The Cimmerian’s Gallic stalwart Miguel Martins has alerted me to an interview with Saïd Taghmaoui, who is starring as a thief who plays a significant role in the film. Miguel has also provided a translation of the interview: Merci beaucoup, mon ami!

Conan, we’ve just finished the shooting.
I don’t know, I think it will be for December. It’s something huge, Conan, it has been awaited, because it is a cult film. I had the luck and honor to participate in this extraordinary adventure. They called me, they offered me the part. It’s just very pleasant, you know. Being acknowledged like that helps you to build yourself as an human being. You can expect a Conan revisited in 3D, a little bit like 300. A little bit harder, with fights more violent and special effects a little bit more crazy. It will be very interesting. I adored Conan when I was younger. It [Taghmaoui pauses] … overwhelmed me. These love scenes…I was 15, 14. It was the first time that I saw that in a cinema. Those muscular men… Conan, it was a little revolution. It had a whole phantasmagoric universe, and it touched me. So when they offered me to act in that [movie], I asked : “where do I sign?” I don’t even need to read the script, tell me where I have to sign, I just want to do it. Furthermore, it is a trilogy, and my character…if there’s a Conan 2, I’ll be there. It’s cool, you know. It’s also a way to show that we can do films set in the Middle-Ages while being of Arab origin. I would have dreamed of playing d’Artagnan in France. Why not? Ask the French authors. Conan, it’s the Middle-Ages, GI Joe, it’s a super-heroes, futuristic movie and we can make them without a problem in the United States… If we succed in opening breaches like that through what I achieve internationally, and if a million Saïds become actors, I would be the happiest man on Earth. It is between you and yourself, you and your imagination, you and the audience. You can achieve everything if you think you’re able to do it, when you give yourself the means to succeed…yes we can!

Première is a prestigious French film magazine, so to see an interview for the film is pretty significant — not to mention another French scoop for the film. The Cimmerian may be gone, but Miguel’s scoops keep on coming. It is great to hear Saïd is enthusiastic about the role, and he seems to appreciate the “melting pot” of cultures the Hyborian Age offers.

An Arab d’Artagnan… Hmm.

Via Conan the Movie on Facebook, we have two new stills from Conan: clearer, cleaner versions of the ones printed in August’s issue of Empire.

That first picture is what they should’ve gone with from the beginning. Sure, Jason isn’t the hypertrophied behemoth Arnold was, but his expression says a thousand words. Most of those words being “kill” in multiple synonyms, variations, languages and euphemisms. Jason’s really starting to look like “the damnedest bastard there ever was.” The second I’m not feeling quite as much. His hair looks a bit like an Uruk-Hai from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings (though undoubtedly that’s due to the high speed he’s going) and I still hate the LARP sword and manica. Still, he certainly looks like he’s mastered the art of equestrianism, which looked like a substantial barrier only a few months ago: good on ya, Momo!

Much like James Purefoy as Solomon Kane, Jason is really growing on me as Conan: the effort he’s made to be true to Howard is clear to see even in these shots, and reports from the set confirm his enthusiasm. If only the same could be said of the scriptwriters, the director, the distributors…

Despite Lionsgate apparently not being at Comic-Con (as apparently erroneously reported in Empire), I get the distinct feeling that this is the calm before a storm of publicity. At least, I presume it is, though it’s likely that Lionsgate are still just dragging their heels on publicity for the Conan film.

So, it’s a slow news day, but I came across an interesting little snippet at MMAJunkie:

It looks like Australia isn’t on “Sapp time.”

Gargantuan heavyweight and entertainment personality Bob Sapp (11-6-1) today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that he has been pulled from a fight with Soa Palelei (9-2) at “Impact FC 2: The Uprising – Sydney.”

Sapp, who is currently in Bulgaria after recently completing work on a remake of “Conan the Barbarian,” said he received an email today from the Australian MMA startup informing him that the promotion would not fly him to Sydney for the July 18 fight because the plane ticket is too expensive.

Now why is Sapp still in Bulgaria, when principal photography has been over for a good few weeks? Presumably, this is for the secondary work which goes on after principal photography: reshoots, voiceovers, promotional pictures, whatnot. It appears Ukafa’s work is done.

Yet despite Sapp having finished his time on Conan, we still haven’t seen pictures of Ukafa, either from Bulgarian paparazzi or official shots. We don’t even have photos of any of the other major cast members. Contrast this with Thor, where we’ve seen publicity shots of the titular thunder god, Odin, Loki, and Jane Foster, in addition to behind-the-scenes footage and movie stills: we haven’t seen anything for Khalar Zym, Tamara, Ukafa, Marique or Corin. We don’t even know who’s cast as Lucius, Ilira or Fassir, who were important secondary characters in the leaked casting call. All we’ve seen from Conan are stuntmen, harem girls, and liberated refugees from the set of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but — get yer act together Lionsgate!

Earlier in the week, Waldgeist posted on the upcoming snippet and exclusive photo of Jason Momoa’s Conan in the August 2010 issue of Empire. I got the issue today: in addition with apparently conclusive confirmation of Conan’s presence at Comic-Con, there are a few hints of what to expect at San Diego.

Marcus Nispel’s Conan arrives at Comic-Con with something to prove. Fans of Robert E. Howard’s stories have thus far been skeptical about the decidedly non-Howard script (by multiple authors, Sahara writers Josh Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly chief among them), and Nispel’s CV of Platinum Dunes horror remakes and flashily muddled Vikings-versus-Native American epic Pathfinder has done little to inspire confidence.

However, Nispel claims that Conan is a lifelong dream project, and with him at the helm we’re at least assured terrific visuals. Fears of a watered-down fantasy-adventure tone have also been laid to rest by producer Joe Gatta, who assured Empire that the Cimmerian barbarian is aiming his axe squarely at a visceral R rating.

Stargate: Atlantis’ Jason Momoa has taken the title role, boasting a considerably more athletic physique than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic bodybuilding form: this Conan is built for speed. Avatar’s big, bad Stephen Lang is the villainous warlord Khalar Zym; Rachel Nichols is love interest Tamara; Ron Perlman (replacing Mickey Rourke at short notice) is Conan’s dad, Corin; and Rose McGowan is on hand as Marique the Witch.

Conan’s Con presence will be decidedly multimedia,, as the crew from the online PC game Age of Conan will be attending in force, and Dark Horse will be handing out exclusive comics. Plus, “We might have one or two stars making a little appearance,” Conan Properties CEO Fredrik Malmberg reveals, “and we might be able to show some footage. It’s all about what (distributor) Lionsgate allow us to do!”

So overall, it’s fairly optimistic, but commendably well-grounded, especially in addressing the most pertinent fears Nispel and company have to deal with. It certainly appears that the Conan movie will be making a substantial appearance at Comic-Con, and the idea of guests and even advanced footage will hopefully give us a further idea of how the film’s shaping up. REH Forumer Lord Greystoke provides scans of the exclusive images, the largest of which I’ve tried to clean up a bit, though due to the nature of the scan, Momoa’s right half is quite a bit skinnier than it should be. The second is a smaller picture of Conan on horseback: it’s good to know Momoa has overcome his fear of horse riding.

In related news, Mark Finn, REH scholar and author of Blood & Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, the definitive Robert E. Howard biography, will be moderating a panel at Comic-Con on – what else? – Robert E. Howard in the comics:

Ladies and Gents,

Is anyone else going to San Diego Comic-Con this year? I’ll be onhand, pressing the flesh, and as of right now, moderating a panel on Saturday. What’s the panel, you ask?

Saturday July 24
Robert E. Howard in Comics: Then. Now. Always.:
3:30-4:30
Room 24ABC
Robert E. Howard is seen as the grandfather of the sword and sorcery fiction genre. He’s created such classic characters as Kull the Conqueror, Red Sonya, and Conan the Barbarian that have lived in comics for more than 40 years! Explore worlds of magic, bravery, and savage revenge as this panel delves in to Robert E. Howard’s timeless fiction in comics of the past, present and future.

This was brainstormed by a buddy of mine from Boom! Studios, and it’s going to be a multicompany panel. If any of you are attending this year, I thought this would be a good place for a meet-up. It would be nice to meet you (well, some of you…) face-to-face and shake your hand after the panel. Does this sound like a plan for anyone? If you’re attending, please reply below so we can get an idea of who we’re looking for.

Mark Finn, one of the most vigorous critics of the upcoming Conan film, in the same building as its first major marketing push… It’ll be interesting, to say the least!

UPDATE: Sadly, it looks like the REH Panel won’t be taking place at Comic-Con, due to schedule conflicts and other such bureaucratic mummery.  Fail, Comic-Con.

MTV News posted a new interview with Stephen Lang on the subject of Conan. He mostly reiterated everything we know from past interviews: that Momoa will be a “terrific Conan,” that he had to rely upon all his “wolf-like wiles” to defeat him, and that Khalar Zym is the baddest warlord on the planet.

Of particular interest is his response to the interviewer’s question on where he drew the character from:

“Oh, just my home life! Heh, just life at home with my wife & kids, and I just sort of lightened it up a little bit. No, uh, I don’t know where I pulled it from – I pulled it outta my ass! But I had a great time doing it, though, it was great fun.”

In the interests of impartiality, I can only speculate on where Donnelly & Opphenheimer drew forth the character…

Greetings, all. Big changes here at Conan the Movie Blog: the founder and master of the blog, Johannes “Waldgeist” Rebhan, has decided to step down as the site’s administrator. Since February of 2009, Johannes had taken it upon himself to keep the world informed about the upcoming Conan film, to debunk or confirm rumours, and provide speculation on the film’s direction. Since then, it has grown into a small community of its own, with dozens of visitors leaving hundreds of comments, and unique visitors per day numbering in the thousands.

He has bestowed upon me the keys to the castle, and tasked me with continuing to bring news of the Conan film to the fine community which has grown over the past year. Johannes wants to imparts his farewells and thanks to the commentators, viewers, and fans of the blog: he did not inform me of the reasons for his retirement, and I’m not going to speculate. Suffice to say, he’s going to miss the blog.

In the meantime, I’ll be the castellan of this keep, and will endeavour to continue Johannes’ fine work. My name is Al Harron, whom some of you might know from The Cimmerian or The Blog That Time Forgot. I’ll be posting under the name Taranaich, my user name at the Official Robert E. Howard Forums. If anyone has any questions, queries, challenges or death threats, I’ll be happy to address them in the comments when I can.

Hopefully I’ll do Johannes proud, and Conan the Movie Blog will continue to be the primary resource for Conan.

Cloigeand abu!

As part of a general Comic-Con preview, Empire Online will host a little special about the upcoming Conan Movie in their next Empire episode. As usual they also preview the content in a very low resolution, but the keen eye of our community member Stampfer noticed, that the image used in the article is an unseen image of Jason Momoa as Conan.

It looks like Millenium finally started giving out image material to he press, so we can look forward to seeing more material popping up, the closer we get to Comic-Con and afterwards. Jason certainly looks quite impressive in the latest images we saw of him, very much buffed up and his hair getting the proper post-processing dark treatment.

We are looking forward to seeing (and receiving? *wink at Paradox*) more from the movie.

Now that the movie is fully shot and done, more and more scenes dribble into the public. Here now is a row of images, that were published by Julie Nicholls – she got them from a contact – a follower of the Conan Movie Blog Facebook page. Thanks a lot Julie for sharing those and not just staring at them in private. Much appreciated.

If you also have pictures like those and want to share them, with the rest of the Conan Movie community, just throw me a mail at webmaster – at – conanmovieblog.com. If any of you wants to become a regular contributor to the blog, your of course also welcome

Just click on them, to get a higher resolution version as usual.

If your heart skipped a beat after reading that title, all I can say is: HAHA (imagine Nelson voice)! In these days of mindless waiting, it’s time to have some proper fun and here is a little ode to Conan the Barbarian and Arnold Schwarzenegger in general. Of course there is no Conan musical, but this video makes fun of Arnold’s famous accent and some of the more iconic moments and lines from Conan the Barbarian.

Since it’s also time to add something of value to the Conan Movie fan, I thought you guys might like this lil image here. It was posted on the conan.com boards and is an image from a spanish magazine. I cleaned up the scan a bit, so you can properly enjoy the image. We don’t know where this shot is from, or why it’s appearing only in a spanish magazine, but we hope to get more like these in the not to distant future. Comic-Con is approaching and it’s said to be a date where more details on the upcoming Conan movie, interviews and stills from the movie will be revealed.

NuImage finally released the image of the already leaked version of Conan, from the Cannes presentation, on the web. In addition the NuBoyana Filmstudios announced, that they completed the shooting of the Conan Movie. In the official version of the picture they’ve also given Conan blue eyes, as the actor Jason Momoa originally has brown ones. They chose to change this afterwards with CGI instead of using blue contact lenses.

Most would agree, that by now the visuals of the actor Jason Momoa as Conan are close enough to what most would have wished for. Especially his facial expressions and strong general features are met with positive feedback throughout the community. The blue eyes effect on this image though looks quite unrealistic and I personally don’t understand why they would go for CGI if it doesn’t look more real than contact lenses – blue contacts always look kinda fake, since they are opaque to hide the darker original colour and do not reflect the light realistically. I suppose this was just a quick edit and the final result that is applied to the real film will be a lot better, so nothing to be worried about.

We appreciate to finally see a first glimpse at the real still photography of the movie and can’t wait to see more of it.