These are 2 badass pictures. Not expecting a masterpiece of a movie here but I think Jason will not disappoint. I would not mess with him. To me his form is just as exaggerated as Arnold’s but in a differnt way, trading out size for height and athletic leanness. I’m really looking forward to some footage.

Wow, I couldn’t help but re-reading this introduction. If the movie opens like that I can see a small glimpse of hope which might lead me back here with an “Okay, I owe Nispel an apology!” kind of attitude.
Actually, how cool would that be for a trailer?

Ah, fans and their silly hopes! =)

That expression? See, he can do that stuff because unlike Arny, Momoa can act – modeling background or not.

If that’s the case then Arny looked liked cum burping cross dresser.

*rolls eyes*

My dad can beat up your dad.

There never has been and never will be a better Conan than Momoa. He optimizes the scarred, hairy chested and bronze-skinned Cimmerian in every way possible. This movie will blow the first one out of the water, even winning a few Oscars. Momoas name will become a household name. Arney, having missed the days when he got to rub tanning lotion and oil on his fellow ‘roid heads, will call up Momoa, whimpering into the phone that Momoa has ruined his royalty checks because everyone has finally forgotten Arney’s god awefull version. Steve Dilks will love the movie…at the same time, he will feel continued loyalty to Arney and continue waking off while watching Pumping Iron.

Hobie: Nothing like a good waking. Just remind to wake me up before the end credits of the new Conan commercial so I don’t miss the new L’Oreal Garnier(tm) movie, will you?
Do we mention Cher wasn’t actually plastic before she was an actress? No.
Do we mention Barbara Striesand was ugly before and after she became an actress? No.
Do we mention Will Smith was actually not funny before he became an actor? Well,yes.

Wait.

Is Steve really Barbara Striesand saying was ever NOT ugly?

Steveie boy, now I really can’t trust your judgement on anything.

And Ian, I’ve posted on this blog many times. I’m not new. I just frankly forgot what name I used. Anyway, what’s wrong with a little ball busting? I can’t possibly be the only one here tired of reading Stevie do in writing the equivalent of three women nagging you at the same time. Bitch bich bitch. Wack off to more Arney movies, return here and…..bitch, bitch bitch.

M wrote ~ “actually i dont mind steve bitching at all.”

Well that’s just swell.

I however, get tired of reading incessantly “former model” and “faggot” in so many posts of his.

M wrote ~ ” He’s a right to his opinions…”

Yup. Me too.

M wrote ~ “there are people here that feel both ways and still give each other a mutual respect.”

Ummm….no….not really. Stevie has been called out and argued with many times. And not politely.

M wrote ~ “You dont like him, we get it, big fucking deal!”

Not true at all. Arney is a champion and a winner. He’s risen far above his perceived potential. He’s accomplished a LOT. Far from disliking him I actually admire him. But can he act? Yeah, better than you or I. Is he a passable actor? Yup. Could he decently portray Conan then or even now? Of course not. But I like him.

M wrote ~ “Steve is doing nothing wrong he’s just not putting up with your shit.”

Actually it’s the opposite. It’s me who’s not putting up with Stevies shit. I chimed in with a comment that apparently rankled his oh so thin feathers when I wrote that other actors are not held to, or referred to, by their former professions. That meant to little Stevies mind that I was a “Momoa apologists” (a term he coined in one of his posts) and therefore I became worthy of Stevie ‘straightening me out’.

M wrote ~ “you’ll not wanna be here after a bit cause everyone here will call you on your bullshit.”

Bring it on.

Stevie is a close-minded extremist with his anti-Momoa stance. He’s also said that he will chime in on anyone who he perceives as “Momoa apologists”. I’m simply doing the opposite. You know…yin and yang? Keepin’ it real? Balancing the act?

Btw M, I agree with the rest of your post. And you have a great weekend too.

Fayric, I don’t mind them copying the Dark Horse comics. If it’s not gonna be a Howardian Conan, the least they can do is to toss the fans a bone or two.

I’d rather seeing imagery from Koth, Stygia, Shem, Zingara, etc in a prologue, than having those names briefly mentioned in dialogue, or maybe outlined in a map somewhere in an obscure session of the making of DVD. At least we’d get some sense of scale and a glimpse of a fully realized universe.

For all the dim expectations I have for a generic story, with generic characters, with just Conan being either familiar or recognizable, plagiarizing the actual comics is more of a bonus than a concern.

I’ve yet to see Solomon Kane (it was never screened around here), now that Taranaich mentioned it. But I’ve read the reviews and I think that’s the best possible direction for Conan, given the circunstances.

An enjoyable, well made movie based on a comic book adaptation of the original stories, featuring a solid, though not perfect, portrayal of the title character. That should be enough to please the critics and ensure a richer, less hurried sequel. Better than that? Color me dubious.

Hobey,

One thing i don’t get is why you are focasing all your rage on steve and not me and one other here too who isn’t so supportive and none to liking of Momoa.
Like M,said we all are here to talk Conan(and other interests)in whatever light that is.
But one thing is we don’t do is take it to extremes by attacking particular individuals over and over like you are doing.I will agree am guilty of being frustrated in the past but ive always come straight back and given full apologies knowing that its simply uncalled for.But no offence which i find unlikely.More or less everything you say here is venomous.
So if you are here to create a divide and upset you have certainly come to the wrong place.You will fail!!
So Man up and quit casting your wrath and be nice.

One thing i don’t understand about this Conan is why he doesn’t wear the Cimmerian symbol on his neckless?
Glad the teeth are there though
If his kin has been wiped out and as this is a revenge story i would expect he would carry whatever memory he has left of his people.
Maybe that is his fathers sword he carries to to bury it deep into
Khalar?
I do like the second image above.I think Momoa looks better at a distance than close up.
I do think his shoulders and deltoids should’ve been worked on more with Conan growing up wielding the sword too.

And can you guys either apologize or ignore each other in order to drop this parallel discussion? Regardless of who’s right or who started it. let’s keep this a friendly (adult) place. =)

And a big thank you to you Taranaich.
You have done so much work in so little time that raises an eyebrow.
And for me to raise an eyebrow is a little to much exertion for my muscle power.But still you did it:P
So,thanks again bud

Former Mike, you are right momoa is a huge guy, compared to the people here, compared to random people on the street, compared to UFC fighters, compared to most people in a gym, most people on earth, everywhere. An average american guy is 5’10″ and probably benches 150 and squats 200 and curls 40 and blah blah blah. That is not momoa. We don’t know about how he is in a fight or if he has any training but he can definitely kick an average guy’s ass just with a bull rush and mounting him and throwing down punches, because he’s big and strong. If this was a movie about sailor steve costigan or some other character maybe momoa would be fine. But, if you compare him to the descriptions of Conan as written by REH, and all the portrayals of Conan throughout history, he comes up short. Conan is more than just a tall guy with a big chest. Momoa’s arms and legs are bigger than average but nowhere near what most of us think of as Conan arms. Like somebody said, if there’s a sequel he’ll be bigger in that.

Hobie, you are confusing me and steve. I am the one who said faggot, former model, momoa apologist, etc. I am also the closed minded extremist. But that is no problem because it is very easy to confuse the names “steve dilks” and “finn” because they are written so similar. They are actually homonyms. But steve also expressed some criticism of the movie. I’m sure he now realizes the error of his ways, as I realize my own. I mean what the fuck? People criticizing a movie? It’s just crazy!!! I want to sit at my high chair and have them spoonfeed posters and trailers and snippets of leaked information into my mouth, so I can say GOD DAMN YALL THIS MOVIE IS GONNA BE AMAZING!!! MMMM!!!!!! And if I start to say “but I don’t think..” they’ll interrupt and tell me to stop bitching. That is what I want.

There is one thing I worry about. A constantly half naked Conan. Even the shunned CTB portrayed Conan in a very Howardian way, covered in clothes where needed, wearing the drapes of the culture he was in. Not focused on fashion, but on practicality and availability of clothing.

So far the Conan movie looks a lot like “I am cooler than though” approach, which also shows in the release of constant growling Conan imagery. The feared fact, that Conan would be a hate and anger slave, as leaked in the script (where he started to be an anger slave from childhood) is coming up again. They forgot that Conan is supposed to be a person of gigantic melancholy and gigantic mirth, basically a person that has very expressive emotions, but the WHOLE range of emotions, not just a growling angered fool.

Well if the synopsis stay what it is, the rest of the costumes are as LARP-quality as they look in the leaked set shots, the only good thing in this movie will be Jason Momoa.

Hobie: Nowhere have I called anyone a “Momoan apologist” or ever addressed Momoa himself as a “faggot”. You are obviously not reading the posts properly. If you continue to come out with non-sensical comments you can not either substantiate, explain- or at least admit you were talking from a horses rear end, you are always going to be ridiculed. Fact of life.
Ian: Is the Cimmerian necklace you are refering to the three red and black discs as in the early Marvel Barry Windsor-Smith comics? I thought Momoa would look better with them if they are going for the stylized comic book approach. Not a fan of the wooden tooth necklace myself.
Finn: You took the words out of my mouth. Well anyway, even if I did support this movie I would still find time out to ridicule it. I can find fault in a lot of the stuff I love to watch, read and listen too. It does not mean I can not also mock it for what is when all is said and done. Who knows? I may end up enjoying this movie and end up with M chowing down on crusty loin-cloth…

My apologies Stevie. Finn, if you happen to re-read my posts, when doing so, mentally replace ‘Stevie’ with ‘Finn’. Thanks.

Hobie: I pulling your leg here- don’t let it get to you or all you will end up doing is fighting everyone on the blog over nothing at all. My comments (as unsavory as they may be to you) are not directed at you so there is no need to take offense on whether I think Jason Momoa looks gay any more than I would take offense over whether or not you think Arnold Schwarzenegger is an impotent steroid meathead.
Ralph Damiani: The loin cloth and necklace wardrobe thing started in the comics and you are right- in the film we need something more substantial than a barbarian costume.But we already know how little this is to do with Howard and more Conan Properties (Paradox) liscensed products- Dark Horse’s Conan comic and the video games. That is the interpretation we are looking at here. But as I have said before -given a meatier script with some tough direction, Jason Momoa could make a very good Conan based on just what we have seen.However I am not convinced by the crudentials of this production overall.

Indeed, Taranaich. That wasn’t Zamora at all (although they did slightly better with Khitai). There wasn’t a real effort to conceptualize the different cultures, like Peter Jackson would certainly have done. Just a general effort to make everything look undistinguishable historically, but still very familiar. Which is already a commendable effort, one we’ve yet to see in Nispel’s production.

Today, there’s no excuse to get it wrong. In the 80′s, if you wanted to paint a whole culture you’d need to build costly miniatures and props, but today, you have CGI. If it’s going to look cheap or realistic, it will all depend on much they’re prepared to spend, how much time they’re giving the VFX studios, and the director’s artistic approach.

I think Perlman and Lang will nail whatever roles they’re given. As for the direction, it’s going to be either functional or terrible. There’s only so much a director can do with a lousy script.
It’s the writers that must face the wrath of Crom if we get a decent movie and decent acting on top of an idiotic forgettable plot.

Isn’t that what happened to Gladiator? A talented director, great actors, great atmosphere, great visuals, excellent soundtrack…and a retarded historically innacurate script playing over the same Hollywood clichés we’ve been watching repeatedly since the dawn of filmmaking.

I have a little more faith in Lang, Steve, a thought I spread across most stage actors. He’s normally typecast on military roles because he seems to have a particular fondness for those, it has to do with his own choice of scripts and personality. And he’s also proud of his shape, which makes him even a better choice for physical roles.

But if you read an interview from the same guy who visited the sets of Conan awhile ago, you’ll be surprised at how much he knows about cinema and stage history. He may come across as a little self-indulgent, but certainly not dull.

But I agree he is no James Earl Jones, and sadly, not many actors are. One of the most intelligent and underappreciated talents of his generation, completely shadowed by the popularity of Darth Vader. With so many nominations for Emmies and Golden Globes, it’s a shame he’s was given just doing voice work and TV show cameos in the past decade.

I happened to watch him him guest starring in House a few weeks ago (one of my favorite shows), and he still has such a powerful presence! Oh well, life ain’t fair.

…Hum… I think he looks a bit like the Barry Windsor Smith /Marvel
Conan from the 70’2 comic book…!

on the subject of milius version of the hyborian age:I do recall milius stating that he took that approach and said “what if this lost age 12,000 yrs ago possibly couldve existed, what would it look like ,how would it behave”. Which i think is why it had this prehistoric look amd feel as opposed to a more fantasy oriented look.The sorcery oart thoug it is there is tripped down and greater powers exist more in implication than in fact( conan in the witch occurs in a momoent of heghtened sexuall passion, as thulsas changing to a snake orgy, even conans ressurection has this, did it really happen? were those demons there?was conan even dead? kind of quality to it) you see it i think milius wants you to ask if you believe it. it comes to a head (literally) at the end with the decaptation scene conan showing thulsa’s followers that he is a mortal, not a myth.with this new movie, I really hope they keep toth amon out of the main movie arc, he may be good as an incidental foe ( or even friend) in a conan flick, but to have him as conan’s “arch nemesis” is lame in itself,( conans seems to have not so much arch nemesis, but people who are in his way) and speaks more of Mr. DeCamp’s infliuence on the character and property than Howard.

“Black lotus…Stygian,the best!”

ha steve! i was hoping someone would call me on that! what i kinda was referring to was how thoth ammon, killed i think ascalante in the phoenix on the sword who was trying to kill king conan. of course the demon thing tried to kill conan which brings us to why the phoenix was on the sword.but i thinkk more because conan happened to be in the room not because thoth ammon gave a shit about him. He just seemed more a main villain type in the decamp stories. the friend bit was more ajoke.But fayric, wasnt acheron mentioned in kull too, to no good effect for that movie?what I mean to say is, just because it’s there(acheron) and its referenced to impress the fans may not mean it will work. the way i feel is whats done is done now, the movie is filmed and complete, likely being scored and edited, so hopefully something good will come.

I always liked the theme of reality not living up to the myth or legend, or even the truth being stranger than the fiction.It can lend itself to those howaridian ” mans place in civilization” or “civilizations place in human existence”themes and even enforce howards arguments the pros and cons.I think it suits that fleshed out feeling howard gives to conans world, whereas (again i hate to compare)the thurian age that existed before the hyborian has a more mythical, fable within the fable kind of feel to the hyborian legend.Taranaich, i am interseted on your point of view on this aspect of conan …Again the hyborian world has a more historic feel to it, though not to the extent milius went to in his flick( hewent prehistoric).Did anyone realize that the pic of momoa on the horse is probably from the same scene that the cheap looking pic we saw some time back of the guy leading Momoa on a horse is from? he’s wearing that same shoulder armor , its in the forest … just a thought.

Is Raw Leiba still cast in Conan despite not playing Ukafa anymore?
He would be perfect to be included as a villian from this image below.

http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ukafa2.jpg

everyone should see kull at least once, so you know how an adaptation should not be done. As a movie like anything else it has its entertaining moments,(very few) and where I thought sorbo may have been good in a more intense movie,but because he was playing hercules on tv,(a kids show)that would’ve never had happened at the time.so where he may have been good, he indirectly be the reason for it being so bad.It is a horrible adaptation of hour of the dragon with little to no semblence of it, stripped down to nothing. I would call it an adaptation the way the conan cartoon was an adaptation. It’s near as bad( maybe as bad) to me as red sonja and makes conan the destroyer look almost as good as the milius flick.My biggest fear for this new conan movie is that it no more than a r rated version of kull the conquerer, as i remember being impressed by pics of sorbo with the axe at the time too.I had heard grumblings some time back of a kull reboot, but very little in some time now.

Simon: Heres a pic that might cheer you up. Its a baby pigeon I found wandering the streets getting a bedtime story from his favourite nursery book..
[IMG]http://i31.tinypic.com/23h7i3s.jpg[/IMG]

And here he is a week later hanging out with his favourite pal…
[IMG]http://i30.tinypic.com/2mcsgnl.jpg[/IMG]

Taranaich: Was the bold type before my post an error? I promise I was not going to say a bad word against former underwear models or music video directors…honestly. Anyhow,said pigeon was released yesterday morning back where I found him. In the course of where I work I find a lot of injured and lost pigeons who have probabley fallen from their nests. I have looked after a few…
Pee-Wee enjoyed the bed time story Simon but did not see why a sparrow hawk had to feature so prominently.He had a few sleepless nights…

it’s a solid pic and a solid depiction of conan.I notice alot of talented illustrators here are very drawn to conan, you know what i would like to see; a side by side illustration of conan and kull to see how people viualize the few differences they have physically. ( eye color really) what do you do to differentiate them as they are so similar? and how do their different personalites affect the drawing?To separate them in my mind I always imagined ( and its only to separate them its certainly not literal.kull taller and leaner w/longer hair and conan more muscular with really black hair. Momoa appears to have a strong jaw,if he had arnolds jaw he would look very close to popular illustration.

Ralph Damiani: Good illo! Not so sure about the fur briefs and the undersized sword though. Looks like Conan in his wild freebooting on the Viayet sea days (a heavier set 30 something). No resemblance to Jason Momoa here, unless you take into account the left forearm band.

Nice draving Ralph.I think the fur shorts are great, but would probably not like them in an actual movie To much he man. Skirts or long tunics would probably be more apropriate for the time, but as we has stated before, there is room for magic so why not pants. The sword could be shorter and broader if you want the popular conan look.

About Conan and Kull different look, from what I understand Kull is the eagle and Conan the tiger

Well, the text by the sword say “chinese/persian”, so Its actually well drawn based on that, just dont fit with the rest of the fur trappings IMO.
About the skirt again, I know kilts first appeared in the 16th ct (acording to wiki) but a prehistoric kilt or skirt would not be entierly of topic I think. (but ofcourse, Conan commonly dress in local fashion, so anything goes)

Fayric, as for the sword design, I was just trying to avoid the medieval look. My reasoning was that he might have scavanged it from some tomb, or looted it from a battlefield or maybe stole it from some eastern palace. ;D

Fayric, I think the reason he’s wearing a skirt is because they want to hide his scrawny legs. Momoa clealy didn’t do enough squats in preparing for this movie.

I’m predicting a lot of close ups in this movie.

M: Just finished watching the entire first series of “Rome”. so far I don’t see any resemblence to Milius’ “Crown of Iron” script although ironically James Purefoy’s portrayal of Mark Anthony is strikingly similar to the character of Fortunas-who makes young Kon’s life such a misery. I can really recommend this series however. I bought the two series box set after watching only the third episode. Good characters,humour,dialogue,plotting and action. Something you rarely see these days-least of all in a t.v. series.

Steve, if you like James Purefoy’s Mark Anthony you will love season 2. He owns it.

Yet, I still wish they scrapped they skipped the whole origin script and did a Conan the wanderer/thief/mercenary, then a Conan the pirate/adventurer, then finally a Conan captain/king to close the trilogy.

No need to fight for ideals of freedom, no need to have a single consistent cast of characters, no revenge plot, no He-man’s “moral of story”, no “romantic interest” character, just plain adventure, weaving together classic tales with some great artistic direction. If that’s too risky for Hollywood, then it would certainly be appropriate for a less puritan TV.

@ralph: based on what ive read so far, you took the words right out of my mouth. @finn: thats a rip man !well hopefully tommorow or friday will bring some real big news that’ll get this board hoppin some more.

I read ‘Crown of Iron’ through twice because after the first time I felt dissapointed. Upon second reading I found lots in it I had missed. I generally liked the whole thing. It would actually be easier for me to list what I didn’t like, so here goes: The whole daughter of the snows/ ice worm sub-plot was frankly ridiculous. In a subsequent draft Milius apparently had Kon found as a small boy by Conan in the aftermath of a raid on a Pictish village and adopted him-seeing parallels in his own childhood. The whole ice worm reckoning could have been dicarded and had Kon going into the bowels of the earth to retrieve the black stone from the little people to win support of the Picts instead. This would further tie in with other links in this script to Howard’s “Worms of the earth”. Another sub-plot I detested was the whole bar wench who looks uncannily like Valeria thing. This severly weakened the whole premise of Milus own vision I feel. As much as I love Sandahl Bergman (oh yes!) having her crop up in this as her own doppleganger would only serve to cheapen things.
Conan reciting a few verses of poetry to show he is no illiterate dullard I can accept. Oralating whole reams of Howardian verse on the subject of barbarism vs. civillization I somehow can’t. I found it difficult to believe any of it would sound anything but wooden and laughable coming out of Schwarzeneegger’s mouth.
Those are my main, if only, gripes about this script from a movie that will(alas!) never be made. I liked Milius’ Greek/Roman version of Aquilonia even if it did oppose Howard’s own medieval feudal depiction in “The scarlet citadel” and “Hour of the dragon”. The Howard refernces on offer are well handled. I particularly liked the assasination attempt from “The phoenix on the sword” coupled with the wizard’s reprisal of wanting to help from the battle of the mounds in the first movie. Conan’s reply to that is hilarious. A real focal scene in the film. In fact there are more than a few good scenes on offer in this script and some great characters too-Metallus,Fortunas,Carnifexia.
As for Oliver Stone’s original 1978 “Conan” screenplay…Well,that is another story.

it definitely couldnt have been the final version, i’m sure alot of it wouldve been cut out as well. but the things you guys dont like are pretty much in line with what bugs me about it, there,s some of it thats very inconsistent with the original flick , and then some of it goes off into lucasville’s prequel star wars, asin its sooo political and even a bit lost.as it is it would make a good gladiator/fantasy type movie inspired by conan, but it’s no conan. oliver stones script is a very strange thing, i read through that quickly ,and where milius sort of captures one aspect of howard( a doom laden world ) stone’s dialogue seems closer to howard. i think some of it even survived the mlius script. it’s kinda like what harold ramis did for dan ackroyds original ghostbuster script. that was a phone book sized tome with the ghostbusters dressed like swat teams and time travel and such, so ramis took the aspects of it that could work and stripped it down to a more acceptable level.

Ralph – “Yet, I still wish they scrapped they skipped the whole origin script and did a Conan the wanderer/thief/mercenary, then a Conan the pirate/adventurer, then finally a Conan captain/king to close the trilogy.

No need to fight for ideals of freedom, no need to have a single consistent cast of characters, no revenge plot, no He-man’s “moral of story”, no “romantic interest” character, just plain adventure, weaving together classic tales with some great artistic direction. If that’s too risky for Hollywood, then it would certainly be appropriate for a less puritan TV.”

Totally agree!