Arnold Offers Update on His Long-Awaited CONAN Sequel
Years ago there was talk of bringing Arnold Schwarzenegger back for a Conan sequel, and the concept for that film got fans like myself incredibly excited! I’m actually shocked that this movie hasn’t happened yet, but it’s one that needs to get made!
During a recent interview with THR, Schwarzenegger offered an update on this project, and it sounds like a frustrating mess. He said:
"It's been pending for the last 10 years. [Fredrik] Malmberg owns the rights. He comes to me and says, ‘Oh, I have a deal with Netflix,’ and when we ask Netflix, they don't know anything about it. It's one of those crazy things. I hope he figures it out. I think you do it like Unforgiven, where you play the age. There's a great script out there that John Milius wrote, and others have written one. The story is there. There are directors who want to do it. But he has the rights, and until he sells the rights for one or two movies, or for the franchise, there's nothing you can do about it."
Three years ago, it was reported that Netflix was developing a Conan The Barbarian series, but then there were no updates, and nothing ever happened with it.
As for what the sequel would entail, it would have been a direct sequel to the classic 1982 film which left off with an older King Conan sitting on his throne, deep in thought, wearing the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon his brow. Chris Morgan wrote a script for one version of the sequel, and when talking about it, he said:
“It opens with this [hand on the chin]. It’s where you have to. It’s the sequel that we were promised and never got. I’m 11 when my father took me to see Conan the Barbarian which you should never take an 11-year-old kid to. It was a life changing thing. It’s an unbelievable movie. It comes back to [director John] Milius, right? There’s nobody better and it’s a real movie. It’s a truthful movie. Chris and I from the very beginning said there’s no reason to do it unless it’s a worthy sequel to Milius’s Conan and I think we’ve got that. I really do.”
Morgan previously talked about Conan author Robert E. Howard and the inspiration behind the movie, saying:
"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 also described his version of Conan, which is initially what got me excited about this project:
"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. "
For more details on the film, you can click here and here. I really hope that Schwarzenegger gets to play Conan one more time in a sequel like this. He can still do it, and it would be an epic film! It sounds like the rights owner just needs to figure his shit out.