293 replies to this topic

[Malak]

In my opinion, if anyone can save us, it's a good director paired with a good screenwriter.

The actor is of secondary importance to me... I'd rather have Taylor Kitsch or even Kellan Lutz under a good director than Jason Momoa or Paul Telfer under a bad one.
My top choice for a Conan reboot would be Telfer, though (but there might be dozens of good young actors around that I'm not even aware of).

[thedarkman]

i did like JM as conan , from the first picts we saw of him all dressed up like conan i thought he looked good, the only thing that bugged me was his always gelled wet hair.
but if they reboot and recast the part i would like for who ever directs it to "get it" this time and show us REH,s conan not his own vision of what it should be.
as for an actor i would like it if the started the search over, from the extras on the dvd they say they looked all over but the countries he names are not that many and just didn't fit for where you would go to look for a "conan"
weather you think the Roc is a good choice or not i don't think it should or will happened, to many i think would compare it to him being the scorpion king again. IMO he looks to "pretty" no matter what they do to him, and the way he talks sounds to "civilized".

The Rock is really not my first choice to be "the" Conan, but there is no denying the box office appeal he brings to the party. Jason looks more like the Conan in my mind, and I really hope he gets a second crack at the role, but if having Dwayne in the role to give the film greater success is the only way to get Conan back on track, I could live with it. I have watched The Scorpion King a few times, and I seen a few flashes of Conan. He could pull it off.

[KG Thunder]

I'm not really a fan of having Dwayne Johnson play Conan, but I'll still just leave this here;

[Kahn]

In my opinion, if anyone can save us, it's a good director paired with a good screenwriter.

The actor is of secondary importance to me...

My sentiments exactly!
Momoa was great as Khal Drogo in GoT and I got a major Conan vibe off his character, but the portrayal in CtB2011 was all wrong for me, as was the look and countless other factors.

[NikToo]

Chris Hemsworth, very Conanesque!!!

http://collider.com/...rth-600x398.jpg

I'm with you on Chris Hemsworth, much more suitable than Dwayne Johnson. Great minds. My problem with Jason Momoa was that he looks like a Pacific Islander, not like a Barbarian from the north. Dwayne Johnson has the same problem when it comes to Conan. I don't know whether Jason does or not, but he always looks like he's wearing eye shadow as well. Could be thick eyelashes, I don't know, never been up close to him. If the story says black, square-cut hair and blue eyes, then he should have black, square-cut hair and blue eyes.

I also abhor Hollywood's insistence on "origin stories". Conan doesn't have an origin story, he doesn't need motivation other than that he's out for himself in the world, so the whole thing about avenging his mother or whatever is completely unnecessary and only there to patronize the dimwits. If Conan was such a lousy story that it took some Hollywood hacks to make sense of it, it would have been lost and forgotten by 1935 and not still around today. The reason Conan is still here is because it already works, without a lot of nonsense thrown in. How many other stories in "Weird Tales" have been forgotten because they didn't have the same impact? REH created the framework with his Hyborean age, it doesn't need embellishing, just work within it.

I think the best way would be to ditch Jason, forget the whole movie, start over with a proper script and follow the books closer. However, I also think that doing another movie close to the first one will just confuse the dimwits and they'll think it's a sequel to what was a very bad movie in the first place. So I don't think it will happen for a long time.

[Kortoso]

It's easier to give a blue-eyed guy a black wig than it is to give a brown-haired guy blue eyes.

So where the Photoshop of Chris Hemsworth?

[gungnir_1972]

Loved Chris In Thor....perfect casting i my mind but if he were cast as Conan I don't know if I could see him as Conan without thinking of him as Thor.I do think he could be a good Conan.He's a good actor IMO,I liked what little i saw of him in Star trek,I loved Thor and the new Snow White and the Huntsman Movie looks great.I'd like to see a good photoshop of him as Conan too.

[Lunatic]

I will probably get stabbed!

...or something for this.

But for point 4 how about Tom Welling? I am a Smallville fan and loved what they did to make DC Superman-mythology available for todays audience. Of course they gotta give him a tan and facial scars and a deeper voice.

In fact the whole Smalville crew should do Conan...grrreat!

[droc]

Actually, I don't think Tom Welling is such a bad idea. I would never have thought of it, but now that you mention it he's got the physique, dark hair blue (maybe) eyes and rugged good looks to do the role justice. He'd need a good director though, and the audience might have a hard time getting over the fact that he's Clark Kent.

DROC

[KG Thunder]

It's easier to give a blue-eyed guy a black wig than it is to give a brown-haired guy blue eyes.

So where the Photoshop of Chris Hemsworth?

Here you go, I worked really hard on it.

[KG Thunder]

What about Henry Cavill? I haven't seen him act but he looks fairly Conanesque to me-more than Hemsworth or Taylor Kitsch anyway.


-Just bulk him up some.

Edited by KG Thunder, 30 March 2012 - 10:38 AM.

[droc]

What about Henry Cavill? I haven't seen him act but he looks fairly Conanesque to me-more than Hemsworth or Taylor Kitsch anyway.


-Just bulk him up some.

He's a decent actor, he was good in the Tudors... if you're into that sort of thing.

You don't think he's bulked up enough for the Superman role to play Conan ?

DROC

[KG Thunder]

He's a decent actor, he was good in the Tudors... if you're into that sort of thing.

You don't think he's bulked up enough for the Superman role to play Conan ?

DROC

I do actually, from the few shots I've seen of him. Pretty close to how I usually envision Conan, anyway.

Edited by KG Thunder, 30 March 2012 - 01:50 PM.

[Kortoso]

A guy with his shirt off and a sword in his hand. That makes him Conan?

[droc]

A guy with his shirt off and a sword in his hand. That makes him Conan?

No.

From a purely looks point of view, I prefer the one above where he's Superman, despite the beard, as he's bulked up a lot more yet not so much that he looks like a bodybuilder. To me he has an athletic physique much like I imagine Conan. He also has dark hair and light eyes.

Also, having seen Immortals, he looks convincing in the fight scenes, has a fast dynamic style to his sword play and is a strong enough actor to carry a lead role in a major production.

In the Tudors he stood out somewhat and showed an ability to play a character with a little gravitas, something sorely lacking among young actors today.

He also has an interest in ancient history, which can't be a bad thing for this sort of role.

DROC

[Swiftsteel]

Personally I'm firmly entrenched in the Telfer camp, but those are some damned good suggestions, guys! (Cavill, Welling)

Thing is, to ever get Conan another crack at the big screen in the near future, it'll take a fairly complex combination of things to make it happen. Like it or not, the extent to which the last one flopped has turned the property into such a joke in the minds of both general audiences and the industry, that only something incredible could pull it all back from the abyss.

Here are some ideas. I'm sure I've offered some of these before, but at this point another spin around the proverbial mulberry bush can't hurt.

i) Start reigniting interest in the character from the ground up. How? For starters, IMO CPI needs to invest in everything from a series of straight-to-DVD animated features based on the original REH stories and MARKET THE S**T OUT OF THEM both in the pages of the Dark Horse comics (I'm talking slick, full-page ads), in comics specialty shops, and in any stores that still sell DVD's. Put samples straight to YouTube and spread word of mouth. At the same time, produce a new raw, over-the-top video game, and a new line of vintage, old-skool shirts (say, classic Buscema/Smith renderings, or better yet - early SSOC covers!) which should be distributed to the point where you can't even walk through the door of your local comic store without seeing at least half a dozen of them on the racks. Better distro also needs to be given to the Dark Horse 'Conan Archives' series (y'know - the colour collections of the old Marvel issues) and the SSOC collections in major book chains. Whenever I go into any local Chapters - despite an actually quite excellent and extensive selection of Graphic Novels - the Conan material is noticeably absent at every location. Why? This should not be the case.

ii) Get greater distro for the entire REH Del Rey series in all major book chains. I DO occasionally see some of these out there...but rarely to the extent that I feel should be the case. More often than not they are - at best - few and far between to nonexistant.

iii) Re-license the property to a major studio. To some extent I would have thought Disney a few months ago, but given the way they've bungled 'John Carter' I fear that would be a disaster of Lionsgateish proportions (LOL!). As many know, I'm a big booster of handing the reins over to Marvel. Not only do they have a very respectable and succesful history with the character/property, but they also have major filmmaking clout to boot when it comes to dealing with Fantasy/ScFi/Pulp characters. Face it - admitted missteps aside (Fantastic Four anyone? LOL!) - Marvel have the production, writing, and marketing clout in the industry to take a perceived dud like Conan currently, undeservedly is and say 'Okay...forget about what you saw a few years back. We once had a several-hundred-issue strong, MAJOR success with this character. We're taking him back, returning him to his source roots, and putting out something that'll blow your f*****g socks off!' And because it's Marvel people will go 'Y'know, I'm intrigued. I'm gonna give this a shot.' With the right combo of actor, screenplay, and director in tow it'll go down as another 'Surprise' hit like Thor too.

iv) As far as those key aforementioned actor/director ingredients are concerned, as I said I'm fully down with Telfer 100%. The sad fact of the matter is - despite how good he was in the role (and he WAS very good IMO!) - Momoa CANNOT be part of any new reboot attempt. The only way to make it work is to distance it as far as humanly possible from that disaster. Admittedly, due to the 'Ah-Nuld Curse' we're all very well aware of, putting ANY relative unknown in the role would be a major risk, but again, if the clout of say, a major studio like Marvel (as opposed to hacks like the Bad-news-Bearsesque Lionsgate crew) were handling matters, this might not prove to be too big of a hurdle. After all, no-one knew Chris Hemsworth from Adam before 'Thor' and audiences ate him up due to the cunning ad campaign behind the whole project. So yeah...with the right studio push, which let's face it, poor Momoa never really received...a fresh face can still pull this off. As far as directors, I'd go with either Guillermo del Toro who I thought handled 'Hellboy' amazingly, or maybe Robert Rodriguez; big names with a trusted success rate handling action properties. For the screenplay, I'd insist on NO ORIGIN STORY, NO ELEMENTS FROM THE AH-NULD FILMS, and NO RESEMBLANCE WHATSOEVER TO THE NISPEL FILM. In a perfect world I'd want to see a Conan film presented in much the same manner as 'Sin CIty' - episodic and stringing together via extended vignettes, several REH tales. A good blueprint would be say, an opening montage that essentially uses issue #0 of the Dark Horse series's 'Hyborian Age' sequence, followed by 'The Frost Giant's Daughter', and leading up through 'The Tower Of the Elephant', 'The God In the Bowl', and ending with 'Rogues In the House'. Bing, bang, boom. That's your first new Conan movie. Sets things up perfectly for an extended single-story epic sequel in 'Queen Of the Black Coast'.

Admittedly these are just ideas, and well-worn ones at that. But man...I think either this, or something very like it is still possible. If the desire - which I know is out there - were coupled with some bravery on the part of the current property holders, a major studio like Marvel, and the right combo of actors/screenwriter/director...it can still happen and become a major success story.

Edited by Swiftsteel, 31 March 2012 - 07:35 PM.

[Ironhand]

I second that.

[amster]

I second that.

....but am I the only one who remembers having the exact same conversations before a film deal was even struck? There's not one idea in Swiftsteel's post that's particularly new or original. Sorry to be blunt, but there's not. There are really too many points to bother with responding to, but I wonder why a retail outlet would agree to put millions of dollars of Conan T-shirts and merchandise on their shelves when there's no indication that there's a fanbase out there to support it? The Del Reys have been selling consistently to a loyal fanbase for a decade, but merely putting ten times as many copies on the shelves isn't going to mean ten times as many people are going to buy them. Economics (ie: supply and demand) doesn't work that way Merely putting merchandise on your shelves dioesn't guarantee that people will buy it. That's why stores have bargain and discontinued racks.

Edited by amster, 01 April 2012 - 02:59 PM.

[Swiftsteel]

I won't deny it - Amster is right - I acknowledge myself that nothing I posited is anything both I and others haven't suggested before. I'm well aware that I'm basically being an enthusiastic fanboy enjoying the sound of his own voice! LOL! Let's face it - most of these threads eventually devolve into all of us going around in circles over very well-travelled ground. We all know it. It's ultimately a lot of wishful thinking and dreaming to be sure. But only because currently that's all we're left with. And yeah...I suppose there's a great deal of truth to the whole 'supply and demand' argument too. No doubt about it. Again...one can dream though. That said...what then WOULD work!?! What CAN be done!?! I honestly don't think there is an answer to that which doesn't involve a great degree of risk-taking and potential financial loss on the part of the property-holders (throws hands up to the air in dismay!). That's the conundrum. There is no getting around the risk-factor now involved with anything 'Conan'. Thing is, when a thing hits the proverbial s*****r the way our beloved Cimmerian currently has...in order to correct matters, someone somewhere holding the pursestrings has to be willing to take some chances. Otherwise...nothing changes. Just sayin'.

[Swiftsteel]

BTW - I hate to concede to it for soooooo many reasons...but man...that photoshop of Dwayne Johnson as Conan is pretty f*****g convincing. Raises more than a few very artistically distressing considerations as to what might be - financially if nothing else - 'best' for a film resurrection of the character if you know what I'm sayin'!?!