off.
as for the order in which to do this.. I'm rather indifferent. I read them in pubblication order, so..Legend first, and knowing how it would end, didn't make the reading of the other books any less enjoyable...but I understand that that's not how movies work, usually. either way I'm not too bothered.
the only reason that makes me say "legend first" is that that's the one I really want to see on screen, and if the other ones do poorly at the box office, whoever will be holding the purse might pull the plug on the main event even before casting is done

[Taranaich]

Originally Posted by Mordar

As I recall, The Phoenix on the Sword was the first Howard Conan story to see print, and it featured an aging King, sitting on the throne of Aquilonia. Disenchanted by life at court, and disgusted by the back-deals and maneuvering of politics, he is "saved" by an assassination attempt. There a nice amount of sword-and-sorcery (Thoth Amon!), limited time in loin clothes, and would only require a modest amount of action from Arnold.

"Phoenix" was set shortly after Conan seized the throne, which would make him in his early forties:

Conan was about forty when he seized the crown of Aquilonia, and was about forty-four or forty-five at the time of "The Hour of the Dragon."
- Robert E. Howard, Letter to P.S. Miller

Howard never wrote a Conan story set after "The Hour of the Dragon," though de Camp and Carter wrote a fair few, including Conan of the Isles, where he was in his sixties.

It's better to place Howard's Conan and Arnold's Conan in completely separate continuities, the same way it's better to treat the various versions of Frankenstein, Batman, Dracula, Tarzan, James Bond and Sherlock Holmes in their own universes. Since the 1982 film had little to nothing to do with Howard's work, why would you expect this film to be any different?

[Traab]

Originally Posted by dehro

I daresay that Arnie knows enough about fitness and bodybuilding to be his own trainer that's how he got into it in the first place.
as for the actor playing the legend... I'm oddly more concerned about him being able to carry off the beard convincingly than I am about hulking muscles and so on.. I'm thinking Kriss Kristofferson if he were a better actor.. or Jeff Bridges.. in fact, Jeff Bridges could totally pull it off.
as for the order in which to do this.. I'm rather indifferent. I read them in pubblication order, so..Legend first, and knowing how it would end, didn't make the reading of the other books any less enjoyable...but I understand that that's not how movies work, usually. either way I'm not too bothered.
the only reason that makes me say "legend first" is that that's the one I really want to see on screen, and if the other ones do poorly at the box office, whoever will be holding the purse might pull the plug on the main event even before casting is done

Good point about arnie, though I still would expect him to hire people, external motivation is always helpful. As for the beard, thats why I said Sean. Dude could rock a greying beard and his accent would have been perfect. Tell me you cant hear this in Sean Connerys voice, "Where you come from the mountains may tremble when you break wind, but as far as i am concerned, you are just another pot bellied savage that couldnt find his own %^& with both hands and a map tattooed to your thigh!" Picture it as his dragonheart voice.

Honestly, the biggest problem would be drumming up interest. I am not certain how popular gemmels work is in the main stream, but Druss is definitely the character to take the first step with. He is larger than life and I am drooling over being able to see some of those scenes on film with the right special effects behind it. If they did succeed, we could bring in all sorts of other characters. Waylander for example, is another trilogy at least. There are a number of interesting stand alone novels like Winter Warriors.

God, winter warriors, you could do an expendables style casting job to really add to the meaning behind it. Aging warriors being pushed aside for the newer, younger entrants, they can still kick 50 times the ass of the new guys, but are slowing down a bit due to the passage of time. They are off on one last grand adventure and they intend to see it done right. They arent gods, or golden heroes, they are men who happen to be the best at what they do. Fill it up with the older big names. The guys who pulled in massive audiences in their days, have a gigantic list of film credits, and this is their chance to show the world, they can still do the job. They can act rings around the new faces, and they can still pull in the crowds.

[dehro]

Originally Posted by Traab

Good point about arnie, though I still would expect him to hire people, external motivation is always helpful. As for the beard, thats why I said Sean. Dude could rock a greying beard and his accent would have been perfect.

agreed...but the man is both too old and officially retired...and he should have broader shoulders to play Druss
frankly, every book by Gemmell with the exception of the Troy books which I haven't read and don't care to..are eminently filmable..
I can just picture a younger Clint Eastwood playing Waylander..it's got pale rider written all over it.

anyway, we're hogging the wrong thread, I fear

[Hawriel]

I'm actually exited that Arnold is making movies again. I think Arnold being an old Conan has allot of story potential.

As far as Momoa, he was the only thing good about that "Conan" movie. It's to bad they could not make a new movie around him.

[Socratov]

I just hope they will follow the story of PTerry's "Interesting Times" with Cohen the barbarian... should be fun and awesome.

[dehro]

Originally Posted by Socratov

I just hope they will follow the story of PTerry's "Interesting Times" with Cohen the barbarian... should be fun and awesome.

as much as I like the idea of Arnie playing an older Conan, I wouldn't want him to play Cohen

[Candle Jack]

You'd think after the 2011 movie bombed, they'd consider this well poisoned.

I have nothing against Conan, but how many people really want to see Conan movies?

[Kobold-Bard]

Originally Posted by Candle Jack

You'd think after the 2011 movie bombed, they'd consider this well poisoned.

I have nothing against Conan, but how many people really want to see Conan movies?

Specifically it's an Arnie Conan movie, which will do well due to nostalgia. Non-Arnie Conan movies wouldn't be being considered.

[Candle Jack]

Originally Posted by Kobold-Bard

Specifically it's an Arnie Conan movie, which will do well due to nostalgia. Non-Arnie Conan movies wouldn't be being considered.

I wouldn't bet on nostalgia raking in more than $50 million.

The original Conan the Barbarian came out 30 years ago. Thirty years ago. A good number of people who saw it are now dead.

[Mordar]

Originally Posted by Candle Jack

I wouldn't bet on nostalgia raking in more than $50 million.

The original Conan the Barbarian came out 30 years ago. Thirty years ago. A good number of people who saw it are now dead.

Ouch.

Just as a minor refutation, Star Wars come out in 1977. Thirty-five years ago. Even more people who saw it are now dead. Others...well, not so much. Lots of excitement about that...

[Freely admit this is comparing moonrocks to Death Stars, but you get my point )

[turkishproverb]

Originally Posted by Candle Jack

I wouldn't bet on nostalgia raking in more than $50 million.

The original Conan the Barbarian came out 30 years ago. Thirty years ago. A good number of people who saw it are now dead.

The film is probably more popular now. it's gained a big cult following.

[Hawriel]

Originally Posted by Candle Jack

I wouldn't bet on nostalgia raking in more than $50 million.

The original Conan the Barbarian came out 30 years ago. Thirty years ago. A good number of people who saw it are now dead.

You do realize your posting on a forum that is focused on humor based on D&D right?

Do I need to explain the impact of sword and sorcery movies such as Conan The Destroyer have on how at least two generations of D&D players envision their games? Not to mention the whole area of sword and sorcery genre had on Gygax and Allston.

The people who saw this movie ether in the theater or afterwords on VHS are not old and decrepit. We are in are 30s and early 40s now.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Hawriel

You do realize your posting on a forum that is focused on humor based on D&D right?

Do I need to explain the impact of sword and sorcery movies such as Conan The Destroyer have on how at least two generations of D&D players envision their games? Not to mention the whole area of sword and sorcery genre had on Gygax and Allston.

The people who saw this movie ether in the theater or afterwords on VHS are not old and decrepit. We are in are 30s and early 40s now.

Plus the cult following it developed in general.

[Candle Jack]

Originally Posted by Hawriel

You do realize your posting on a forum that is focused on humor based on D&D right?

Do I need to explain the impact of sword and sorcery movies such as Conan The Destroyer have on how at least two generations of D&D players envision their games? Not to mention the whole area of sword and sorcery genre had on Gygax and Allston.

Hey, man, I can recite Thulsa Doom's "secret of steel" speech from memory. I've seen Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer dozens of times. I used to devour Conan comics when I was a kid.

But we got to face facts. The 2011 Conan bombed, and while it wasn't exactly a great film, it hit all the notes a Conan movie is supposed to hit — swords, sorcery, bloodletting and attractive half-naked ladies.

This movie ain't gonna work. Modern audiences won't go see a Conan movie.

[dehro]

I'm 34.. I'm going to watch it.
no, I didn't go watch the 2011 one.
I'm going to watch it for the same reasons I've watched the Expendables, for the same reasons I've watched the DnD movies despite knowing in advance how bad they'd be.
I'm going to watch it for the same reasons I've religiously watched the Star Wars prequels..all 3 of them, despite having watched the first one.
I dare say I won't be alone at the theatre

[Tiki Snakes]

Originally Posted by Candle Jack

Hey, man, I can recite Thulsa Doom's "secret of steel" speech from memory. I've seen Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer dozens of times. I used to devour Conan comics when I was a kid.

But we got to face facts. The 2011 Conan bombed, and while it wasn't exactly a great film, it hit all the notes a Conan movie is supposed to hit — swords, sorcery, bloodletting and attractive half-naked ladies.

This movie ain't gonna work. Modern audiences won't go see a Conan movie.

The 2011 movie bombed because it was transparently a terrible movie. I, like the vast majority of people, did not go near it with a ten foot pole after seeing the trailers.

This has nothing to do with whether or not it was a conan movie. There is a chance, depending on how they handle it, that this new Conan film could be a genuine cinematic event.

Just as equally it could be a cringe-worthy abomination just like the 2011 film. This depends entirely on the quality of work done on the film and not at all on the fact that it's a conan movie. Likewise, if Arnie is an asset or a liability is purely down to Arnie himself (and the director, scriptwriter etc).

[Yora]

The new Star Trek movie has fans. So why not a Conan movie?

[Philistine]

I wouldn't say I'm optimistic about this, exactly, but it definitely has a chance to turn into something really, really cool. Aging gunfighterwarrior-king takes on one last jobsupernatural invader? Sounds a lot like the plot to one of my all-time favorite films.

But the most important thing the new movie needs, IMO, is an amazing score. That was probably the biggest thing the first movie had going for it at release - and now is a major part of the reason Conan the Barbarian feel so much less dated than, say, Highlander.