Well, that whole Jason Momoa experiment didn't last long, did it? Last year's Conan the Barbarian was a disastrous flop, and a total waste of the Robert E. Howard character. Momoa was eyed as the perfect replacement for Arnold Schwarzenegger, young and athletic, and generally considered to be a fast-rising star for his role in HBO's Game of Thrones. The film couldn't crack $50M globally, barely eking out half the production budget, effectively killing the franchise before it had barely begun.
So when starting over fresh fails, what's the next best option? Go back to what worked before. Schwarzenegger is set to return as Conan in a reboot titled The Legend of Conan, which sees the Cimmerian king at an age resembling that of the actor. The film will essentially ignore everything that occurred after 1982's Conan the Barbarian, including 1984's Conan the Destroyer, which I always thought was a little silly. Apparently the producers agreed, as possible screenwriter Chris Morgan(Fast Five) had this to say....
Morgan: "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'."
This one's still pretty early on, as they don't even know if they want to target an R-rating or aim for a wider audience. Morgan may be too busy writing Fast and Furious 7 to tackle this in time for the planned summer 2014 release. Whatever happens, Schwarzenegger seems happy to be revisiting this part of his early career....
Schwarzenegger: “I always loved the Conan character and I’m honored to be asked to step into the role once again. I can’t wait to work with Universal and the great team of Fredrik Malmberg and Chris Morgan to develop the next step of this truly epic story.”
