Symbol of Set in Kull The Conqueror

Kull was pretty chopped up too, and missing the pieces of mentioning that Enaros as being the local High Priest of Set.

Some symbolism can still be found in the movie, its possibly the only reminder that this movie is a prequel to CONAN.

The Scorpion God and Set were the two main dieties in Kull's timeline:

Theres a good collection of Kull related interviews here, some where Sorbo mentions Conan and having talks with Arnold .

Some interesting ones:

20.09.97
Creative Loafing (?)
A Time To Kull
by Bert Osborne


"Because of the Conan connection, Arnold had been holding onto the script for a few years, and I got to have a meeting with him that was a lot of fun," Sorbo recalls. "I don't know if it was an age thing or what [Schwarzenegger's decision to hand off the script], but we swapped war stories about working with [producer] Raffaella [de Laurentiis]. He was very nice. It was great." He pauses. "People ask me if I'd like to follow in Arnold's footsteps, and I think that's a really big compliment. We all know he's done pretty darn well for himself," Sorbo says.
Sorbo is sans shirt for much of Kull - and while that may be compatible for the purposes of flexing his muscles, you have to wonder whether he's at all concerned about being perceived less as an actor than as a 6-foot-3, 215-pound body. "I didn't realize just how many scenes there were until I finally saw the film," Sorbo concedes with a laugh. "I wouldn't say I'm your stereotypical, top-of-the-line bodybuilder. The way [Universal] described both of these characters to me, I think they were looking for more of a decathlete than just a shot-putter, so to speak."
Ask him why he'd want his first feature film to be cut from the same cloth as his popular TV show, and Sorbo seems to suggest you've answered your own question. He says, "That's exactly what made sense to me, to make my first big movie something somewhat familiar, and in the process bring that television audience into the movie theaters, hopefully."
Ask him about the character similarities, though, and Sorbo seems to contradict himself: "I didn't look at it that way. I saw the characters as quite different, and I think that when people see the film, they'll see that they're totally different." The bottom line is, "This is a family-friendly film, and it was a lot of fun. It just seemed like the wise thing for me to do. I'm not embarrassed by it. It is what it is, and I think that's what people are going to enjoy about watching it."

12.07.04
MSN Live Chat

Q: What inspirations did you use to play the role?
Kevin Sorbo: Really no inspiration, just the script. The first script was much darker and I would have liked to have stuck with that one.



11.01
Xpose #61


Kevin Sorbo: "I'm not disappointed because it was a good movie, it's doing very well on rental and I think what happened with "Kull" was two things. Number one, I fought with Universal, saying, "The release date on this is horrible. You don't release a movie on Labor Day.' It's the last week in the summer, everybody's already gone to all the movies that have been out there, it's the last week you are gonna spend with family and friends before everybody goes back to school and to work and the holiday months are over. And number two, Princess Di died that same week. Everybody, including myself, stayed home and watched everything on TV. I think I was proven right (he laughs) because after that movie opened, Universal fired the two people that were head of the marketing for it. I told them, 'This is a cold weather movie, you should open this round Christmas time.' To me it didn't feel like a summer release."

12.97
Starlog special

"Kull gave me a break from being Hercules, which, of course, is a character I enjoy playing," explains Kevin Sorbo. "Kull gave me the chance to play another character, one whose much darker physically and emotionally than Hercules."

12.97
Starlog special
Sorceress Behind the Sword
by Marc Shapiro

De Laurentiis realized early in pre-production that a big challenge in Kull would be to have Sorbo not come across as a half-baked fusion of Conan and Hercules. "I was totally prepared [to abort] this film if Kevin was going to wind up doing nothing more than a bad imitation of Conan. But I didn't see that happening. I was satisfied that we were bringing a fresh take to the genre with Kull." Once filming started, however, the producer and director vigilantly looked for signs of Sorbo lapsing into his television alter-ego, "Kevin would sometimes purposely try to work some Hercules mannerisms and attitude into the film. He was always discussing things with John saying, 'Hercules would say this or do that.' Sometimes we would let him get away with things and sometimes we would tell Kevin, 'No. It's just too much and too familiar.' But, in hindsight, maybe we should have let him do more of the Hercules stuff, because when we tested the film, audiences seemed to respond to the Hercules kind of humor and fun."

"In the Conan films, I remember we had gallons of blood," de Laurentiis says. "There is no blood at all in Kull, and let me tell you, having no blood or extreme violence is much tougher to do in an action film. It's much easier to shock and make a fight spectacular when you can have heads flying and limbs being cut off. With Kull, the fights were more like burlesque, which made them much tougher to do."

"If this picture had taken itself too seriously," she says, "it would already be dead. We went into Kull not wanting a leadweight of a movie. This Kull will probably disappoint diehard Robert E. Howard fans, but I don't think it's going to disappoint people who watch Hercules and just want to have a good time."


1997
Michael's Martinez Kevin Sorbo Review
Unfortunately this very interesting and clever text is gone from the Internet. But I'll allow myself to quote it a little here.

Kevin Sorbo has been vehemently criticized by Howard fans for his portrayal of Kull. He doesn't seem to yell loud enough, or to kill enough people for them. <...> There can be no winning this argument, however. The actor will be unmercifully blamed for decisions that were not his, for not fulfilling unreasonable expectations, and for not delivering on promises which really were never made. Taken on its own merits "Kull the Conqueror" is entertaining. Kevin did his job. No actor could have stepped into that role and made it a blockbuster success.

11.97
Starburst #231 (UK)
Hercules muscles in on Kull
by Alan Jones

Shot in Bratislavia last Autumn, with interiors filmed at the Slovensky Film Studio Koliba, high on a hill overlooking the Slovakian city centre, 'Kull' marks the feature film debut of Kevin Sorbo.
Sorbo said, "I've been offered numerous scripts ever since Hercules became a success. Kull was the only one that had a good story full of character and emotion. True, Kull is sort of set in the same Hercules time period with the same kind of Fantasy stuff going on. But the chance to work with such an industry luminary as Raffaella swayed my decision. She really believed I could do it and I was very comfortable with how she viewed the movie as a vehicle for me."
"I wouldn't have made the movie without Kevin," declared de Laurentiis.

Sorbo remarked, "Unlike Hercules, Kull's a barbarian, so most of the comic relief comes from the other cast members. Kull is a guy who was abandoned as a 6-year-old by his father and grew up in the forest. He's from the wrong side of the tracks but he fought against that and worked his way up the ranks to become king of his empire. But he misuses the power and through stupidity loses it very quickly. Kull is perhaps the flip-side of Hercules, but I made sure they both had a totally different look."
Tia Carrere commented, "Originally they asked me to play Zareta, but when I read the script I was more drawn to Akivasha."
Litefoot wanted the complete reverse with his role. The rap artist, who also stars in 'Mortal Kombat: Annihilation', remarked, "This film has been my most difficult assignment to date because I didn't want to play a typical priest caught up in his own reverence. 'Kull the Conqueror' is definitely not your typical Sword and Sorcery Fantasy, that's for sure."
De Laurentiis: "I'd just worked with John Nicolella on the mini-series 'Vanishing Son'. <...> It had taken so long to get Kevin Sorbo and I wanted someone I could trust to direct and nurture him in the way I wanted." Nicolella said, "I don't want to scare audiences to death with Kull, or be violent and bloody. As long as Kull has the original comic strip's substance, and we never lose sight of that, then I'm happy." <...> Sorbo added, "John is a real pleasure. The patience he has to muster to lead this parade is staggering. He's a very funny guy and that's an enormous help when everyone is so far away from home. I had a lot of early ideas about how to play Kull and John has made sure I've stuck to them. If I've ever veered away from my definition, he's been the first to let me know. He wants 'Kull' to be as successful as I do. We're both hungry for that success."
As far as Sorbo was concerned, the veteran Italian make-up artist Gianetto De Rossi deliberately wanted to make his Kull character more human than most comic book heroes: "So after some discussion we left out Kull's trademark facial scar and made him less menacing altogether. I gave him a dark brown wig, which looks even darker on Kevin, and it made his blue eyes burn even brighter. Kohl makeup around the eyes accented that more. When I took my first glimpse at his complete look I turned to Kevin and told him,'You will do Kull 2, I can predict it already'."
De Laurentiis commented. "All the key elements are there: a good story, a great script, magical special effects, a wonderful cast - Tia is bringing a delicious sense of evil fun to her role - with the icing on the cake being Kevin."




http://actorsorbo.narod.ru/sorbo_eng/Kull_eng/Kull_articles_eng.htm