We’ve been waiting to hear some news on what could be the most epic Arnold Schwarzenegger film of all-time, The Legend of Conan. Recently, producer Chris Morgan sat down with IGN and discussed their plans for the film. He related the movie to Clint Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven,’ wanting to give the fans a character-driven film that they will love. Check out what he had to say below!
Morgan talked about his goals with the screenplay; which is being written by Andrea Berloff,
I don’t want to give away plot, but Conan’s Conan to me. Look, for my money, I don’t think that the right way. I’m not interested in passing on the torch. It’s Conan! It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. We’re bringing him back for a reason. When I say Unforgiven, I mean it’s a guy who has to come back, and I want him to play his age. I want him to be looking at the later years of his life and have to contemplate this horrific threat. Sitting down and walking through the story with [Schwarzenegger], he’s amazing. It’s one of the projects that I am incredibly excited about, because I know when you hear Conan and you hear certain things, like the instinct is “There was just a Conan movie and we know those Conan things” — this is different, I’m telling you. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t perfectly fitting and built off that first movie and if it wasn’t awesome, and it’s awesome. It’s a great character journey. People think it’s just going to swords and hacking and effects. It is not. It is a character story. It’s awesome.
He then speaks about the 2011 film that was made and didn’t quite do it for him.
Look, I think Jason is a really good actor. I love him, especially in Game of Thrones — holy s***, he’s great! But it is what it is. That’s the version they set out and did. The version that I am really interested in, the one that I went to Arnold with, and went to the studio with is, it’s a different version, and it really is a take on…Conan the Barbarian, people can say what they want about it, I think it’s actually a brilliant movie. I think the lack of dialogue in it…I think [John] Milius did such a good job with it, such a good job. There’s a lesson about what it is to be a man and a warrior and “What is civilization in barbarism?” and “What do you believe in?” and lessons of life. I think there’s so much in that movie that we are now going to be able to jump ahead and build on that foundation that they built, those types of lessons. I think it’s going to be something really special and iconic and different than people expect.
Arnold’s latest films haven’t been doing all that well in the theaters, but with Conan and the upcoming Terminator reboot, I’m sure he’ll be just fine as a box office superstar again. Plus, The Escape Plan was a thing of genius! Hopefully we’ll see The Legend of Conan pick up some steam as the script gets written.
As more news comes to us, Stay Tuned to DFAT and find out more!
Thanks to IGN for the scoop.
~Chaz
