In 2011, actor Jason Momoa attempted to spark a flame with the R-rated Conan The Barbarian reboot. Unfortunately, and deservedly so, it flopped pretty hard. Though there were talks of a sequel, the box office totals from the film squashed all chances of any follow up to Momoa’s failed effort.
While it seemed like the franchise was dead in the water, now we’re hearing that it’s getting another reboot with the original star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, set to play the titular character.
Titled The Legend of Conan, the film will take place after the ending of the 1982 original.
“This movie picks up Conan where Arnold is now in his life, and we will be able to use the fact that he has aged in this story. I love the property of Conan so much that I wouldn’t touch it unless we came up with something worthy. We think this is a worthy successor to the original film. Think of this as Conan’s ‘Unforgiven,’” producer and possible screenwriter on the movie Chris Morgan (47 Ronin, Wanted) told Deadline.
As of now, Momoa will not appear in the film and the storyline will ignore all the events that happened in the Conan sequels.
“I loved the choices they made in that film,” Morgan said of the original. “You start with the wholesale slaughter and death of Conan’s village at the hand of the warlord played by James Earl Jones, and you see young Conan chained to a wheel as he becomes stronger. Then he’s a pit fighter, and later basically a stud bull before he meets the first kind person of his life, who lets him go. All of that horrific stuff happened for a reason, and then an act of kindness sends him on his journey. Will that level of violence be there? Absolutely, but only if it serves a character who lives by that barbarian law of the wild, who is capable of extreme violence and rage, but who has created his own code and operates from within it.”
Aiming for a summer 2014 release, that would put Arnie at nearly 70 years old when the film is released. Ya, we know, a 70 year old Conan, seems crazy right?
So far, this film doesn’t exactly sound too promising but hey, I’ll take what I can get to rid the awful taste of 2011’s Conan the Barbarian from my mouth.
What do you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to play Conan the Barbarian? Let us know in the comments below.