The legend of Conan

Hello , are there any informations or details on that movie sequel?
I really hope they will not screw it up as the Momoa stupid movie or the idiotic sequel like Indiana Jones V...

I've not heard any new news about the film for months now and seeing as Arnold has just finished Expendables 3,Maggie and is about to start shooting yet another Terminator film the future looks bleak for Conan. We may have to endure another steaming pile like 2011s rehash.

I dont know why Arnold is so obsessed with making more Terminators, the dismal T3 was a waste and that movie he chose to do before Conan. He shouldve did Conan 3 and get Milius onboard.

I agree.I mean the original Terminator was excellent but how many do we need? Arnold must know that Conan is the film most of his fans are screaming out for so you'd think he'd want to get right in. Sadly due to big John's health it would be almost impossible for him to now direct it but i am sure he could do producer and should certainly have some input. His script is all caught up in rights issues so again so that's out. If you watch the documentary Millius and listen to his thoughts and plans for Conan parts 2 and 3 they truly would have been the epics to end all epics.

I truly think the moment has past sadly.

The Crown of Iron script was OK, granted it was an early treatment but I dont think it was super great. Personally I'd rather them film the Milius 1st draft of CTB that was still loosely based on Stone's, that wouldve been really cool, just rework it for an older Conan. Crown of Iron was definitely a passing of the torch to a younger actor. Stone's script was Thundar the Barbarian and Planet of the Apes(mutants) but I enjoyed some parts of it and I think Milius made a better version in his 1st draft.

Cromulus The Destroyer wrote:

The Crown of Iron script was OK, granted it was an early treatment but I dont think it was super great. Personally I'd rather them film the Milius 1st draft of CTB that was still loosely based on Stone's, that wouldve been really cool, just rework it for an older Conan. Crown of Iron was definitely a passing of the torch to a younger actor. Stone's script was Thundar the Barbarian and Planet of the Apes(mutants) but I enjoyed some parts of it and I think Milius made a better version in his 1st draft.

Yes. It was probably way hard to shoot, since it still involved massive battles and lots of complicated action-scenes. The Battle of the Mounds was quite different than what we saw on the movie, with Conan leading the whole army of Osric and stuff. Way out of budget apparently. Milius' rewritting on the subsequent drafts was all about adjusting the script to the current budget but also gave more deep to the characters (specially Thulsa-Doom) which was a quite nice addition. Stone's characters were too unidimensional and boring.

Honestly, I persoanlly would insist on filming Conan The Barbarian 1st Draft and add in the 2nd/3rd Draft and thus making Conan The Barbarian from scratch its been so long since CTB which is still a stand a lone movie without proper sequels and not even a  good remake since then. By the time Arnold decides to make Conan The Legend, it is doubtful the writers would turn out a good script and a good enough director be chosen that Arnold would react well with and actually be bossed around by where there is no timid performances and Arnold is just being lazy and insisting on more humor be added to the movie to accommodate his personality.  Arnold is not a young man anymore, even if he juices up for the role and wears a wig, he's not even the same acting wise since 1999 he's been playing very sterile and lackluster characters and his acting all very drawn, tired, delivered like he's doesn't want to be there and just flat. Without the same demeanor the  Conan character would be more like you see in CTD but worse and T3 was a parody of himself seen in T2.  even in old age, Conan is ageless, he's not a normal being which I think Milius and many of these studio suits dont realize. There is no passing of the torch, there is no aging Conan there is only Conan.

I dont really know if Vernhoven is right these days, the guy hasnt made a good movie since Total Recall and he's always going off the deep end exploring his own perverted  sexual excesses and human degeneracy. Not sure whats up with him, he turned out Robocop and Total Recall and made shit after.

I have to agree on your opinion on Arnold's acting. I share the same fear. He's not into it anymore at all. Milus made him bleed, literally, and he agreed and put all his heart into it since he had a lot to win and nothing to loose... but as soon he assured his status he gave up on working hard. He sorta feels being Arnold is more than enough so he just puts his face and spits a cheap joke once in a while. "T3" was shameful and he apparently didn't give a goddam, he just wanted to do a self-promo and that was more than enough for him so it's easy to asume he doesn't care at all about the quality of the movies he do. He doesn't need to be Dustin Hoffman, but, well, he absolutely shows no interest at all for the artistic values of the product (wonder if he ever truly cared). The "Conan the Legend" speeches he gave doesn't bring much more hope... he only speaks about doing a ticket hit, like Spiderman or Batman, but he doesn't give a line about what he wishes to bring to the character or to the story. If he in some way or another ends taking too much control on the project, it will surely be a piece of shit.

As you say, what's needed is a director who has enough personality to boss Arnold around, and don't let him (and nobody) to step on his line. A veteran guy is needed, and if he worked with Arnold in the past, the better. Verhoeven is not a bad choice under the current circunstances, but it's true after "Total Recall" he lost it. I don't think "Total Recall" was actually at the same serious-movie level as "Robocop", indeed, but just a funny parody or comic-book adventure for teenagers. That's not really what Conan needs. The tone of "Robocop" on the other hand was quite good, and "Flesh and Blood" had it's moments and the tone was indeed quite Miliusian.

Arnold also highly respects Cameron, who is actually an excellent director. But he surely would do a CGI Hyborian age ala Avatar crap instead of working with actual locations and sets as he did on his 80s and early 90s movies. He was excellent there, why the hell he chose to lost his genious into CGI nothingness I will never understand.

Ridley Scott would do an interesting "Legend of Conan", with impeccable visuals. He would use CGI only on the extrictly necessary and give a tone of awesome elegance to the film. But he would also spice it with a ludicrous script and idiotic plot holes and retarded acting. An impeccable package full of nothing. Still I wonder what the hell would he do with Arnold, in visual terms. Would be interesting -and shitty, yet interesting-.

Stone... could be... After all he wrote the very first script and was very into the character (in his own way that is).
Problem is 90% of his movies are so bad sometimes are good... and sometimes are just bad as cancer.

Peter Jackson... A puritan Hyborian age with no erotism? Nope thanks. Even though his KingKong characterization was quite good, brutal and savage and yet honorable as Conan should be... But the guy has a serious problem with realistic action scenes, and Conan truly needs crude and believable violence. And erotism. He seem unable to do neither, he is just too childish...

In my highly delusional perfect choices to tame Ahnuld would be Eastwood (the Clint of at least 10 years ago, that is) to "Unforgive" Conan... Or even Mel Gibson (wonder if Arnold would really have the balls to piss off Gibson   ).

Yes Crown of Iron was a first draft but it had some fantastic lines and moments to it. Especially Mako's character the Wizard. I have read it a few time and at first it took me a while to get into it,but now i really love it. I don't really agree it was a wholly passing of the torch affair but one has to be realistic. This is a film with real people not a book nor comic so if the chosen actor has some limitation ,ie Arnold's age then some compromise has to be made to work with it. If you haven't seen the Milius documentary he talks of his plans for the character in two sequels and they would have been amazing. You can see John was truly sad he was never able to make them.

I agree with you guys about Arnold's acting later one. None of his later films have the impact of his early stuff before he became bigger than his name. As for director's if John can't do it (and no doubt now he can't) for me there is but one sound choice, Mel Gibson. Enough said.

Well we wont have Mako, Connery or Poledouris and likely wont have Milius and not sure who they have in mind for art  stuff, Cobb likely not either. I cant see Bergman or Lopez being brought back in either without Milius involvement

Milius was bent on Triple H taking over Conan and when Arnold dropped out, he was trying to move on with Triple H in the role instead of as his son.  The Matrix bros lost whatever powers" they had as all their movies aside of the Matrix dudded out and they were no longer "hot". After that King Conan completely fell apart at the WB. Both whether it was Milius, Matrix Bros or Arnold himself, even The Rock was a candidate to take over the role of Conan , ether with the name Conan or this "Kon" stuff. So it was definitely  a passing of the torch, Arnold probably wouldve died one his stupid End of days or T2 deaths by King Conan II to have the younger meat take over -  there was even talk of a Conan TV series. So there was a lot of commercialization .

Jackson's LOTR are not faithful adaptations of Tolkien's works and the movies got progressively worse each sequel, story wise, action sequences and effects. They're just good popcorn flicks and deliver modern Hollywood epics which is a lot of cgi and the grandiose. Personally I would not want him near Conan unless he's helping getting it made behind the scenes. But even producers have say in the vision. I dont know about Guilarmo del Toro ,  I have no idea how his vision of The Hobbit was, was it better or just bad or worse than Jacksons?! lol

Personally as its 2014 and Conan the Legend , if it gets made by 2016 and doesnt dud out, so many years have passed now since 1982. I dont want to see the Conan series stagnate as its been doing. I dont think the rights holders are any good, never did, they were all bark and no action and whatever action they did deliver was a piss poor imitation of CTB the movie and the  marvel or dark horse comic. I dont think you have the actors today, you'll be left with some beach boy the studio would give roids to for 6 months and have him personally trained and these are the sorta stars today.

It isnt likely they'll remake Stones/Milius CTB, they tried with that Jason whats his face and failed miserably. I'd like to see Conan movies be made also closer to Howard's stories. Milius' story and interpretation I dont think was particularly Conan and Arnold does not match Howard's description of Conan. Sticking to the 1982 movie and Arnold here in 2014 is not a good idea, it also keeps the series and character with set expiration and retirement date with no room for growth. We need a series of atleast 8 movies and there is much in the Age of Conan and those short stories that need to be explored. It is highly unlikely they'll make a movie adaptation of The Hour of the Dragon, and if they do, it likely would not be any good.

A Howardian series of movies is a fan's wet dream, and I don't think that is completely impossible in the future... After all it's a total classic, which some day could be revisited as it deserve. Same with Lovecraft, still needs a propper adaptation. I think it could be made someday, when the right time comes. Maybe when the world's mentality changes and matures a little bit more, to accept the darkness of those old pulp yarns. Today the world thinks like a retarded teengaer and we are used to superficiality and "pulp" has turn into a synonym of teenage-minded "pop-corn" with stereotypic evil and no true deep at all. But the Howard and Lovecraft original stories, even though the plot and storylines were very symplistic and formulaic, were quite intense and as psychologically deep as a Kafka yarn. After all the guys who wrote those were borderly insane. You cannot bring that to a "pop-corn" movie, you need to low the darkness tone down. And doing that they loose the original vibration. When the right time comes, when people can aceept there can be deepness and intensity on a "pulp" story, meaning apreciate them as true literature for adults -no matter how the aesthethics- these movies could come to life. Mel Gibson could do it (after all he is as borderly insane as Howard or Lovecraft) but not Guillermo del Toro (he is ver "pulp" on the aesthethics, but the tone of his movies is very childish or teen-minded).

Meanwhile I think bringing a closure to the "Milius' Conan" saga is not a bad thing. "CTB" was not Howard's Conan but is a classic film on its own, which had a very powerful impact on film story on general, even if that was not propperly credited by the academicals. I truly feel the movie could use a conclusion, since it was the way it was originally thought. But things have changed heavily since then (many people died, other's are not avaiable, and the main star changed so much he is actually quite a different person).
Point is, what should be told about this "Milius' Conan" today? And particularly, what can this actual Arnold bring to this particualr story and character?
Well following what we've been chatting about Arnold's today personality, I could translate it to fiction as a King Conan who after achieving everything a man could ever dream, he sort of degenerate and relaxed too much. He lost the nerve of his youth, and civilized life "domesticated" the untamed lion he once was. Twisted politicians used him as a puppet, money and fame turned him into a caricature of who he once was, and deep in his soul HE KNOWS IT. His son is maybe an asshole... His once brilliant kingdom now is a sad decadence, close to the last days of the Roman Empire... Somehow Conan has become what he hated the most, a Thulsadoom who only cares for his ego. And deep inside Conan knows it... and hates himself.
Some shit must happen so Conan needs to hard his ass back to the old discipline of the free warrior. Like Ulises, he needs to loose his throne, fame, position and everything to feel unsafe again and remember what to be a King really means. As a King, he is responsible for his people, and that means he must sacrifice himself for them if needed. He must accept death, accept he is mortal and that there's no real time on life to be an asshole. He must remember where he came from, and how he achieved his triumphs. He must get his hands dirty again, suffer, bleed and struggle again, like when he was on the Wheel and on the Pits.
A cure of humidity for a too egostistic bastard.
And then, the true Conan is back... and recovers what really matters.

"CTB" was conceived by Milius as a Fordian western with barbarians instead of cowboys. I think an "Unforgiven" approach to the saga closure would be the right way. But shit, what screenwritter/director can create a serious fusion of western/samurai/sword&sorcery film which actually works and is not a ridiculous piece of crap?

My 3rd highly delusional choice for this would be Takashi Miike.

I personally do not buy Milius wanting to make 3 Conan movies, all the interviews after CTB came out and just before, was that he was through with the series and the production left him burnt out, he always had very dismissive responses or ambiguous responses in the magazines. Even if he had this trilogy, how is Conan a trilogy? Arnold playing an old man in his 40's by the late 1980's or revisiting the series until "arnold was old enough" some time in the late 90's or early 2000's is ridiculous and like something Lucas would do - doenst make sense to me. Unfortunately Milus only became interested in making Conan 3 after Gladiator had came out. And it seemed more a piggy backing on the resurgence in Hollywood of the genre and how fucked up, Gladiator using the Anvil of Crom in its teaser trailer. However during the 90's Arnold did seem legitimately interested in making a new Conan and even directing it but for one reason or another chose to make one dud after the other and Terminator sequels always took precedence over any new Conan movie and there was never any hints of Milius returning in those days.

Cobb was also at one point interested in directing Conan 2, I wouldve been interested in that. I actually enjoyed CTD's script more than the finished movie as an adult comparing the two some years back now, I also enjoyed Conan 3/Kull script from Pogue. I liked those scripts better than King Conan scipt, found them more engaging and adventurous. I think Milius did read those scripts, and Milius was drawing from DeCamp's King Conan stories as well as well as drawing on the more youthful Ice Worm and Front Giants daughter stories.

The idea of a series of movies was older than Milius' involvement on the project. Not a trilogy, but an unlimited saga of movies ala James Bond. Milius had to writte CTB with that in mind for sure.
The "trilogy" concept was brought by Milius -if I am not wrong- way later, during the "Crown of Iron" years -and maybe inspired by Lucas' or even Jackson's ones-.

Arnold was maked-up for the King in the throne shot in CTB and the make up was good enough. I don't think they were thinking on waiting until Arnold was a grandpa, but using make up and prosthethics. After all, even Arnold's long hair in CTB was fake.

Cobb was interested on directing Conan?
I knew Stout was, and indeed wrote a draft... But I ignored abour Cobb, do you have a source?

Sure its on one of them magazines I've collected, but its from memory right now not gonna go dig - maybe Mighty archived it at some point?!

I think I read all of Mighty's and can't remember such... But since Cobb was second unit director for Milius, it wouldn't be so strange. He was also thinking on directing stuff on 1982.

Hah, they read me and stole my "Unforgiven" idea.     

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/30/the-legend-of-conan-producer-chris-morgan-says-arnold-schwarzeneggers-return-to-the-role-is-going-to-be-their-unforgiven

Unforgiven wasnt exactly a very good action movie, it was more Eastwood wanting an oscar or acting ect which means not a lot of the his old characters and excitement but a lot of melodrama and drawn out conversations and reflections of an old man - the movie was about a burnt out and old gunslinger who only in the last few minutes at the end of the movie kicks any real ass but Gene Hackman stole the movie. Was just Eastwood saying goodbye to the western characters, a hanging the boots up. For all we know it could Arnold as seen in The Last Stand, but instead of the sheriff he's the king,lol. If it was Outlaw Josey Wales or High Plains Drifter mentioned in the article that would spark my interest, but the The Unforgiven comparison doesnt make me jump for joy, it makes me stand offish.

Man that's probably the most negative review of "Unforgiven" I ever read.   

That movie never intented to be an action movie, but a movie. The theme was "what is worth fighting for". The guy was a killer and understood killing is only worth if to defend innocent persons. It was a truly powerful message, cause the movie didn't come into that conclusion in a bland or light-hearted way at all. It's Milius who has been saying for years his last chapter on Conan would be about the "responsability" theme. He indeed pointed it out at CTB ending, when Conan frees all those people from Doom's spell: the character was becoming more and more reflexive as the movie evolved into becoming more and more conscious of the power he has, and the responsability that comes with it. That's what differences a hero from a villain (a selfish Thulsadoom who uses his power only to his benefit). The ending of the Arturian legend was also about that: Arthur becomes selfish and forgets what to be a good king means, send his men to recover the "holy grail" and then Arthur drinks from it and remembers he is responsible for the whole life of his country. It's a classic theme on every hero myth.

Movies where killing is not a big deal aren't usually very adult minded. That's videogame stuff. Do a videogame "Legend of Conan" with grandpa Ahnuld and prepare yourself for a tsunami of absurdity.

And at the very same time I don't think "Legend of Conan" should have action scenes only at the end. At all. It's a Conan movie, I wanna watch him fight from the very fucking start. In any case Arnold doesn't have half the acting habilities of Clint so the script cannot go so much into character developement. It's not about tracing "Unforgiven" script, the "Unforgiven" thing is the perspective you tell the story, and the treatment of the character: the "crepuscular hero" in his last days where he finally understands the true meaning of his life, and the reason why he is the most powerful man in the world: to defend what's pure.

All the "zen" qualities Milius put on the first movie weren't there for free. He wanted his Conan to be on the road of wisdom. Not on the hippy pacifist way, though, but under a warrior's perspective. Milius made a Conan who should become a sort of a "Hercules-Budha", like the famous samurai Mushashi Miyamoto.

I'm not interested in Arnold trying to imitate William Munny's character or King Lear impersonation, Arnold isnt a good enough actor as Eastwood is to be frank, even if he's left little to say and always using his eye brows.  Arnold obsessed with trying to prove he can act lead to his movies from 1999-2002 period starting with End of Days. I rather see the Arnold from the early to mid 80's, if he's too old or feels he's too old, then he should not be attempting to make a movie about an aging ageless and gruff animalistic warrior king that would rather be sacking and looting than wasting away behind a throne. If King Conan is not about an action adventure and high fantasy and severally playing to his age and what he can do now, then what exactly is it about and why do I want to see it?!

If the article even said the movie was gonna be like Heston's Will Penny, that probably would be better,lol.

Say what you want about Red Sonja, but Arnold as Kalidor was perfect, he still had the correct demeanor and characterization movements. CTB was a very bloody movie, Milius cut most of the gore down to make it an R rated movie and somewhere in post production he decided to make a different film that what he was telling the magazines - most of the extended action and gore scenes were omitted whether cause the effects werent good enough or Milius wanted to make a more face paced and straightforwed revenge story. Most of the subplots and dialogue of the movie was also left on the cutting room floor with Arnold himself left basically almost a  mute.

At this time we know very little about the movie, maybe it can surprise me and us.

I have recently watched "Conan the Barbarian(2011)" where a vengeful barbarian warrior sets off to get his revenge on the evil warlord who attacked his village and murdered his father when he was a boy. But I enjoyed "Conan the Destroyer" more than that movie.

Fan poster


Fan poster

Are those fakes?
Because I can see the Skyrim Imperial Logo on the second armor !...

From LEGEND OF CONAN facebook page-

HOW SOON IS NOW?
An non-update and non-progress report (of sorts) on LEGEND OF CONAN.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced to thearnoldfans that he will be starring in the next TERMINATOR instalment next year. Which leaves those fans waiting for news of LEGEND OF CONAN scratching their heads in puzzlement. The official word from Universal Studios' Chris Morgan is that it is very much in the script finalizing stages and has been written. Fredrik Malmberg, also producing, was hoping for a "spring 2015" filming start date. That is clearly not going to happen. With no director chosen, no pre-production started and no cast announced, it seems highly unlikely that filming will start place this year. Couple that with the fact that Arnold and buddy Sylvester Stallone were seen in November at a Manny Pacquiao boxing match and have recruited him for EXPENDABLES IV, it might be a safer bet to assume that this will be next in line to start shooting. Both TERMINATOR: GENISYS and the new STAR WARS movie, featuring the original cast, were announced after LEGEND OF CONAN. Both films have been made and have release dates. Meanwhile, it seems that LEGEND OF CONAN is slipping further and further away from coming to fruition.

That's great! And then CONAN hopefully next?

Arnold: Yeah.

So good news that CONAN is still on his dock, and will hopefully start filming later this year. Conan's film producers tell TheArnoldFans they hope to begin production on The Legend of Conan this fall, right after Arnold's Terminator Genisys worldwide promotional tour. Universal Pictures loved the first draft and now, Chris Morgan, writer of the new Conan, is days away from finishing the tighter second draft.