I am completely at a loss for words.It is very well timed waldgeist, we needed some weird shit to pass the time.

Next to Arnie Jason Momoa looks like a guurl! I still have some difficulty seeing him as Conan in these pics. He lacks a certain… something. I just think he might be better off portraying Brule, the spear-slayer in the Kull movie. The above shot looks very “Pathfinder” too, methinks. Simon: Sent you an e-mail reply, I will read and review your book on this very blog-good or bad. Looking forward to reading it!

Its not Jason but the corporations behind this that have me worried. How the hell can they be planning a trilogy? What is wrong with trying to make one good movie? Don’t forget “Solomon Kane” is part of a trilogy and that sank faster than a British galleon off the Spanish main. Why exactly does it make for good promotion to tell everyone that they are making a trilogy? So everyone storms the theatres in the hope they are in for another “Lord of the rings” or “Pirates of the Carribean”? Give me a break. Those movies had proper producers not greedy boardroom investors with an eye on profit making schemes for a character who just happend to be going cheap when Marvel comics dropped his loin-clothed arse.

That looks really awesome.

Deleted my comment because i simply cannot be arsed with this anymore!
Sorry

I had no comment on the musical, the pic is okay. He has that ripped light heavyweight mma type build ,they tend to have a naturalistic body weight based ( along with weights) workout which gives them their lean ripped physique.(and those guys are friggin strong, I am lucky to be acquainted with pete sell, formerly a middleweight in the ufc, and at 5’11″ and about 200 lbs walking weight of course, he looked almost as big as arnold. and all muscle!) that could work for a man raised outside the comforts of civilization.Although i admit he does appear very lean, it gives him a sense of speed. add his height) what did they say 6’5″?) he passes on looks. and ive said his facial structure has these comic book exaggerations in proportion in a way that arnolds sort of did ( he doesnt look at all like arnold, but where arnold had a weird oversized jaw and cheekbones this guy has an oversized brow and high cheekbones as well, that makes them both look like weird outsiders to civilization not cavemen but could work in their favor. but i do agree with steve that it does remind me of pathfinder, hope its just the way the image was taken and not representing movement. great find geist!

About Ralphs manip: dont he look like Xena, warrior princess in that hair:D Maybe they didnt want them confused.
No, sorry, I have always thought Jason is alright. Like steve said, Jason is the least problem.
I think Triologies is a good thing, because it let them take their time telling the story properly and build the characters. Besides, its better to plan a bigger storyline than trying to fit in a sequel afterwards. Still waiting for the sequel to Burtons “planet of the apes” to get an explanation to all that stuff that looked like logical errors in the first;)

I agree that it is the producers and the director that is the worry. Conan The Barbarian is a film with more heart that any i can mention. It strays from the source material, but stays completely true to the soul of the character. my concern is that the studio has opted to hire the douche bags who wrote Sahara rather than a competent writer. You’re going to follow up Oliver Stone and John Milius with those guys??? Mamoa, though i was skeptical at first, looks fantastic here. How many times has Howard described Conan as pantherish? What i see in this image is a very pantherish Conan. Just look at the face! That is a Frazetta Conan face. Now, I still don’t think the movie is going to work, but, by Crom, this image does!

I do like Momoa though only based on what I see as a young Conan, and I think thats what they’re going for.We’ll all find out if he can carry this thing come next year, with only hints in the trailers that are likely coming soon.

Yes, high hopes for comic con, even if Lang said he didnt think they were going to be there. Lol, I remember my high hopes last summers comic con, when i thought for sure they were going to give us at least one casted actor or something, probably the main cast, i thought. They gave us nothing! But now they actually have some material.

Its funny with colours. I have always imagined the conan stories to be colourful like clouds on a late summer afternoon, and just realized from the picture and musical clip above why I like that picture and suddenly feel much more confidence in this movie. Hope its not edited with to much colour (from the original spanish mag). Why do I read Conan and think of soft pastels? I have no Idea, but I guess its a damage from groving up in the midst of 80s fantasy, and maybe some predjudice towards the pulp genre (being more glossy than say, lord of the rings). Strange. Could this be a frazetta/milius thing on one hand and a Dark horse comic/nispel on the other (or realism vs escapism?) any thoughts?

Fayric: I find the Dark Horse Conan comics drab and dreary in both art and story content. Even the Howard adaptions ars dull. I don’t think there is much in the way of escapism there. The Marvel stuff had a lot more in the way of colour and vibrancey to it. Nispel could do a good version of the Dark Horse style I guess.No doubt they will be adapting the movie into comic form so time will tell on that one.
M: A self contained trilogy of Conan’s quest to save his family who have been turned to stone by the evil Wrath-Amon. Along the way he meets lots of new friends among them a good comedic side-kick and a warrior- woman who,(thats enough plot spoilers by order of Paradox entertainment!)

I think when it comes to artistic representation, Funcom got it right setting the tone for Age of Conan. It’s lush, vibrant, with lots of contrast and earthly tones. Very primordial, exotic, evocative and there’s a good balance between tribal wilderness and the grittiness of civilization. Frazetta did excelent work on establishing a high fantasy ground for paintings and illustrations, but on film it might look cheap. Take Prince of Persia for instance, it looks beautiful, but really really fake. There needs to be a balance between gritty realism and a high fantasy environment.

Unfortunately I see neither in the material we have so far. The environments we’ve seen vary from very poor to non-existant, so I suspect CGI crap fest is what they have planned over scaled models and actual sets (which made LotR’s Middle-Earth so authentic).

It’s a shame they no longer care to build actual sets like they used to. ‘Conan, the Barbarian’ could’ve used a bigger budget, but it looked far more authentic than Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, the best recent example of what the Hyborian Age might end up looking like. And that, in the best possible scenario, since they had ILM to bring it to life.

Ralph; I too lament the passing of skilled artisan set-design. Imagine an Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt “Cleopatra” (another disturbing rumour doing the rounds) with a CGI Rome. We have lost out to cold plastic technology where everything can be done cheaper, quicker and with less people. It will take a true visionary film maker to bring those days back again. Terry Gilliam? I love his extravagent movies with their amazing sets, models and colour.
Antmax68: I tried desperately to like Dark Horse interpretation but aside from the odd issue here and there was left deflated. I thought too that Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord had both left the series. Maybe its a sign of age but give me back the old days before Conan had a silly official logo on everything. Makes him a bit of a corporate kids toy.

No steve, he is beating up a camel;)

I saw the fist two episodes of Spartacus the other day. It was all right, but it feels like the actors are the only thing thats “real”, and the rest is made by a computer. Makes me wonder where they used the budget; it wasnt on clothes for sure;)
One of the things you have to respect with Guillermo del toro is that he builds actual stuff instead of relying on CGI to do the work. Like that tentacle hair on Samael in the first Hellboy, being actual mechanical tentacles (on an actual ator wearing a suit) (or so Ive heard). Of course he use alot of CG stuff too, but in a reasonable way. Thats one of the reasons he was perfect for “the Hobbit”.

I like DH Conan, and liked it better wit Busiek/Nord. It still work as a great inspiration for my escapism. Never did read marvel conan (falling behind on the extended legend). Should probably pick some up, but there are so much other good stuff out there that comes first;)

@stevedilks: I was waiting for someone to mention that damnable logo!! It is on everything that is conan lately and I doubt it will be left off the movie.They really shouldve kept it simple, the logo sucks.and dont forget annoying talking baby phoenixes that refer to conan as”big dumb barbarian”.@Fayric : it’s interesting how you visualize conan in relation to color. to me it depends on the story being told,the tales that take place at night usually are the most stimulant on my imagination.Howard can be cinematic in his setup, some of his scenes are ahead of his time ( opening of queen of the black coast, who in hollywood couldve storyboarded that in the 1930′s?)as far as the comics goes, I think marvel had a better balance of being a good adaptation while remembering it was a comic ( a criticism I have of nolans batman, seems like it wants to forget its roots sometimes) Dark horse from the few i’ve read has some very solid stuff, but tries too hard .as linda hamilton is claimed to have said about the new terminator though( on wikipedia, so take it with a large grain of salt, salt from the dead sea by crom!), everyones gonna milk the cow!

Im glad you guys have an open mind about Conan pastish work. The first times I saw some debate about Conans extended legend was on IMDB. The guys there (maybe hang around here too?) really hated both de Camp and marvel. They were furiously determned about it, and the debate always went to shouting insults if anyone said anything that implied acceptance of marvel or de Camp. Thats why Im confused when conan fans can actually get a kick out of other things than bitching about how every one else dont know Conan:D
But I also understand those long time fans that always has to face dissapointment every time someone want to make a new take on Conan. Bitterness comes easy if you are determined to compare it all with Howard I guess. I think Steve has the right Idea; even de Camp has written a few good lines, and all Pastish work is not bad, while some are really bad. You just have to read (or see, or play)and make up your own mind about each piece of the legend (and some stories that are bad Conan stories might still be a good read if you dont take it too seriously).

Eventually you are going to have to realize that no movie or “re-imagining” can ever add up to the original. Momoa just aint going to do it… he doesn’t fit the bill. This movie is destined to be a turd.

@ Brett Weir. Right you are, either we accept that this movie is not a big screen display of howards original text (like an endless Starwars opening text) and wait and see how they choose to interpret the legend, OR we can give up and never touch anything beside Howards originals. You make your choise, and I make mine. [like I said just a few posts up "Bitterness comes easy if you are determined to compare it all with Howard I guess"]

A near by, of topic:
Are we to bitter at the movie industry to look forward to an evetual Elric of Melnibone movie?
I know there has been rumors for years (much like for this Conan movie), But I think an Elric movie is one of few that could really benefit from modern CGI (might even depend upon it).

one more off topic bit: i see there’s a lot of hoopla over the news of peter parker being cast for a reboot of spiderman. As someone whos currently disgusted with comic book movies and a childhood fan of spiderman , I took a look at this guy and wanted to stuff him in a locker…which makes him perfect for the part. I like the first movie somewhat but i never liked tobey., this new guy looks like a geek and i hope they dont go and bulk him up too much.@steve: talking mythical birds and the spell of living stone( the writers for the cartoon were under the spell of living”stoned” which wouldve worked for the cartoon, conans family and village were being sold score of black lotus from wrath amon!) is going too far for anything these days, except weird greek mythology.slowly getting through crown of iron. what is becoming a more major sticking point to me is either a dramtic alteration or removal of the kon subplot. there’s enough theme motif in conan and metalus friendship and that story for a whole movie, milius seems to have too much. but alas that is criticism not anyalisis , and alot of the changes in conans character to me harkens to max von sydow’s king osric s speech in conan the barbarian, more to follow.I dont know if this was made into a movie ( or 2 theres so much here, ) if i would ve liked it but i am very entertained so far. its a big freakin script and im reading it verrry slow, especially since i’m distracted with overtime lately.16 hours days starting at 3pm and endng 7am the next morning to watch the kids ( wife works too) till the sitter comes so i can start all over again the past week takes a toll as you can see i ramble far too much…..

Fayric: I for one don’t know how an Elric movie or trilogy would come over. It would need a heavilly worked over script to deal with Moorcock’s own later tampering with internal chronology. The finished result would probabley bear little sembelance to any of the books. I think it should all be done in animated form (possibly CGI) with Rodney Matthews.
M: I don’t believe Milus borrowed much, if anything from de Camp. His version was his own thing more influenced by Kurosawa, Wagner and Nietzche. Most of the stuff you mentioned was left over from Oliver Stone’s original draft and just tightend up. “Crown of Iron” does strike some jarring notes for sure. This is not Howard’s Conan but neither is it anyone else’s I’ve read. It surprised me at first but I gradually found myself won over by the characterization of King Conan and the potentialities for Arnie himself at what would have been his come back film. There are parts I hated in that script that I hoped he (Milius) would have taken out in subsequent drafts. But, too there are some great moments I would loved to have seen transfered to screen. Personally I would back John Milius against anyone else today (Robert Rodriguez maybe) doing a Conan movie Howard himself would approve of. He would certainly recognize and love a lot of the themes brought to life in ‘barbarian’.

Flock of sheeps!!

Hey, a fully animated feature is not a bad idea at all. I’m picturing Beowulf, with a CGI Arnie in his prime, perhaps motion captured by someone else, if he remained unavailable (he was one of the first actors to license his image to virtual acting in the future). I’m sure he could be convinved to lend his voice (and accent).
Or go totally Frazetta, either way works.
Beowulf had many flaws, mostly in the script, but it had a great atmosphere and art direction. Avatar proved that this technology has evolved quite a bit to pull off a fairly realistic fantasy world.
I don’t have any issues with fully animated features, it’s the mix between live action and CGI that is not quite there yet.

Finn,
You and me stand side by side.
Thank you for making me not feel alone in this blog

…or not, never mind..

so um Ian, hows the drawing coming?this is why I like you guys, you stimulate my brain to me me think about what youre all saying…Listen you guys ( ian and finn)are great but you know as well as i do if you’re convinced at this point it’s gonna suck,it is gonna suck no matter whats thrown at you and well, dont see it.your minds are made up and as the thinking folk you are thats fine.Its very simple.(saracasm coming be warned ) wait for the chosen one to emerge and give fans the ultimate conan flick with the ultimate story that would fool you into thinking howard wrote it with the ultimate actor as conan( who probably doesnt exist).As far as referencing howard , point one , read what i said about acceptable pastiche and realize everything conan post howards death was not influenced solely by him. there is 80 years of material to be influenced by , andhoward wrote the least amount of it( though the best of course)and point 2)this is fantasy.NOt pragmatsim not idealsim not reality, but well woven fantasy. it will lose something in translation no matter what.Howard told tall tales, he was an expert at it. a tall tale has an incredible amount of exaggeration in it, its a hallmark of heroic mythological fiction( this is fact ,not an interpretation of what a tall tale is, and over here in the states in texas where howard is from, tall tale tellers have a reputation for being bullshit artists ;Im not saying howard was, can never know, but thats the fun in a tall tale),howard is so good at it, he makes you believe conan( who is still a man folks, not a god !) can kill winged apes and become a king by his own hand and stop assassinations every other week! (when the reality is aside that there are no winged apes, an ape would maul a barbarian raised in the wilds without flinching. pantherish speed and grizzly strength and all.)It becomes dangerous when folks cant seperate the reality from the fiction. that is what happens when you add humans in it.william wallace again becomes 10 feet tall and shoots fire out his ass, conan becomes taller and stronger than anyone cause howard told me he was! the fantasy gets pulled into the constraints of a reality and has to deal with the challenges that do not exist in its self contained world.. a movie , a play a musical an opera portrays fantasies at times but has to deal with real humans flesh and blood flaws and all acting the unreal out, books have the luxury of existing in words so the bounds of reality are limited only by the imagination.. I ,as a complete ( or half ) ignoramus am admittedly not thrilled with the aspects of this movie that can be controlled, which is the unoriginality of it’s premise,and the writers attitude, but I’m not gonna sit here and pass judgment before i see just how the premise is executed,or how the actors perform just because i may not be completely satisfied with how they look. no one is perfect., I am not gonna judge my entertainment( and ultimately thats all it is conan doesnt pay a mortgage diapers car payments bills and so on) before I view it and judge with my own eyes, on my own terms.That is by thinking by myself for myself and not being a sheep. why call good smart folks here a bunch of sheep ?One , it’s insulting for no other reason than to be insulting and two how is that so?what rationale are you basing it on? Finn ,How are these excuses,( its analyzing to the point of nitpicking not an excuse!isnt that what all fanboys do anyway?) and simply not just an understanding of the difference between reality and fantasy, or not letting my emotions get the best of me that I rant and rave over every little thing? thats turning your brain off, by just reacting to everything and not?To say to give it a chance , despite the second hand information we recieve and react to is the very essence of being open minded bro,why should you, me or anyone feel the need to make an excuse for something we didnt create, and may even throw our money at? we really are a spoiled society, just by being privvy to the info we’ve gotten, how did anyone watch movies in the 40′s and 50′s without knowing anything about it before hand cause there were no blogs and internet shit? were they all turning their brains off too?if anything the filmmakers should be the ones making excuses to us if they blow it!but guess what theyre not and they dont care now either. You didnt create conan did you ?What makes the fact that you dont like what your hearing lend you more credibility than the guy who’s willing to chill , debate and discuss the matter like me or vice versa? You dont like what youre hearing and you’ve made sound arguments as to why, now chill out and dont imply that people here are sheep because they dont agree with you, you dont know where everyone’s coming from here. Ian you strike me as a very sensitive guy, you’ve been threatening to leave every other post…….WHY?!It’s a blog post, I write quite a bit when i can,( i wouldnt if the people were “sheep” its the individuals here that keep me coming back for more) and even the one time i got a little ticked ,i certainly wasnt gonna leave .youre a grown man,you’re free to do what you want. negative and positive is necessary in any debate dude, whats with this feeling alone stuff? This isn’t a schoolyard or a support group, no one is playing unfair, why should contrasting opinions ( on a blog about a movie of all places) bother you so much? listen, my sword brother steve has a negative perception of the flick like you guys do,I happen not to have a fully negative one nor positive, not even midroad.(I love the character but i’ve learned long ago to take news with a grain of salt ,if it comes from human lips ,there’s a good chance it’s not the entire picture by default!) actually I’m getting more and more intrigued about nispels conan thanks to lang; if the movie sucks I’ll rip on it and move on,but I almost wish sometimes that conan was left alone to literature,another impossibility.I use steve as an example, because we dont have the same outlook on this conan movie completely,but I feel we get along great and steve strikes me as a real down to earth bro., whether we agree or when we dont, its no big deal cause there’s mutual respect. please note i havent cursed anyone nor am i trying to put you or anyone down, just want you to realize what you say, put this stuff( again a blog) in its proper context and chill.btw, and dont forget the drawing , you’ve got a gift bro i didnt forget .

good drawing fayric this blog has some good artists here.sorry about the 10 billion pages i just wrote, but we gotta stop going round in circles, me included!

my apologise for loosening my tongue against you all.
I just get frustrated is all.Sorry!

dont take the last part personally ian i apologize if it came out wrong, but thats really a general thing for everyone, this isnt conanholics anonymous.

just casue im here my bro is watching my kids im gonna add a personal story about myself and conans own impact on meso you know i know how you feel:ive no reason to lie cause it is what it is and if you dont care or dnt believe not my prob:I lost me mum at 16 and me father at 20. Ive been on my own a looong time without help. when me mum passed reading conan and his tremendous efforts of willin lala land helped me forget my own grief when i needed to think straight about my future.

No offence taken M,

we are gonna have this conversation at least once a month for the next twelve months and it is always gonna end the same, like the guy whose punishment was to push a boulder up a cliff, then watch it roll back down, for eternity

Finn, Im glad you think so. If every one agreed about everything there would be no strife and action, and then where would we end up? Flock of sheep indeed.

Ian, I understand you dont want to put your stuff up here among critical eyes. Me, Im quite jaded when it comes to critisism. Even my friends tell me exactly what they think, and Im glad they do, and at the same time I dont care, because Ive learned most people dont see things my way, so Ive just decided I only do stuff for my own enjoyment and if someone likes it, fine, if not, I still get a kick out of it. You just cant take resposibility for everyone else to like what you do. that kind of perfection dont exist.

In those new pictures, the set is ok and the albino acrobat is ok as long as it makes sense in the story. As for momoa, I guess their idea is to cover his legs with a dress and really tall, wide boots so people don’t see that they are not conan’s legs. But they aren’t able to cover his arms the same way so they have elected to just cover his forearms. His chest is fine for conan though. Cover his weaknesses and emphasize his strengths. Luckily I have exposed their sinister plan and the kingdom is safe once again.

sorry, I mean, ian has exposed their sinister plan

yeah, anything goes for a possible sequel. haha, there probably will at least be a direct to dvd sequel like with scorpion king. that one could even wind up with a better conan

Can’t wait until the next movie comes out! And thanks for sharing the site @diana hilarious!

Wow, what a movie. Very nice action movie I haven’t see this type of movie for ever thank u for giving such a wonderful action movie.Actor is good…

oscars

Jason Momoa, is no Conan, and not because of Arnold ,LOL. Jason Momoa, does not seem to fit the mold for an epic character as, Conan. Too girly/wanna be manly thing. I am sure gay men will like it aswell as women you think they might be able to borrow his panties.

leah remini see through

This game is very gorgeous, combat is very Unique and Very? Fun, the quest storyline is one of the BEST!~ Alot of Mature Nice Players. I would really recommend this game.

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conan tower of the elephant