Conan Continues On
Posted by John Campeaon 15. 06. 2006in News Chat
Doug won’t be happy with this news at all. It looks liike everything is still moving ahead for the newest Conan film… however they’re just heading in a different direction now. A VERY different direction.
Variety gives us this:
Looking to re-establish Conan as more than a chat host, Warner Bros. has set Boaz YakinBoaz Yakin to write and potentially direct “Conan the Barbarian,” a new take on the Robert E. Howard-created character.Yakin’s concept is more faithful to the Howard story than were the two Dino De Laurentiis-produced “Conan” films that starred Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger as the sword-wielding conqueror.
WB has tried diligently to revive Conan and got close twice. “The Matrix”"The Matrix” directors Larry and Andy WachowskiAndy Wachowski circled, and then Robert RodriguezRobert Rodriguez emerged, but hiring the latter became problematic after he quit the Directors Guild of America so he could co-helm “Sin City” with Frank Miller.
That’s a REAL shame about losing the Wachowski script and Rodriguez. What’s even worse is that they decided that Boaz Yakin is the guy to write and direct the next one. What else has Boaz Yakin done? Well lets put it this way… he wrote Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and directed Uptown Girls. DO we really need to say anything more? Although to be fair he didn’t do a bad job directing Remember the Titans. This just feels bad to me. Can’t wait to hear what Doug has to say about this.
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Ouch. Those are some massive blows. You never know though, maybe Yakin has some secret powers we don’t know about. I hope so otherwise this is going to be very, very bad.
Well you seem to have left out the fact that he won the filmmakers trophy shared with Clerks at Sundance for his studio independent movie Fresh. Which is an excellent movie. How ever his studio projects have been lame, but I imagine he did them as a pay check.
If he is allowed independence and can indeed bring this closer to Howard‚Äôs work and make it R or NC-17 this movie will rule. If it’s PG-13 it will suck no matter who directs.
If there’s no Schwarzenegger, there’s no Conan. There’s just some fucker in a pointy hat. This is bullshit.
I will hunt, kill and eat the first person to suggest Vin Diesel as a replacement.
I take strong objection to your implications. Yakin is a better director than you give him credit for. He had previous contact through Warner’s due to his involvement in the pre Batman Begins’ days (he was attatched for ‘Batman Beyond’, which was dropped in favor of the almost happened ‘Batman vs Superman’ which was killed…and then Chris Nolan walked in the door….
Yakin turned director due to the crap hauled on him as a writer (The Rookie with Clint Eastwood and more specifically being fired off the 89 Punisher- for keeping the skull which the producers did not want in the Lundgren flick) and out popped ‘Fresh’ -which is a terrific film with Samuel L Jackson. He also turned an otherwise formula “true story” sports film, Remember The Titans, into a very good movie. He also was a co-producer on Hostel.
Now what I’m wondering if he’s simply going to adapt one of the Conan novels (which would be nice) or if it’s a whole new deal. I think the worry you -or Doug- would have is minimal at best. I’m partially sorry I gave you the heads up on this, but I will miss:
Mongol General: “What is best in life?”
Conan: “To crush your enemies, to see dem driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of da wemmen”
Losing the Wachowski’s and Rodriguez is a huge blow. I don’t know much about Takin but we’ll have to see how he works it out. Maybe he ahs a love for Conan that we don’t know about. Of course Uwe Boll has a love of video games that we do know about and that doesn’t equate to good films.
Vin Diesel did look quite Conan like at the end of The Chronicles of Riddick but I as thinking The Rock instead.
Dude. I think there are a wack of typos in that quote. It looks like whoever wrote it was stuttering.
Yeah, now that I have looked it back over I come off sounding like a blithering idiot. Oh well crap happens when you are rushing.
Great. They’re trying to get the female audience in. This better not be a romantic comedy.
Hmm, according to Paradox entertainment wich owns the rights to Conan, this is whats going on. They are doing castings, director will be decided in the fall. Akiva Goldsman is Producing. Conan will be played by a unknown. The knew conan will be more in line with the books. Conan will start out as a warrior and thief and end up a king. Conan will have a filosofical view on barbarianism vs civilization, with a big depth.
It’d have to be an unknown really, there aren’t any famous people any where near Schwarzenegger’s level. (This is a different Conan but they still have to compete with that image.) The Rock was already in The Scorpion King, a Conan rip-off, so I’d rather not have him. Besides, he’d make it too funny. There was nothing funny about Schwarzenegger (apart from when he punched that camel in the face, that ruled).
I’ve never read the original novels. Can anyone recommend a good starting point? Are the comics any good?
Martin the best place to start is with the “Del Rey” collected works … there are three which contain all the Conan tales Howard wrote. The first is “The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian” … you can find details about it here – http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345461513