LEGEND OF CONAN Update from Producer Chris Morgan
Since Arnold Schwarzenegger started acting again, the one project that I've been most excited about is Legend of Conan, which will serve as a sequel to Conan the Barbarian. The last thing we heard about the film was that it would start shooting sometime this year.
Empire caught up with producer Chris Morgan, and during their discussion he gave an update on where Legend of Conan currently stands. He started off by saying, "I'm super excited! And Arnold is super excited too. It's the perfect movie for him, because it plays into his own journey."
That's definitely a good sign, and the movie is obviously still moving forward! Morgan goes on to say that the latest draft of the script comes from Will Beall, who is the same guy that wrote Gangster Squad. A lot of people didn't like Gangster Squad, but I actually kind of enjoyed it for its unintentional campiness.
"Andrea Berloff [Straight Outta Compton] did a draft, and then we had Will step on. I approached him early on in the process, but at the time he was unavailable and couldn’t do it. But then a couple of weeks after he passed on the project I got this package from him in the mail, and I opened it and it was a Conan sword, and on the envelope it said, ‘This you can trust!’ So when he called back a while later said he’d had a slot open up, we slammed him in immediately. He’s just perfect for it; he loves it as much as I do and he has a great voice of Conan. It just makes you happy!"
Morgan is a screenwriter himself who has worked on all of the Fast and Furious films since Tokyo Drift. He has also been writing the upcoming Mummy reboot for Universal, so he has been too busy to write Legend Of Conan himself, but he's obviously involved with the process.
"Conan’s one of those things I’m always involved in shaping, talking, pushing. It’s a full-time, all-consuming job!"
The story will supposedly pick up right where the classic 1982 film left off with an older King Conan sitting on his throne, deep in thought, wearing the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon his brow. The movie will completely ignore Richard Fleischer's 1984 Conan The Destroyer and the 2011 reboot with Jason Momoa. That was definitely the right move. Talking about Conan author Robert E. Howard and the inspiration behind their movie, Morgan said,
"We look at all the source material and we love things that kind of speak to that tone. We’re incredibly respectful to Howard. I’m a huge fan of the stories and books, but I’m a super-huge fan of the first movie, because that crystallised and distilled it all for me. [John] Milius just killed it. He did such a good job. And Legend Of Conan is really resonant and it really digs into the legacy of that original film. I'm already very proud of it."
Morgan previously described his version of Conan in the following way:
"I want the warrior whose joints have started to fuse together, who has to crack the cartilage so he can pick up a sword again. I want the guy who’s not necessarily lost a step, but there’s some rust he has to shake off. I want to embrace that. It makes it a greater hero story.
"Conan needs to be faced with challenges. The greatest challenge to him isn’t the armies that are set before him. It’s, on some level, self-doubt, a little bit of slowing down and forcing yourself to be heroic beyond what people expect of you. What I don’t want is for him to step back in and look the same. That would defeat the purpose of our story. "
I can't freakin' wait to see this movie! If their vision for it is fully realized, it's going to be insane. It will be great to see Schwarzenegger in Terminator: Genisys, but I'm more excited for Conan, and if any movie fully reinvigorates his career, it's going to be Conan. When asked about when we will see Legend of Conan hit theaters, Morgan said,
"Literally right now we're talking about when it can go ahead. We're figuring it out. I can't really say... but it's sooner than you might think!"
Awesome.