First look at CONAN!

[The Flayed One]

This is wonderful news! Ratner would not do Conan justice. Conan is one of my favorite characters of all time, and I'd hate to see it not have a chance by falling into the hands of a mediocre director.

[milktoaste]

There was a time growing up, I didn't have a single friend who didn't like Conan. We would watch it start to finish (glued to the screen) then go outside and beat the crap out of eachother. Conan helped me realise my one true goal in life, to sit on a throne of my enemies skulls as ruler of my own kingdom. Blow it out your ass Princess!!

[_____V_____]

Marcus Nispel has been set by Nu Image/Millennium Films to direct "Conan," ending a nine-year development ordeal to reinvent the Robert E. Howard-created barbarian first immortalized onscreen by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1982.

Production on the remake is set to start late this year in Bulgaria and South Africa.

Nu Image/Millennium is making the film in a co-production with Lionsgate. Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta are producing with Fredrick Malmberg. Malmberg runs Paradox, the company that holds the rights to "Conan" and the other hero franchises in the Howard library.

The film will be the most financially ambitious ever for Lerner, with a script by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, whose credits include "Sahara" and "Cowboys and Aliens."

Paradox originally set the project at Warner Bros. but declined to ink a new rights deal after numerous unsuccessful attempts to make it with directors like Larry and Andy Wachowski and Robert Rodriguez. Malmberg then set it with Lerner in a seven-figure deal with strong progress to production stipulations. Lerner flirted with Brett Ratner last year, but the filmmaker could not commit in a timely fashion and Lerner couldn't wait.

That opened the door for Nispel, who'll make "Conan" his third redo, after "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Friday the 13th." For Nispel, "Conan" is a job he has dreamed about since his childhood.

Nispel said he will blend his childhood imaginings of the character with the influence of the famous Conan illustrations by Frank Frazetta, and the influence of such viscerally violent period films as Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto."

"Conan" maintains a following through such ancillary properties as a Dark Horse comicbook series, a vidgame for Xbox 360 and a Funcom/Eidos multiplayer online role-playing game.

Boaz Davidson, George Furla, Henry Winterstern, Trevor Short and Danny Dimfort are executive producers.

[_____V_____]

The search for a new "Conan the Barbarian" is gathering pace, with Austrian actor Roland Kickinger the apparent front-runner to bag the role.





According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 41-year-old is in talks to play the muscle-bound warrior, made famous onscreen by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 1980s.

In a bout of life-imitating-art-imitating-life, Kickinger actually played Schwarzenegger in the 2005 TV movie "See Arnold Run", while following in Arnie's footsteps, he also appears as a T-800 in the recently released "Terminator: Salvation".

Marcus Nispel is set to shoot "Conan" in Bulgaria this autumn and while little else is known about the project at present, The Reporter claims that the film will be more reboot than remake, "drawing influences from more recent action pics."

[_____V_____]

Lionsgate's new Conan starts shooting next February in Bulgaria, with Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pathfinder) behind the camera.

Moviehole have got their hands on the casting breakdowns, which obviously give a good idea of the characters, and some indication of the plot (beware spoilers).

*Deep breath*.

Let us tell you of the days of high adventure.


For the leads we have, obviously, Conan himself, 20s-30s, Caucasian, the last of the Cimmerians, out for vengeance on Khalar Singh, a formidable warlord and warrior in his 40s or 50s, for whom the producers are "open to all ethnicities". Singh is looking for Queen Ilira, whose blood will help him raise a demon army. Ilira's handmaiden is Tamara, who allies with Conan in what sounds like a Red Sonja hot amazon role. And there's Ukafa, Singh's untrustworthy henchman for whom a massive African or African American is required.

There are also supporting roles for Conan's dad Corin, who teaches his son the Riddle of Steel; Fariq, Khalar Singh's son and heir, rather worryingly described as a "proto goth-rocker"; Remo the evil wizard; Fassir, a monk protecting Ilira; Lucius, a mercenary scarred by Conan dumping him into a fiery pit; an unnamed one-eyed thief Conan rescues from Lucius; Artus, Conan's pirate buddy; and Cheren, Khalar Singh's mystical blind archer. A few others are listed, but as they're specified as neither leads or supports, we're guessing they're bit-parts.

Not among the cast, but mentioned as a worry for Khalar Singh and the reason he wants to raise a demon army in the first place, is evil arch-wizard Thoth-Amon, who only appears in one original Robert E Howard Conan story, but is mentioned in a couple of others, and in The Haunter of the Ring, a non-Conan story that forms part of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. He's played by Pat Roach in Conan the Destroyer, but as written by Howard he bears more resemblance to James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian.

So is that a set-up for future films? Will the shadow of Thoth-Amon continue to haunt Conan through more instalments, before the Cimmerian finally rests the jewelled crown of Aquilonia upon his troubled brow?

More news as it comes in.

[_____V_____]

An iconic '80s action star may be set for a role in Marcus Nispel's update of Conan the Barbarian.

No, not Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played the title role in the 1982 movie, but Dolph Lundgren.

The grizzled, muscle-bound actor, who played pumped-up hard men in the likes of Universal Soldier and Rocky IV, told MTV News earlier this week that "I've talked to the producers about doing something for Conan."

He didn't say what kind of role he'd be after, and told the site he probably wouldn't know if he'd land a part until next year.

Possible roles for the big guy include Corin -- the king of the Cimmerians and Conan's Dad, massively-built, evil warrior Marauder, or commanding warlord Khalar Singh.

[_____V_____]

Last week we reported that there were three be-muscled actors all up for the role of Conan in the new Conan the Barbarian film.

Those contenders were Jason Momoa from Stargate: Atlantis, Kellan Lutz from Twilight and a mystery third beefcake who was revealed to be Supernatural giant Jared Padalecki.

Well, the contest is over (we don't know if there was a medieval battle involved), and we have a victor.







Jason Momoa.

Despite reports that Lionsgate were keen for a more “experienced actor”, Momoa seems to have won them over. Apparently his screen test was better than anybody else’s.

Latino Review and Deadline Hollywood (the latter being the source of the original casting info) broke the news at about the same time this evening. This is the first really interesting news that has come out about the film. Momoa had a great look for the character — he’s physically imposing, but also looks smart and calculating. He’s not just some brute, and therefore a lot closer to Robert E. Howard’s original version of the character than was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Both sources report report that Momoa has been the top choice of Marcus Nispel, with LR saying that he charmed the hell out of execs and Deadline saying a few test scenes Nispel shot of Momoa in character were the tipping point.

Additionally, we hear that Lionsgate have “extended an offer” to Mickey Rourke to play the part of Corin, Conan’s father. No confirmation either way yet, but interesting nonetheless.

Meanwhile, with production set to begin within eight weeks (scheduled to kick off shooting mid-March in Bulgaria), Momoa will have to add a good amount of muscle quickly. He has a solid frame, but doesn’t sport a barbaric build. Ripping flesh from giant drumsticks and drinking lots of mead doesn’t hurt either.

If you want a chance to check of the new Conan’s chops before making a decision on his casting, you can catch Momoa in new HBO drama Game of Thrones later this year. Momoa is best known for his long stints on Baywatch (44 episodes) and Stargate: Atlantis (78 episodes).

While Momoa will have to put even more muscle onto his hot bod, Rourke should arrive in great shape if he accepts the role. After all, he bulked up for 2008’s The Wrestler and he’s coming off his role as Russian super-villain Whiplash in Iron Man 2. This would be an inspired choice for Corin and it would be a pleasure to see Rourke in yet another large-scale film.

Andrew Lobel’s re-write on the early screenplay by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer is getting high marks.

Conan will be produced and distributed by Lionsgate.

[cheebacheeba]

Haha, glad to see Ronan back in something.
He's definately built the part, I'm ok with this choice and hope it sticks.

[Ferox13]

Originally Posted by _____V_____

Meanwhile, with production set to begin within eight weeks (scheduled to kick off shooting mid-March in Bulgaria), Momoa will have to add a good amount of muscle quickly. He has a solid frame, but doesn’t sport a barbaric build. Ripping flesh from giant drumsticks and drinking lots of mead doesn’t hurt either.

Conan from the books wasn't all that big though was he he..He was more ripped and lean. But I suppose ppl are used to Conan being a bodybuilder type after the Arnie film...Also Momoa doesn't look all that 'Cimmerian' which seemed to be based loosely on the Celtic 'race' - i guess you can put it down to a tan from being so well travelled...

[_____V_____]

Mickey Rourke was in, then he was out, and then he was in again.

But now it seems he's walked away from Marcus Nispel's Conan for good, some say in favour of Tarsem Singh's War of the Gods (possibly aka Dawn of War).

But fear not. Once more into the fantasy movie breach steps Ron Perlman. Which, given that Conan is shooting in Bulgaria like now, must come as something as a relief to all concerned.

Conan, of course, will by no means be new territory for the man who in the last three years alone has turned out for In the Name of the King, Hellboy 2, Outlander, The Mutant Chronicles and Season of the Witch. He's recently been busy with his TV biker drama Sons of Anarchy. Good job Corin is just a supporting role then (a very small one in the original Conan the Barbarian, filled by actor, bodybuilder and CIA linguist William Smith) allowing Perlman to squeeze him into his hectic schedule.

Still, he doesn't sound insignificant. According to the casting call, Corin is "powerfully built, intelligent, graceful, a master swordsman, skilled blacksmith, and de facto leader of the Cimmerians". Midwife too: he apparently cuts Conan out of his dying wife, and struggles to raise the rebellious youth alone, teaching him "the meaning of the sword". Is that the Riddle of Steel that we know and love?

Conan stars Jason Momoa as the man himself, and should be out before year's end.