KULL THE CONQUEROR Script Review

KULL THE CONQUEROR
September 14, 1993 Draft
by Charles Edward Pogue

The story begins with Enaros bringing Akivasha back to life, with his minion Zuleki - who is described as a massive eunuch with garishly painted face, bald save for the long piece of hair dangling down to his back. This man also has bits of dialogue. (Certainly not the man-thing beast from the film version, which in itself was an almost replica copy of the Beast with Three Eyes creature from CONAN THE BARBARIAN!)

Kull and Taligaro have the blindfolded sword fight, just the two of them, as a kind of sport between the two, who are pretty close, but envious of eachother. Taligaro is sort of jealous of Kull and Kull of him, there's like a mutual competition/respect between them, and they go on about whose army is better, Kull's Navy or Taligaro's Noble Dragon Legion.

Dalgar brings news of King Borna's madness. Both Kull and Taliagaro see this as moment for taking the crown, they follow eachother on horseback back to the palace.

A bloodied King Borna comes to wizard Enaros' tower. Akivasha goes into the flame so not to be seen by the mad King and his bodyguards. Enaros mouths off to Borna, because Borna over played his hand and acted too soon for killing his heirs (sons). At this moment, Kull and Taligaro arrive, both attack the king for the crown. Enaros uses a black globe-like explosive device to kill the intruding enemies, but it gets knocked from his hand and rolls into the fire, then there's a big explosion, half the tower is gone and in rumble. There's a wall of flame, which prevents Taligaro and Dalgar from fighting Borna, who is still alive and now fighting Kull, in the heated battle between the skilled swordsman and the mad drunken king.

Kull stabbs Borna through the stomach, Borna then comes out of the flames and, to the other side, falls to the floor before Taligaro and Dalgar. Kull then leaps through the flames, victorious. All the while Akivasha was watching the battle, and had her eyes on Kull. Kull had glimpse of her face through the flames, but thought he was seeing things, as her image quickly disappeared.

Kulls picks up the crown with his sword, to offer it to Taligaro, but he doesn't take it out of hesitation, then Ducalon rushed in the room to grab it, and then burns his hands. The partially dead Borna hands and gives the Crown to Kull. To makes it official along with his two friends called Fric and Frak ( ).

Much of the dialogue and scenes proceed like in the movie, he sets the slaves free, which he actually does succeeds in doing, and he frees Ascalante from Madara, the corrupt High Priest of Hotath.

But Kull picks his wife/queen by having to do some dance ceremony thing. Narissa is the false name of Akivasha at this point, when Kull becomes infatuated with her, as he was when he first saw her in the Flame of Korsala. Then it cuts to them making the kiss, and the wedding day. It's Rolando the poet/minstrel who leaps to Zareta's defence after Kull pushers her away after she begins to annoy him with her persistence of looking at the cards (like in the film). But, here, he accidentally smacks her face so hard her lip bleeds. This angered Rolando, so he does a series of leaps and acrobatic moves through the Royal Crowd, and attacks Kull with a dagger, Kull blockes the move, and knockes the poet to the ground, but not before Rolando slaced Kull's leg. Ascalante spots the mark on Akivasha's breast.

The king and queen have lots of sex; apparently, Akivasha is making up for 1,000 years of celibacy, as Kull is covered in sweat. She renders Kull dead in bed, but by using some kind of purple colored drug/poison (not magic) on her lips which she entices Kull to kiss off, which well he does...

What also differs from the movie is that Zareta actually believes Rolando was responsible, so she leads Taligaro and his men to find and arrest her brother, because she is madly in love with Kull obviously. She was not aware of Akivasha's true nature either. Zareta can only read the cards but not decipher/foretell their meaning.

As the King's armored corpse sits on a dais before the royal dignitaries and his Queen, Zareta, unable to control her grief, throws herself upon the body and kisses and grasps the cold hands of the dead body. But Kull's Tiger ring slips off the finger, this confuses Zareta as she saw Kull try and get the ring off, but it was very tight, his fingers were to big. So she starts to realize this isn't Kull's body.

In the under ground Torture Chamber, beneath Enaros' Citadel, all the conspirators greet Kull (this part is a bit different) as Taligaro, Mandara and Ducalon are all present.

This whole part here sounds very awefully close to what crazy Milius was doing with his defunct KING CONAN story, with the whole evil seducing Witch being pregnant with Conan's son, and promising riches and glories... Well, you know it from there.

(Here's a excerpt)

Akivasha is pregnant with Kull's unborn son:

Akivasha stands before Kull in her dazzling beauty appreasining him in cool penetrating silence.



Kull listens in stunned silence. And wary disbelief.



She smiles. Her fingers tangle in his hair. Her soft breath is hot on his cheeks, her eyes devour him, her hands stroke his shoulders, neck and face.



They kiss, but Kull bites her lip, and flame instead of blood surts out from the wound.

Afer this scene, it's Zereta who helps free Kull. Kull is also unchained by the time Zulieki notices that the prisoner is being rescued.

Ascalante is outside the chamber, like in the movie. From here, the trio go on to free Rolando from the Pyre.

After the camel ride into the city, the trio make their way through some underground tunnels leading from Ascalante's Temple of Odala to the Temple of Hotah, where lies the dead body of the impostor Kull.

Kull knocks out the two guards, as done in the movie, by smashing their heads together as they sniff eachother cause of the stench of urine that's on the real Kull's body, as he sneaks into the Temple.

Kull unmasks the impostor body, to find loyal Dalgar there, dead in his place. Kull is greatly angered. He swears revenge for the both of them (a part definitely needed and cut from the film).

Zereta disguises herself as the incense burner, and Ascalante disguises himself as priest of Hotath. Rolando recites the last words of R.E. Howard's life, but then the action starts. Mandara's head is chopped off by the real Kull, but his headless body proceeds to burn the pyre anyway, as it falls to the ground.

They make their way into the temple, fighting off a number of the Dragon Legionnaires. Taligaro fights Kull, but Taligaro is clearly the better swordsman. It's a battle between the two men, a battle of honor and to find out just who is the best. But Zereta knocks out Taligaro with the incense burner. Kull, Zereta, Ascalante and Rolando all escape through a secret tunnel.

Taligaro awakes to find most of his men were killed by Kull. This enrages him, as he lays there, with a body of one of his dead men in his arms. (He clearly has a code of honor, which doesn't make the cliched villain, he's a bit more complex).

Outside and away from the city, Ascalante tells Kull about the Isle of Ever Night, and the only way to kill Akivasha.

There's a whole back story given as to what and who Valka is, who/what Korsala was, and there's even mention of Set (though not directly by name, at this point) and the "Scrolls of Tuzun" (who is familiar, of course, from the King Kull story "Mirrors of Tuzun Thune").

Here's another excerpt:



Rolando throws a log into the fire, making it flare and takes up the tale.



This scene and story does bear some strong ressemblance to Oliver Stone's story of Thulsa Doom's and his turning of princess Taramis, and just to mythology in general.

Here goes to the port of Tatteli, and find Juba the Spider. Kull is mentioned as leading the Black Corsairs. As this happens, Akivasha shows Enaros the secret passages and catacombs beneath the city, which Enaros had no idea existed. They come across the ancient dead dynasties of Acheron. Some of these corpses where humans, other weren't. The witch makes a startling revelation.



Enaros asks the Witch Queen why did she bring him there. Akivasha tells him because she wishes to learn dark secrets of the dead and wisdom and spells. She now touches one of the dead Acheronian corpses.



She tries to reanimate the dead, but is too weak to succeed; she needs her unborn son to accomplish this task and fulfill her own destiny to bring the Ancheron Empire back. Here, she reveals her naked stomach, the translucent flesh revealing the inhuman fetish within her.

On Juba's ship, it's revealed why Rolando and Zereta had a falling out years ago, and Rolando didn't approve of her becoming Borna's concubine to save his life. Kull and company are knocked out by the drugged food aboard Juba's ship. Juba has pigeons used for carrying messages, which he intends to use to inform Akivasha of Kull's capture and return to her. Kull, after he takes over the ship, uses these pigeons to inform Akivasha that he'll be back to stop her. Now, the slaves used at the ores of the ship, who were supposed to be the remnants of Kull's Black Corsairs, which would explain their loyalty and why they know who he is as in the film, are freed and help mop up the rest of Juba's sailors.

Back in Valusia, Ascalante is talking to Tu, and getting those loyal to the King to await his return and fight to get back the kingdom; he also informs them of who Akivasha is and what she plans to do.

Then the pigeons arrive into the Citadel, Enaros gives the message to Akivasha, she reads it. There's a bit of voodo afterwoods: as she throws the paper message into the flame, she gives off a incantation which she demands that the messages burning shreds reveal where Kull is going. It works.

She actually cries at this point. Enaros tries mocking her teers, and saying how he's her loyal servant and loves her, and that Kull is unworthy, etc, etc... She becomes mad and burns him again. Enaros gets re-burned by Akivasha a total of 3 times in this script!

She rebuilds the ruined citadel through magic while she's hovering in the flames again.

Back on board Kull's ship, Zereta does her sexy dance before Kull. They make love, Akivasha uses the Flame again to spy on the lovers, where she joins in on the action. And it's Zereta who sees Akivasha's face on Kull towards the end of the lovemaking. Which frightens her.

Zereta tries unsuccessfully to make Kull abandon his quest as she fears for his life. Kull refuses. He has nice lines here.



In this version, Taligaro does not follow in ship, so there's no battle on the Isle of Ice. He merely eagerly awaits Kull's return with his army.

Ducalon dies like in the movie, but not so much the whining pussy as portrayed on screen. He walks into the room and sees the Dead mummies circling the flame of Korsala, this is when he realizes that Kull was right, and that because of his own greedy ambitions, he was responsible for Valusia's down fall. So he acts by stabbing Akivasha in the heart, this obviously fails. And he is killed much like in the movie.

Kull returns to Valusia. Taligaro's army is encamped along the shores. Kull sees that Taligaro's forces are mostly made up of army regulars (who are mercenaries that were, at some point, under Kull's command during the reign of King Borna). So Kull reminds them that he was their leader and their king, still alive. Taligaro's army quickly breaks apart. Now come Ascalante, Tu, Fric and Frak, leading armed citizens to help Kull. Only Taligaro's Dragon Legion is loyal to him and fights against Kull. They all fight amongst eachother.

Taligaro's on horse back leaps aboard the ship to face off with Kull again. Pretty cool scene. They fight it out with swords. Kull eventually wins by stabbing Taligaro in the throat, with a broken sword. Both Kull and Zareta go to the citadel, Kull squares off against Enaros.

Enaros throws another one of his black balls, which blows away some of the Citadel's stairs and walls. Kull again faces the wizard. Enaros makes some incantation, calling upon Set, so that his Staff would become alive, it launch's out for Kull and Zareta. But Rolando leaps out and saves them, by taking the blade directly into the chest.

What differs from the movie here also is that Kull uses a chunk of broken stone to kill Enaros, Kull throws the stone at Enaros' ugly burnt face, and he falls back into the Flame of Korsala. Akivasha's death is pretty much like what seen in the movie.

Kull takes the breath of Valka from Zareta's weak lips, because she could not kill the flame, Akivasha entices Kull to kiss her and to feel her stomach and their unborn son, but she doesn't realize that he now holds the breath of Valka within him. She consumes the breath after the kiss. Through the kiss, she rapidly ages again back to her original form, burns up and dies, her lifeless body falls down the pillar-well-like structure back to hell. But even with her death the Flame does not die, but her powers combined with the breath of Valka create a terrible wind, it starts tearing at the corpses of the Acheron dead. All the mummies explode and blow to pieces. The tower/Citadel begins to crumble apart. So Kull, Zareta and Ascalante must escape. Both the breath of Valka and the Flame are eternal, they cannot die. They slip down a rope and jump into the water, later to swim a shore.

Kull is re-coronated as King in a new ceremony and takes Zareta as his Queen.





The ending is pretty much like in the movie, except there's no line "By this Axe, I rule" (which is a excellent line), and there's no chopping and smashing of the tablets of Laws. Actually, there is no axe in Pogue's script, which is perhaps more accurate, but it definitely takes away the weapon which Kull is known for. Kull, in the script, only uses an axe as secondary weapon very briefly aboard the ship, when he kills Juba's men, then that's over with.

I also like the story arc from the movie, of Kull getting the Axe from one of the Dead frozen warriors and chopping threw the stone face of Valka.

Well, the script was very very good, well done story and a worthy movie that would have been, had it been done right. The movie really wasn't so much different in a lot of ways, as much of it played the same way. But the main differences was that the script/story had blood, nudity, maturity, had the much needed character development and had of course the superior storyline than the abortion that was the film.

I don't blame the movie's director or star, because it wasn't badly directed or acted. It was just underproduced and butchered, made very cheaply and severely watered down by of course the De Laurentiis's. They turned an epic into kids quickie, like they did with CONAN 2.

The casting of Sorbo, Ian Griffith and Lombard along with Litefoot was well done, even Carrere, they fitted their characters quite well. But the casting of Tu, Juba, Ducalon was complete horseshit!

--- Cromulus

I will probably make a CONAN THE CONQUEROR(AKA CONAN III) script review when I have time and finish reading the script. But so far, Akiro narrates the movie, he does the opening Nemedian Chronicles and has a part in the movie (almost Ascalante's part). Many names are the same while others have changed.

Pogue uses Scarlet Citadel and Phoenix on the sword stories more closely, he even mentions "like a phoenix" alot when Akivasha returns to life and Orestes(Enaros from Kull) himself was granted some immortality for bringing her back to life. The tower his Akivasha's corpse resides is in the Scarlet Citadel.

When Akivasha is brought to be presented as a bride for Conan the king, the name she uses is, Natala.

The Chronicle opening is slighty different from the previous films:

Quote :

Akiro (VO)

Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the Sons of Aryans, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world. Hither cmae Conan..barbarian, thief, warrior..destined by blood and blade to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. Hear now of the rise and fall of Kings...

According to Kevin Sorbo back in 2007:

Quote :

Sony shot Walking Tall 3 at the same time as 2, and Sorbo says he has heard rumors that they might want to turn the franchise into a TV series. As it stands, Walking Tall 2 is the first time the Mound, Minnesota native has been part of an R-rated flick. “Kull the Conqueror was supposed to be a really dark X-rated film almost with the violence and sex,” Sorbo interjects. “But they rewrote the film so drastically, to my disappointment, and made it a PG because they didn’t want to alienate the Hercules audience at the time. But I was like, ‘Who cares? They’ll come.’”

http://forums.syfy.com/index.php?showtopic=2264452

A Pity Kull was not R-rated. They should have had some skimpy outfits in the movie.

Karina Lombard

Tia Carrere and Karina Lombard

Tia  Carrere