Exclusive Interview: CONAN: THE BARBARIAN Producer Frederik Malmberg

Movie Conan The Barbarian Blu-ray about 12 years agoby

While CONAN: THE BARBARIAN didn’t exactly kill at the box office this August, it did revitalize some love for the character. We sat down with Frederik Malmberg to talk about the upcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release (November 22), his artistic inspiration for the film, and the challenge of working with practical effects on a film like CONAN.

What was the main goal going into the film and why did you want to remake CONAN?

The main goal was to create a film that set up the world and the environment of where does this guy come from and what separates it from say Lord of the Rings or Clash of the Titans. Obviously, if you are familiar with the character you know because it has a gritty realistic feel to it. The film takes place about 12,000 years ago in prehistoric times. The key was to really paint that world and really immerse people into that universe.

Tell us a little bit about casting Jason Momoa in the role of Conan?

It was a great movie, and I’m a big fan of Arnold. He’s done some fantastic movies in his career, so I didn’t mind that he portrayed Conan but I do think that Jason, perhaps to me, looks a little more like a realistic Conan. How I had imagined him in my head.

Were you influenced by Frank Franzetta’s work to create that fantasy world?

If you’re a Conan fan... Frank’s work has really stood the test of time. Back in the 70s and 80s there was so much great Conan artwork. There was this debate of Boris Valejo’s Conan, which looks more like the oiled body-builder type, and then there’s Frank’s Conan which is more diffused, a little more artistic that had less “stand and show” and much more animation in the artwork. If you look at one of Frank’s paintings - and they were really small because they were paperback covers, maybe 8 ½ x 11 in size - with a couple of brush strokes he just creates an enormous energy and dynamic. I was drawn more to the Franzetta type of Conan art, of course there have been so many other great artists there, but his has really been the one that everyone’s looked at. I know that Macus Nispel has been a huge fan of his art, and that has inspired many other 2nd and 3rd generation artists - Christopher Shy who was involved on concept also has that same inspiration. Also Dark Horse Comics artist, Carey Newart - he was inspired by that type of artwork. The team that did the Age of Conan MMO the game, they had developed essentially a bible but it all goes back to Frank and what he did in the 60s. We definitely were influenced by his artwork.

How closely are you working on the film’s production on the motion comic?

It’s still in production and we had to actually hide this. The studio we were making it with disappeared under our feet. We had to find basically a whole new studio to create that and it’s a different process of course. It feels like a hybrid between what you do for video games and animation. When you work with motion comics it’s really working on separating into layers and more similar to rotoscope techniques. It’s definitely a medium that I think has a really - it’s not a new technique really, it’s pretty classic. But I think that with the internet boom and people craving web based materials, it’s actually perfect because it can smaller screens and it’s easier to create actually, it doesn’t cost as much to create as big live-action feature films. So I’m excited about it, and we don’t have an ETA for the motion comic yet but we’re working to get it out for the Spring.

Even though it’s faced some adversity in the production, it’s good to know it’s still on track. Practical sets effects are still an important part of films, almost or equally important than visual effects. What effects were most challenging for this film - practical or visual?

Visual effects are always a challenge of course, but they’re more related to budgets because it’s a straight how much money you have. If you have a VFX supervisor and put in a lot of money, the equation is there - just how many people can you have working and for how long. With practical effects it’s different because it’s all on the strength of the shoot. If you’re there and you have one day to shoot a certain scene and then you move on to the next, there is no such thing as shooting live. You can make up for any missed footage later, but it’s very costly so you have to nail it. I think we were fortunate that the studio where we shot the movie in Bulgaria they have a big resource to tap in to with costume makers, set designers, carpenters, set builders, so we had a big crew and then the stunt guys and the 2nd unit director David Leech, he’s very experienced. And Jason had been in action movies before, actually most of our actors had so they did a lot of the stunts themselves. But as you say, it’s underrated because some of that you have to have it. I love practical effects, but you enhance that as much as you can with VFX just to make the film feel fuller and richer. But for this particular film, Marcus (the director) wanted a film that felt grounded in reality.

Why should a fan that’s already seen Conan in theaters buy the DVD/Blu-Ray? Are there any special features that really stand out?

There’s some great extra materials - a bit piece on Robert E Howard and where he came from and the legacy of the character and where it came from with interviews by tons of people. And then of course there’s a commentary track, both by Jason who does comment on things like the practical challenges on set. Of course our director has a commentary track. A lot of people will appreciate that you get the 2D version, 3D version, and digital download as well - so you can watch it in all formats. Also, there will be some classic scenes from the film - one that comes to mind is the first scene in the Conan’s village. And the soundtrack is classic. I think they put together a very good DVD package.

So many times, especially when DVDs first started, there wasn’t really anything on a DVD but the movie and trailers. Now you can pack so much on there and films are being made with that in mind. Do you have any projects that you have going on that you want people to know about?

In this space, what’s really exciting is Kull The Conquerer also he wrote a female character called Dark Agnes. Those are two fantastical Robert E Howard creations that are hopefully going in to production next year.