Conan the Barbarian

[David43515]

I`ve never seen Momoa in anything, so I won`t comment on his chops as an actor. However, he just strikes me as way too small to play the character. I wish him luck.

I`m hoping they pull off a decent Captain America in the next few years. He and Dare Devil were always my favs growing up and I was SOOooooodisappointed with what they wrote for Ben Afleck as Dare Devil. Ewwww.....no,no,no,no.

 

[Sukerkin]

The original films, if I can call them that, had Conan in ASBO-illiterate-thug mode. Essentially popcorn garbage. Sweatyknacker did a disservice to the literary hero by turning him into an over-muscled, under-skilled brawler.

The new film can only be an improvement and whatisface from Atlantis is cut much more in a 'warrior' mould than Arnie was. One thing is for sure, I shall probably have to go and watch this in the cinema, once my missus catches wind of it; Mamoa makes her go all wibbly :lol:.

As for his acting, well, he was okay in Atlantis and as I kept referring to him as a grunting thug he'll probably do fine as Conan .

 

[Sukerkin]

Ooh! Did a bit o Googling and found out that Rose McGowan is in the cast - sounds like it won't be such an ordeal to go and watch this after all .

By the way, to lay my cards on the table when it comes to the Conan movies, my favourite parts of Conan the Barbarian were Sandahl Bergman and Nadiuska. My favourite parts in Conan the Destroyer were Olivia d'Abo and Sarah Douglas {if I recall correctly}.

Anyone see a pattern emerging? :lol:

 

[Drac]

OFF TOPIC POST: I am STILL waiting for someone to do a remake of Doc Savage..The one with Ron Ely was a JOKE

To me it seems whomever wrote the Iron Man series (so far) has been a big fan. Same with X-men and other very good adaptations.

Maybe Stan Lee had a firmer grip on the story line..Gawd knows it wasnt there in the first offering of The Hulk..

 

[Cryozombie]

Something I found interesting, I dug out some of my old Conan paperbacks, and in the back of a couple DeCamp wrote a sort of History of Conan, and he writes it as tho it were a "real" thing: British Museum Documents and old Excavated tablets with the stories of Conan's life, etc... and in doing so he attempts to Reconcile some of the inconsistencies, stating "This Ancient Babalonian tabley claims Conan... while these Papyrus found in the British Museum collections state he was actualy... therefore more than one account exists, and it is unclear which is more factual" etc... also citing these types of "Sources" as examples of other inconsitancies, such as Conan's age durring certain events, etc.

It makes for an interesting idea, and a decent enough attempt to explain away/incorporate the storylines of Conan's origins to the movies.

 

[Cryozombie]

The original films, if I can call them that, had Conan in ASBO-illiterate-thug mode.

To be fair, tho, Conan was SUPPOSED TO BE fairly young in the films when he earned his freedom (in his teens still) and even in the original stories by Howard, while Conan was Smart and Wiley, a lot of that came by way of experience... in some of the earlier stories he was more brash and less... lets call it knowledgeable.

 

[hussaf]

Let me preface this by saying I am/was barely aware of a Conan the Barbarian comic book, novel universe out there.

I originally heard the remake was going to be of Red Sonja with Rose McGowan playing the lead role.

Does anyone know if Yamazaki Kiyoshi will be doing the sword teaching again? I know he's like semi-retired or something...

 

[MA-Caver]

Something I found interesting, I dug out some of my old Conan paperbacks, and in the back of a couple DeCamp wrote a sort of History of Conan, and he writes it as tho it were a "real" thing: British Museum Documents and old Excavated tablets with the stories of Conan's life, etc... and in doing so he attempts to Reconcile some of the inconsistencies, stating "This Ancient Babalonian tabley claims Conan... while these Papyrus found in the British Museum collections state he was actualy... therefore more than one account exists, and it is unclear which is more factual" etc... also citing these types of "Sources" as examples of other inconsitancies, such as Conan's age durring certain events, etc.

It makes for an interesting idea, and a decent enough attempt to explain away/incorporate the storylines of Conan's origins to the movies.

Well DeCamp heart was in the right place but the idea of gargantuan snakes and wizards tossing flaming balls of energy, et al... signs off any plausibility to the Conan mythos.
In one of the SSOC (Savage Sword Of Conan) books I have there is a marvelous tale (face-slaps for forgetting the name) of Conan as he is close to becoming King. It's out in the battlefield... thousands of dead bodies lie around him and he's the only one of his army left standing and every attempt to get near him adds on to the opposing army's casualty rate. Finally a wizard merely walks up to Conan "I offer you life" to which Conan snarls "I give you death wizard!" and lunges to the man who steps aside and lightly slaps him on the shoulder... the hand had a ring with a needle which had the toxin from one of the lotus flowers... toppling the mighty warrior without much effort.
It's a great story in three parts but takes place much later in the man's life.
There are wizards and giant snakes and even a pterodactyl... Now-a-days with FX/CGI being as they are... they'd pull it off purty dang good I would think.

Everything is just a wait and see I suppose.
Hopefully we fans won't be as disappointed as we were with Arnie's take on it.

 

[Cryozombie]

Well DeCamp heart was in the right place but the idea of gargantuan snakes and wizards tossing flaming balls of energy, et al... signs off any plausibility to the Conan mythos.

oh I get that, His "history" and "Historic Evidence" were clearly meant to be works of fiction as much as Conan was... he just used Literary license to help explain inconsistencies in the Stories.

 

[Omar B]

Something I found interesting, I dug out some of my old Conan paperbacks, and in the back of a couple DeCamp wrote a sort of History of Conan, and he writes it as tho it were a "real" thing: British Museum Documents and old Excavated tablets with the stories of Conan's life, etc... and in doing so he attempts to Reconcile some of the inconsistencies, stating "This Ancient Babalonian tabley claims Conan... while these Papyrus found in the British Museum collections state he was actualy... therefore more than one account exists, and it is unclear which is more factual" etc... also citing these types of "Sources" as examples of other inconsitancies, such as Conan's age durring certain events, etc.

It makes for an interesting idea, and a decent enough attempt to explain away/incorporate the storylines of Conan's origins to the movies.

Hey, I remember those. In my copy of "Conan The Renegade" after the novel's story is over there's a backup short story. It has 4 storytellers sitting around a fire telling tales of Conan trying to sort through to figure out what's the truth and what's fiction. Even the CTB movie was sort of mentioned when someone brought up his enslavement. But another guy disagreed and stated that The Cimmierians were never defeated and Conan bent the knee to no one."

 

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

OK I can see where some of you REH purist are not fans of the film.

I grew up on the comics and then the movie was a huge deal for me.

Conan the Barbarian came out about a year or 2 after my Mom and Step dad married, even though I had known him since I was 3, we still were not real close yet.

I remeber the ads on TV for the film. I remember my Mom being excited (She trained bodybuilders then and Arnold was like God to her.) and i remeber wanting to see it BAD but it was rated R.

One day the Ol'Man comes home, says "Get ready to ride on the Harley."

He puts me on the gas tank and we rode to the theater, on the way being the first time I ever went 100MPHs on anything (BIG THRILL when you are about 8 or 9.)

And then we get to the Theater and man it was a life changeing event, I was a total Satr Wars/ Dr Who Geek but Conan blew me away.

I mean you watch his family build the sword together, his dad gives them a speech that could apply today about what you can really trust (Even though he says the sword, to me it ment YOU.) You see his family and people killed and he enslaved. You see him survive the Wheel of Pain and then gain dignity and meaning in Combat. You see him sent off to gain great skill, learn written language and damn strait get it on with the finest stock and it. You see him freed, find a great sword, meet a man who would become as his brother. He gains love, he seeks revenge.
He learns failure. His friends give all for him and then on to the job and then REVENGE!

That movie had it all. Great Sword fighting for the time it was made (and I still love it now) Family honor, Brotherhood, Love, Revenge and foreshadowing of the great King Conan would become by his own hand.
And then there is the music.

I cannot see some Remake Hack ever toping John Milius, ever.
And Arnold was perfect for that roll, not the dude from that POS Stargate Atlantis.

I will admit though that I am very influenced by both the film and that night my step dad and I finally bonded as close to father and son as a boy who still knew and saw his real father could.
I am almost choked up thinking about that night as I write this, I remember ever second of it as it was one of the best nights of my life.

 

[Omar B]

I'm sure you have fond memories of the whole thing, it's a cool story. But saying I cannot see some Remake Hack ever toping John Milius, ever ignores the fact that Milius himself said CTB was just an excuse to make his barbarian movie. Milius didnt make a Conan movie (REH's character I'm talking about here), he made a pretty good movie with a character named Conan in it. You can't call something a remake when the thing was not made the first time around. Hell, he never even read any of the books.

And Arnold was perfect for that roll, not the dude from that POS Stargate Atlantis. You may like Arnold in the movie, but for me he was what was most wrong about it. Calling, SG:A a POS is all subjective I guess.

 

[Cryozombie]

Milius didnt make a Conan movie (REH's character I'm talking about here), he made a pretty good movie with a character named Conan in it. You can't call something a remake when the thing was not made the first time around. Hell, he never even read any of the books.

Although, you have to admit that the movie did take and bastardize some elements of some of the original stories. The whole tower of Set and stealing the Eye of the Serpent was TOTALY a bastardization of the Tower of the Elephant, for example.

AND besides... I really want one of THESE:

Hehe.

 

[Cryozombie]

Yeah... Ok, maybe.

 

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yeah... Ok, maybe.

He does look a bit more like REH's discription of Conan but we will see..

I am getting tired or reamke this, remake that. Many times it is good but alot of times it seems lazy to me. There are so monay good books and stories that should be made into films, especially now that CGI can bring these things to life better than the 80s FX tecnology could.

I for one thing we need a Hannabal vs Scipio movie.
You have two great men who were raised from birth to basically fight each other.
In Scipio you have a man who lost his father and uncle to the Carthaginians, you have a surviver of the battle of Cannae (Immagine that with CGI if they do as the sources describe it) and the man who kept the surviving officer corp from running away from the war after Cannae.
You have a man who was never defeated in a battle he was the commander of a Bilegerent in.
You have the man who beat Hannibal at Zama but was gracious in victory towards Carthagage and was hurt at home for it.

Let's see Mark Strong as Sipio Africanus and the guy who played the Captian of Kir's fathers ship would make a good Hannibal.
You'd have to end it with the story how years later hannibal and Scipio met and had a disscussion abourt whp the greatest general in History was. Hannibal said Alexander was the best and he was the second best.
Scipo said " But I defeated you."

And Hannibal said "Yes, that is why I am not number 1."

We need a true story like that before we need another Conan.

 

[Omar B]

Although, you have to admit that the movie did take and bastardize some elements of some of the original stories. The whole tower of Set and stealing the Eye of the Serpent was TOTALY a bastardization of the Tower of the Elephant, for example.

AND besides... I really want one of THESE:

Hehe.

Yeah, that movie was a mess. To make things even worse, they used a villain of Kull's, use elements of Bran Mack Morn as well as going as far as usign DeCamp's "Thing In the Cave" (the scene with the dogs and Conan finding the sword in the cave). So they pulled from a bunch of REH books, some of them not Conan, then the pull elements from DeCamp, a person I think was the worst thing to happen to the Conan cannon ever.

 

[Cryozombie]

So they pulled from a bunch of REH books, some of them not Conan,

Yeah, kinda off topic... Was Solomon Kane any good?

 

[Archangel M]

I'm getting the impression that the quality of this production is going to be on par with one of those D&D movies or a direct to video....

Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Sukerkin]

Welll ... looks nervous ... I actually liked the cheesy D&D movies :O. Brainless fun with pantomime is sometimes a great salve for the fevered brow .

 

[Cryozombie]

Welll ... looks nervous ... I actually liked the cheesy D&D movies :O. Brainless fun with pantomime is sometimes a great salve for the fevered brow .

The first one SUCKED. I thought the second one was ok.