August 24th will see the rebirth of
Conan the Barbarian; Born on the Battlefield as the movie poster puts it and over three months before its release
Jason Momoa, the man responsible for carrying the re-imagining of the franchise on his sizable shoulders is charming, affable and only slightly terrifying as he tirelessly works the media, posing for photographs, arm wrestling and signing copies of Conan novels at a recent cocktail party event OWF attended in London. There are few people in cinema whose boots are harder to fill than
Arnold Schwarzenegger; Conan was the movie that started the mans monumental rise from record setting Austrian Bodybuilder to biggest star in Hollywood. But standing at 64, and with a back that you could screen the original Conan films on, Momoa, the former Hawaiian Model of the year, is not fazed by the task. Im not following in Arnies footsteps. Were doing our own thing here. Holding a Conan novel he declares, This is our own reimagining of it.
The Conan universe is so expansive and there have been so many stories, Arnold covered just two small ones, what were doing is something totally new and awesome.
And of his director,
Marcus Nispel - the man quickly becoming the remake guy after re-launching with differing levels of success
Friday the 13th and T
he Texas Chainsaw Massacre he had nothing but praise.
The man is a visual genius. So great to work with, I hope its the first of many collaborations between us.
So while the longevity of the series will of course be heavily influenced by the box office takings, I wasnt about to argue with the man when he said he would make three Conan movies one more than Arnie. So be prepared for plenty more of Jason Momoa hacking his way through tribes of Hyborians as he attempts to avenge the murder of his father and slaughter of his village topless, of course. And going by the reactions of the female attendees, I dont think there will be many complaints about the latter. Conan is released in both 2D and 3D on the 24th of August.
