Arnold Schwarzenegger Says KING CONAN Is Moving Forward With Christopher McQuarrie
The long talked about sequel to Conan the Barbarian might finally be gaining real momentum. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently revealed that a major filmmaker has been brought in to write and direct King Conan.
Schwarzenegger shared the update while attending the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, where he talked about several film projects that could bring him back to some of his most iconic characters.
When it comes to the next Conan story, the actor says the studio has already found the filmmaker they want leading the charge.
“They just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise’s last four movies. They just hired him (Christopher McQuarrie) to write and direct King Conan.”
Christopher McQuarrie is best known for directing several Mission: Impossible films starring Tom Cruise, and his involvement would bring a lot of creative power to the project.
Schwarzenegger also explained how the film would approach Conan now that the character is much older.
“Now, what they do is that they write the part. They don’t write them like I’m forty years old, you write it to be age-appropriate. I’ll still go in there and kick some ass but it will be different."
The story being discussed will be a classic epic fantasy adventure.
"With King Conan, its a great old story that Conan was forty years as King and now he gets forced out of the kingdom and there’s conflict, of course, but somehow he comes back and there’s all kinds of madness, violence, magic and creatures and stuff like that.
“And now, of course, there’s all kinds of special effects. The studio has plenty of money to make those movies really big so i’m looking forward to all of those projects.”
I’ve been hoping for a proper Conan sequel with Schwarzenegger for a long time, and if this version actually moves forward, it could deliver a massive fantasy adventure centered on an older and battle-tested king.
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 previously 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. For now, the project remains in development, but hearing Schwarzenegger talk about it with this level of enthusiasm makes it sound like something is finally taking shape.
Via: The Arnold Fans