THE LEGEND OF CONAN: Arnold Schwarzenegger to play Conan again

Arnold Schwarzenegger to play Conan again in The Legend of Conan. Arnold Schwarzenegger will reprise his role as Conan from Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer in The Legend of Conan. Universal Pictures released the first Conan and will release this one as well. Paradox Entertainment holds the rights to the franchise and will release The Legend of Conan. Fredrik Malmberg and Chris Morgan will produce the film. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger had this to say about the new Conan film: “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

The Legend of Conan will exist in a world where Conan the Destroyer and Marcus Nispel‘s Conan the Barbarian never took place.  “After the original seminal movie, all that came after looked silly to me,” Morgan said. “Think of this as Conan’s Unforgiven” for Robert E. Howard’s mythic barbarian.

A Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olivia d’Abo Conan the Destroyer photo:

Arnold Schwarzenegger Olivia d’Abo Conan the Destroyer

On Chris Morgan’s involvement in The Legend of Conan:

Morgan has hatched the story and might write the script. The caveat is that the studio wants The Legend Of Conan for summer 2014, and Morgan might not be finished writing the seventh Fast And Furious installment by then. If that happens he will be a very active producer, because this is Morgan’s dream project.

On how The Legend of Conan fits into the Conan time line:

The original ended with Arnold on the throne as a seasoned warrior, and this is the take of the film we will make. It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle…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.

The fact that there is even a question about the rating for the film seems absolutely ridiculous to me. Who wants to see a watered down, PG-13 Conan movie with off-screen kills. Thankfully Chris Morgan doesn’t seem to want one either, sighting the first film’s violence and gore.

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. By the end of that film, Conan became a certain character, and this film picks him up there, as he faces different challenges that include dealing with age.

My question with all of this is what happened to John Milius‘ King Conan: Crown of Iron script from before Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for Governor of California? Supposedely everyone loved the script and it took Conan’s age into account like Morgan’s version will. Why not use that script for The Legend of Conan?

What do you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger stepping back into the Conan role again?

Source: Slashfilm, Deadline